A holistic approach for quality assurance and advanced decision making for academic institutions using the balanced scorecard technique
Quality assurance in higher education has been established officially, through the establishment of appropriate procedures and through the appointment of supervising bodies. After an initial period of experimental application of evaluation activities, the need for optimization of processes and exploitation of recorded observation has arisen; the obvious aim is the provision of educational processes in accordance with the quality standards. Within the aforementioned framework the Balanced Scorecard technique provides a useful framework that assists in converting the organizational scope to measurable indexes and processes. This procedure however, in order to be applied to the educational domain, demands an appropriate adjustment of the model to the educational needs. Within this framework, this work describes an attempt to develop the required infrastructure in processes, information systems and regulations for a technological institution, in order to ensure quality in relation to the goals agreed by the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency and support the administration of a higher education institution in taking decisions in a contemporary and continuously improved manner.