Evaluating Higher Education Institutions through Agency and Resource-Capabilities Theories: A Model for Measuring the Perceived Quality of Service

Background

According to Fernandez (2005) from the national crisis in economic matters there is a restriction of public funding for the social sectors, including the universities. The demand generated a strong diversification of university and non-university HEIs. During the 1990s it was generated in most of the Latin American concerns over the issue of university quality, so they were creating agencies for evaluation and accreditation. In the agency theory alluded to corporate governance. In this case, it speaks of university governance, which according to Casanova and Rodriguez (1999) provides descriptive and analytical ability to integrate the variety of processes that are articulated in the management exercise of the university (p. 15). In other words, it covers the relationships between the different actors and agents that influence the decisions that they drive to the institutions.

The agents that make university governance in the HEIs are operating strategies to have quality in each of their activities, and at the same time continue to get funding. The success that have agents in implementing strategies will be determined by the ability of these possess when designing the organizational structure, evaluate the performance of staff, and the consolidation of the culture of the organization. Sander (1989) systematized four criteria that reflect the historical development of educational administration, and explicitly illustrate the great influence of the currents arising from business management in practice and analysis of education:

• 1.

  Profitability, nourished by so-called scientific management.

• 2.

  Performance based on the current human relationships.

• 3.

  Adaptability, founded in the current organizational development.

• 4.

  Relevance, which is related to the social sciences and cultural.

The changes generated in the HEIs, such as educational expansion, diversification of institutions and overcrowding, highlight the introduction of the issues of evaluation and quality improvement. Alongside, this requires managers to recognize the institution strategic management as a measure which will facilitate managing the use of the physical and human resources to achieve its objectives.