A decision support system for institutional research management in higher education : data mining to determine research focus, intensity and synergy

Date
2009
Authors
Ehlers, Kobus
Joubert, Malan
Kinghorn, Johann
Van Zyl, Arnold
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IEEE CS
Abstract
Research orientated universities face a conundrum. On the one hand research areas are increasing and expanding; on the other research resources are – in relative terms – diminishing. As a consequence a more active approach to shaping the institutional research profile is called for. This presupposes a clear view of research activities at the institution, but this is notoriously lacking, universities being what they are. This paper reports on a DSS which was developed for research management at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Within the context of a rather unique national management system for higher education, a data mining approach was developed and tested. A modified ontology model was built to bridge the inherent ambiguity when clustering outputs across different academic disciplines. The results enabled research managers to correlate (in a meaningful way) strategic goals with actual output. The outcome points to a number of further possibilities for the application of this system.
2009 International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering. Vancouver, Canada August 29-August 31 2009.
Description
6 A4 pages in PDF format
Keywords
Decision support system, Data mining, University research, Research management
Citation
Ehlers, K., Joubert, M., Kinghorn, J. & Van Zyl, A. 2009. A decision support system for institutional research management in higher education: data mining to determine research focus, intensity and synergy. IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, 29-31 August 2009, 885-890.