Prioritised challenges and critical success factors for delivering quality education in Malaysian private higher education institutions
Quality Assurance in Education
ISSN: 0968-4883
Article publication date: 6 September 2019
Issue publication date: 20 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a hierarchical model to rank the challenges faced by the private Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs) in the provision of quality education and subsequently their corresponding critical success factors (CSFs) to address those challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
A sequential mix method was adopted in this study. Semi-structured interviews with 29 participants were initially conducted to identify the challenges and CSFs. This was followed by a questionnaire survey involving 158 respondents to prioritise the identified findings. Thematic analysis was conducted in the qualitative stage, uncovering the challenges and their corresponding CSFs. Data for both stages were accumulated from internal and external stakeholders of Malaysian private HEIs. Finally, the four stages of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were applied to rank the challenges and CSFs.
Findings
The qualitative stage identified eight challenges, i.e. “academics”, “facilities”, “students”, “programmes and curriculum”, “competition”, “accreditation”, “finance” and “research” together with their corresponding CSFs. The AHP enables the ranking of these challenges. “Finance” has been found to be the most crucial challenge and “high competency in managing the institution’s finance” as the most important CSF to address this challenge.
Research limitations/implications
As the study restricted its focus on Malaysian private HEIs, the results may not be generalised for public HEIs and foreign private HEIs operating in Malaysia.
Originality/value
The hierarchical model developed in this study is deemed important for implementation to resolve the prioritised challenges. It spells out the specific areas in which the resources of Malaysian private HEIs need to be prudently disbursed and properly managed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the chief editor, associate editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments, which have been helpful to improve the content and quality of the article.
Citation
Anis, A. and Islam, R. (2019), "Prioritised challenges and critical success factors for delivering quality education in Malaysian private higher education institutions", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 465-492. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-11-2018-0122
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited