
Program Overview
In an increasingly crowded and globalized market, higher education institutions in the MENA region are struggling to craft a niche for their offerings and find ways to gain a competitive advantage by differentiating themselves. This challenge is further compounded by uncertainties affecting the global economy, declining funding, increasing operational costs, shifting student expectations and demands for an innovative value-driven learner-centered education as well as increasing public demand for institutional quality and accountability. While responses may vary from one institution to another, there is no doubt that drastic measures must be taken to address these challenges in a proactive and tangible manner. One of the widely used management tools to enable universities deal with these competitive pressures, build capacity for change and improve their standing is benchmarking. Benchmarking provides universities with a systematic process of assessing, identifying and innovatively adapting good practices internally or from partners from education and corporate sectors to improve performance. It is not about cloning the success of other organizations, or indulging in industrial spying. Nor is it about creating league tables or seeking short-term hard data.
This three-day program will take the participants beyond metrics to understand the underlying practices that contribute to institutional performance. The program will provide a detailed step-by-step understanding of benchmarking in higher education and its implementation supported by hands-on tools, techniques and case studies. The program will also expose the participants to benchmarking as a tool for out-of-the-box thinking, innovation and creativity through games and real-life examples.