Date of Graduation

1982

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Today, higher education administration's task is one of unprecedented complexity. The multiple burdens provide sufficient reason for real interest in utilization of effective information systems. Consequently, new functions affecting the production, retention, and delivery of information have emerged. This study is not about the computer as such, but how to use it, what administrative information it can provide, and academically, how to let it serve higher education's purposes more sensitively and beneficially. The immediate and long-term information needs of a selected university were identified under the philosophy that good administrative use of the computer can help preserve educational resources in an era of scarcity and thus help protect the central values that are the core of higher education. A formal methodology was used to objectively extract and analyze data with recommendations for modification, expansion, and improvement of computing services. The approach involved delineation of organizations, processes, systems, and data classes. Matrices were constructed and a network of information systems was established. Interviews of university officials provided understanding of the interrelationships among the institution's functions. The overall results allowed the first system to be described, planned, and implemented. The project approach required coordination through user education and involvement so that information could be broadly perceived as a valuable, common resource. The data base concept ensured integration of information systems to meet unique institutional management, operational, and reporting needs. The phasing of activities and sequence of events are described. Strategic planning and increased awareness of today's administrators are underlying concepts throughout the study. The research helps to illustrate the primary importance of information resource management in responding to the imperatives of today's higher education through leadership, technical insight and policy focus. By identifying information requirements and in deciding how such information is to be used, the study describes how one university transformed organizational strategies into measurable objectives for information, then transformed those information objectives into plans to create the necessary information handling systems, and finally, how the information resource plans were integrated into the overall strategic plans for the institution.

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