The implementation of ”New Public Management“ in the German higher education system came along with many new objectives for universities, which were necessary to be achieved in order to legitimise these institutions. Within the last two decades a great variety of indicators regarding performance and resilience was implemented at universities to check attainment of these objectives.
In many cases the implemented parameters have not been backed up by sufficient theoretical and empirical derivation. Moreover diverse sets of indicators were applied independently at various levels of higher education and economic decision-making. Therefore monitoring and exposition of connections between indicators and their different dimensions of performance at the universities is particularly needed.
Against this backdrop the project aims at examining the importance of indicator-based performance measurement and evaluation at universities and focuses on core processes in research and teaching. The analysis of indicator-based measurement of research and teaching strives for three aims:
Firstly, there will be an identification and systematisation of core dimensions of performance in research and teaching. Based on a critical analysis of the concept of performance measurement in the higher education sector and the discourse on general opportunities and restrictions of indicator-based depiction of scientific performance one aim is to identify indicators that are appropriate to measure the relevant areas of service provision and at the same time take the variety of examined organisations, e.g. in terms of equipment, into account. For this purpose the project will make use of findings of established DZHW-projects, such as the "Research Core Dataset".
Secondly, there will be an examination of functions and uses of performance-indicators. Herein the intentions and rationales of the actors who are responsible for development, maintenance and application of the instruments of performance measurement are of primary interest.
Thirdly, the interaction between performance ranges, resp. the indicators mapping them, will be examined. This comprises the interdependency of indicators within the fields of research and teaching as well as the interrelationship between indicators covering research and teaching.
The analysis of the performance of organisational parts of universities, e.g. working groups, institutes, and departments, takes center stage within this projects work. To carry out the project a mixed-method-design will be applied. It contains empirical analysis, analysis of literature and documents, online surveys, and workshops with different agents of the higher education system. Cooperations with universities will provide an adequate dataset and ensure sustainable application of research outcomes. The project aims at delivering a model of indicators which integrates core areas of performance of universities.
