Exploring University Performance through Multiple Factor Analysis: A Case Study
Delimiro Visbal-Cadavid, Monica Martínez-Gómez, Rolando Escorcia Caballero
Abstract
Higher Education in Colombia is experiencing a period of shortfalls in funding which has obliged Universities to seek resources from non-governmental sources, in addition to this, the Ministry of National Education (MEN) has implemented a scheme where funds are assigned year on year but this is not considered part of the budgetary base. This study seeks to create a characterisation of the model and proposes the creation of a synthetic performance index based on Multiple Factorial Analysis (MFA). This index enabled us to rank the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) according to their performance and analyse the trajectory of Colombian Universities at a given moment, which meant their evolution over time could be reviewed, moreover within the complexity of the model of indices of results in Colombian higher education, the majority of HEI have a similar, yet, to some degree, distinct structure and display scores which show that within a certain degree of homogeneity, each institution has its strengths in some of the variables considered and its weaknesses in others.