UM overhauls academic KPIs

KEY performance indicators (KPIs) at universities are not new with different terms being used to describe the measurement of an academic's performance.

However, given the current higher education landscape, Malaysian universities are setting even more stringent KPI targets for their staff. KPIs are now being used to not only gauge an academic's yearly performance, but also his eligibility for promotion.

Universiti Malaya (UM), for one has set the bar very high. Vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon makes no apologies for this. "If our academics can meet the standard we have set, they can become professors anywhere in the world.

"If UM had introduced these targets 20 years ago, we would have been among the top 50 universities today," he declares. But, how fair are the KPIs and can the targets be met?

At UM, academics are evaluated in six areas, namely research publication, number of research students supervised, amount of research funding, teaching quality, consultancy and administration.

Although no weightage is given, the biggest challenge is the research publication target.

Prof Ghauth says that with the KPIs the "goalposts" that academics must aim for are clearly defined. And a 100 per cent success rate is expected. "The reaction has been more positive than I thought. It proves to me that people in UM want to work."

UM came up with the KPIs based on the curriculum vitae of academics from the top 100 universities in the world. "We looked at their ISI publications when they were lecturers, associate professors and professors to come up with the guidelines," he says.

The research publication of an academic is measured by databases of articles. Two such sources are Scopus and Thomson ISI. From this year, Scopus is no longer accepted, only ISI. Prof Ghauth cites the higher impact factor for the latter, which should result in more citations.

Even within ISI, UM has set a target that 40 per cent of publication must be in Tier One and Tier Two journals and 60 per cent Tier Three and Tier Four. This, says Prof Ghauth, addresses the issue of quality over quantity.

He says that one of the reasons publication was chosen over citations was because "to generate citations would take a few years, not a few months."

All authors will receive equal recognition for joint papers. "We want to promote teamwork and get academics to collaborate with each other and also internationally."

Prof Ghauth says concerns that those from the social sciences are unfairly disadvantaged if only ISI is used has been addressed. "That is why we put the condition that 30 per cent of the research publication can be from books with the proviso that there must be three international expert referees."

He also dismisses criticism that teaching will take a backseat in the research-dominated KPIs. "Good research will have an impact on teaching. Academics should bring in their current research findings into their lectures. If they do not apply new theories. the only thing they would be doing is teaching what they have learnt 20 years go."

Prof Ghauth says there has been an exponential increase in ISI publications since the current KPIs were introduced and cites dentistry as an example. "The dean informed me that the faculty already had 18 ISI papers by July this year compared to five last year."

Although Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) first instituted KPIs in 2000, they have gone through several modifications since then.

The three main areas evaluated in UKM are education (30 per cent), research (50 per cent) and services (20 per cent).

However, the KPIs of individual academics and faculties make up the university's KPIs. The goal is to ensure that everyone works towards achieving UKM's overall KPI.

"There are several layers and stages to the KPIs. We don't expect 100 per cent achievement immediately. By 2018, the targets we have set should have been met," says UKM vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin.

ANN/The Star