Higher education reform : through business process reengineering : a case study of Mekelle university (Ethiopia)

Abstract

Ethiopia initiated a major higher education reform program in the early 1990s that included overhauling the system, the institution and even the program level. Among these initiatives a new organizational transformation approach, called Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has been adopted including the entire civil service sector of the country. Essentially BPR is a concept with a root from computer science and private business enterprises, which have fundamentally different characteristics from public organizations, in general and HEIs in particular. However, BPR has also come to be used in public organizations elsewhere as a possible way for dealing with mounting pressures to be more responsive to the customer needs and offer better quality services than ever before. Taking Mekelle University(MU) as a case, this study investigates; the major objectives of adopting BPR in the university, specific problems intended to be solved, the real changes brought about as well as the perception of the university community towards the process and the outcomes of BPR. Method: A qualitative approach constituted interviews and document analysis as main tools of data collection have been used in this study. Sixteen respondents including people from Institutional Transformation Office, Collage deans, academic and supportive (administrative) staff members as well as students of the University selected as participants of the study. Findings: It was found that the application of BPR in public HEIs, such as MU, presents special issues for the overall reform which proposes to bring about fundamental change. There were social, technological and political (policy) factors that pushed the University to reengineer its business processes and the objectives are improved customer satisfaction, decentralization and improved competitiveness, among others. Finally, it recommended that reengineering process remains effective for the university striving to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible and needs to work on the human side of the reform to have the community’s backing.