Integration of Mission Into Assessment and Assurance of Learning Programs

Abstract

The concept of transnational education seems to have sprang from dormancy to heightened activity in the last three decades. Higher education institutions (HEI) have been growing and moving from one nation to another in pursuit of realization of certain set goals. These goals have a clear bearing on the mission of the institution. This chapter gives an overview of the perspectives open to HEI, it elaborates on the process of assessment of mission outcomes of an institution on the basis of its strategic fit between its resources and its environment. A more specific comparison of Baldridge criteria as a performance model with the business sector is explored; however, the basic assumption of the writers was that HEI are nonprofit-oriented organizations. Further, through a case study which is a university in Africa with historic connections to the US, the process of assessment is explained. It is through the experience which the team went through as the conducted the assessment that recommendations and conclusions were given.