Standards, Benchmarks, and Qualitative Indicators to Enhance the Institutions' Activities and Performance: Surveys and Data Analysis

The problem of setting standards and benchmarking the quality of educational activities of HEIs in Oman is described. In order to do so, twenty one qualitative performance indicators (activities) were selected, defined, computed and considered as standards for HEIs in Oman. Two surveys were designed to collect the data from private HEIs for the activities/indicators. The methodology, validity of the surveys and data collection was discussed. A sample of 3689 students and 882 academic staff members were chosen from across the country and from all private HEIs and demonstrated the surveys. The internal consistency of the scale and some other measures were examined. The proposed qualitative indicators were computed. The relation between academic staff and student opinions, as well as the tests of the significance between academic staff and students' opinions and the difference of the results in each activity, were also examined. The findings have shown that the proposed indicators have a considerable gain in all statistical measures applied. Conclusions, recommendations and limitations were reported and discussed.