The purpose of these  procedures is to establish a common-ground understanding of roles and responsibilities between different units and offices of the Parami University Administration. These procedures will be the basis for the preparation of annual and 5-year strategic plans, using the findings of the Institutional Assessment and Quality Assurance procedures.

Scope

These are administrative and academic procedures, affecting all administrative and academic staff of the University.

Referenced Laws, Regulations, and/or Policies 

These University procedures comply with the University’s Strategic Planning and Institutional Assessment and Quality Assurance policies.

Procedures

Strategic Planning is intricately linked to Institutional Assessment and Quality Assurance findings. Throughout the year, all relevant staff from the offices and units of the Academic Department and the Administrative Department must participate in ongoing institution-wide activities to carry out institutional assessment and quality assurance, as outlined in the Institutional Assessment and Quality Assurance policy. 

The following are the elements required to accomplish while the University is engaging in institutional assessment and quality assurance as well as strategic planning. For the sake of clarity, the elements are laid out in a sequential format, however, in reality the elements won’t be in strict chronological order, as all activities are linked to one another. 

1) Determination of Key Performance Indicators

The University Management is required to gather data on indicators in the six (6) Key Performance categories listed below. If the respective offices and units of the Academic Department and the Administrative Department believe that they need to gather data on new indicators, in addition to the following approved indicators, they can do so. However, they must provide rationale to the Board of Trustees in the next annual institutional assessment and quality assurance report why new indicators need to be measured 

2) Collection of Data

All staff under the Administrative Department and Academic Department are required to follow the institutional assessment framework that includes clear indicators to be measured. The measurements must be on an ongoing basis, that will result in quarterly institutional assessment summary reports. 

The institutional assessment officer will work with all Directors and the Dean, who are responsible to ensure that output reports of the data are being delivered to the institutional assessment officer within one week after the close of each quarter (the first week of the next quarter). The institutional assessment officer will consolidate output reports of all offices and units into a single file. The institutional assessment officer will develop an analytic summary (no more than three pages) on all the data collected with objective statements. The institutional assessment officer will then deliver the consolidated report with the summary to all offices and units at the end of the second week of the next quarter.

It is the responsibility of the Directors and the Dean to determine data tracking and collection mechanisms with their teams, while providing rationale on the manner of data collection. It is also the responsibility of the Directors and the Dean to ensure that data collection does not violate individuals’ privacy and ensure that strict confidential treatment of data is in compliance with the University's Data Privacy Policy. 

3) Quality Assurance

The purpose of the institutional assessment is to provide quality assurance and improvement of all aspects of the University offerings––from student support services to academic programs. In order to do so, each team must refer to industry’s best practices. For example, when it comes to admissions and registrar’s services, the team must adopt best practices as developed by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. When it comes to academic offerings, the Academic Department through the Internal Quality Assurance Committee (IQA) must be applying best practices as delineated by an accreditation agency recognized by the US Department of Education, such as the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), or the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). It is the responsibility of the Directors and the Dean to ensure that there is a culture of improvement within their teams with reference to these industry’s best practices and standards. 

To ensure that there is a habit and pattern of improvement, the University requires all teams to apply the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) goal-setting methodology. Once each office or unit has sent their quarterly summary report to the Institutional Assessment Officer, the Director and Dean must engage with their respective teams to develop the next quarterly OKR plan using an institution-approved software, such as the subscribed MeisterTask application. 

4) Quarterly Institutional Assessment Meetings

Within one week from the delivery of the consolidated report from the institutional assessment officer, there will be an interdepartmental convening. The institutional assessment officer, the Directors, and the Dean must set up this meeting. Each responsible office must present their learnings from their quarterly assessments and their quarterly OKR plans. Each responsible office is responsible to gather feedback from other teams on their OKR. This is also the time to improve interdepartmental collaboration. Then each office will again collect data for further assessments of their own performance.

5) Strategic Plan

It is the responsibility of the University Management to submit an annual Strategic Plan with a detailed budgeting plan of financial and human resources for an upcoming fiscal year three months before the beginning of the next fiscal year for the Board to approve (before April 1st). The Director of Finance and Operations must take a lead in developing the projection. The Director must convene the Dean and the other Directors regularly to gather information on areas of improvement that require additional resources. The Strategic Plan must include how the University Management is using the findings from quarterly assessments to state the current status of the performance of the University using the KPIs and the improvement plan using the OKR for the next year’s performance.

6) Annual Institutional Assessment and Quality Assurance Report

The institutional assessment officer will take a lead in writing up an annual institutional assessment and quality assurance report, based on the fiscal year, and submitting the report by the end of each August. This report is a culmination of four quarterly reports. The officer with the support of the Dean and the Directors must analyze all the data gathered throughout the entire year. Then, the Directors and the Dean will each offer a summary of their plans to improve the indicators for the ensuing fiscal year in which they are already engaging with their projections from the Annual Strategic Plan that has been approved by the Board before the beginning of July. Writing this report will require several meetings between the Directors and the Dean with the institutional assessment officer during July and August. The Directors and the Dean must plan in advance, given the fact that these two months mark the beginning of a new semester, and therefore will be busy months. However, it is crucial that they set aside time to allocate it in their discussion with the institutional assessment officer. The University Management will submit this report to the Board of Trustees for feedback from the Trustees at the end of August. The report will be made available to the public as soon as the Trustees’ comments have been addressed.

7) Five-Year Strategic Planning

Using annual strategic planning as well as annual institutional assessment and quality assurance findings, the University Management must launch an institution-wide five-year strategic planning initiative two and a half years in advance before the five-year strategic planning period, with the goal to publish the five-year strategic plan six months before the five-year period. The University Management must establish a working committee including all the Directors and Dean as well as key academic and administrative staff from each office or unit of the University three years prior to the launch of the initiative. The working group must spend the first six months identifying key stakeholders of the Campus community, frameworks to develop the five-year strategic planning, and a study plan of how the previous institutional assessments and quality assurance findings will be integrated into the working plan of the five-year strategic plan. The University Management must submit the five-year strategic plan in advance of the six-month publishing deadline.

Review

The Administrative Department and the Academic Department are responsible for ensuring compliance with this procedure in various offices of the University.

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