Abstract:

Quality assurance is one of the most important strategic directions of the European Higher Education Area, while defining key performance indicators of the success of a higher education institution is a key element of this process. Key performance indicators are defined by the HEI itself in accordance with its development strategy and represent a set of measures focusing on most critical aspects of organizational performance.

This paper focuses on key performance indicators used in quality assurance by the University of Applied Sciences Zaprešić, Croatia in order to provide information about the degree to which teaching and learning quality objectives are being achieved. With the aim of monitoring teacher's success and improving the quality of overall educational processes, i.e. both teaching and learning, UAS Baltazar Zaprešić has developed a set of key performance indicators of the educational process and teaching staff.

The aim of this paper is to determine the perception of the relevance of the defined teacher key performance indicators by the full-time teaching staff, as well as the importance of measuring performance. Besides, the aim is to determine whether there are differences in the perception of the KPIs with regard to the teachers' socio-demographic characteristics, academic degree and scientific area of interest.

The KPI model has been empirically tested by means of an on-line survey on a sample of full-time teaching staff. This paper gives an overview of the most important key performance indicators of teacher and teaching, while also being a valuable self-assessment tool of commitment to teaching quality. In a broader sense, the results enable monitoring teaching staff performance but also indicate the need for introducing additional activities aimed at the improvement of the educational process and establishing a quality culture.

Keywords:

Quality Assurance, Teaching Quality, Key Performance Indicators.