Performance, quality and institutional efficiency

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the experience of a newly established university which has to meet the requirement of Excellency in Education as stipulated by the University Board of Trustees. This objective presented a true challenge for the university administrators because of the time, the setting, and conditions related to its establishment. The University was founded in North Lebanon in1988. At that time the Lebanese war had not yet ended and the North is far from the area where, historically, Lebanese universities are grouped. The University of Balamand had to "compete" on the quality front, with universities that were established some 120 years ago. It had to operate under the difficult conditions of the surrounding war, to maintain a high quality of service for the students community, and to attract a faculty able to deliver teaching of high caliber. These three operational objectives were not easy to attain. The efficiency of the institution had to be assessed on the basis of the feed back of the market to performance of our graduates. This paper will try to: - Present our methods of work, especially when we had to defend academic standards in anenvironment losing its values because of the war. - Show where we succeeded and where we failed, in giving special care to the personal contacts between faculty and students, to reach the internationally recognized higher educationstandards. - Explain how for the time being, we are trying to meet our ultimate aim more efficiently, by assessing our results, planning for the future and expanding our services to the community at large. This paper will conclude by suggesting some ideas about the importance of academic relations between universities, the type of government new universities need, and the added value each institution has to develop for maintaining its specificity.