The development of an Excellence Model for Portuguese higher education institutions

Higher education institutions have always had an important role in society as centres for knowledge generation and diffusion, but nowadays they face several new multidimensional problems. This work is based on the results of intensive fieldwork (covering 55 schools in Portugal and including a comparative study with other countries), with the main purpose of trying to define strategic development bases for higher education and the role of total quality management (TQM) in their adaptation to current and fixture transformations. Three essential ideas were considered about higher education institutions' needs: they have to think about their future and develop foundations that will lead them to implement strategic thinking; they must be able to do 'more with less' and still maintain their quality and productivity; and they must be able to evaluate their performance as a driver for improvement. Research was carried out to determine which is the present management situation in Portuguese higher education institutions, particularly in what concerns the implementation of strategic management and TQM principles, concepts and tools. The information collected and analysed allowed an understanding of what the critical success factors are for these institutions, how they are facing the above challenges and, based on these findings, the development of a Model of Excellence for Higher Education Institutions, which will also be presented.