Year 2017, Issue 132

Date published

5.4.2017

Table of content

  • Bozhidar Bozhinov
    MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN UNIVERSITIES
    JEL: L2, G3
    Keywords: -
    Summary: The modern understanding of IT management of the processes in universities involves the totality of organizational structure, institutional interactions and appropriate management practices that create a prerequisite for effective management of information technology and infrastructure in universities so that they can contrib ... ... CONTENTS Introduction Chapter Challenges facing the management of universities 1. Key trends in the development of higher education 2. Challenges facing the management of universities 3. Penetration of information technology in higher education Chapter Strategic management of information technology in universities 1. Strategic management and business architecture of a university 2. Conceptual framework of IT management in universities 3. Place and interaction of the IT department in a university’s organizational structure Chapter State and problems facing the management of information technology in universities 1. General characteristics of the surveyed universities and respondents 2. Strategic management of IT processes and technology in universities 3. Structure and responsibilities of the IT department 4. Trends in the use of information and educational technologies and services in universities 5. Financial management of information technology and services in universities Conclusion References ABSTRACT The modern understanding of IT management of the processes in universities involves the totality of organizational structure, institutional interactions and appropriate management practices that create a prerequisite for effective management of information technology and infrastructure in universities so that they can contribute to the smooth running of the basic (education and science) and supporting (administrative and business) processes in the organization in order to achieve the strategic and tactical goals and objectives of the institution, the adding of value and the acquisition of strategic advantages in taking well-considered levels of risks. Unlike the activities of traditional companies, where the interactions in this process are mainly between the business and IT management, in the sphere of higher education there emerge new aspects in these interactions – academic management and the role of some of the users, in particular – lecturers, is highly raised as a result of the institutional traditions and principles of academic autonomy. This makes it possible to propose the creation of a completely new management model of ‘academic monarchy’, in which the decisions related to the IT processes and resources of a university are made by the senior academic management, excluding entirely the possibility that IT managers make independent decisions, and their function is brought to implementing the decisions made. Despite being new for the university managers, the concept of ‘architecture of the enterprise’ is gaining more grounds among the senior academic management as it allows the balancing of institutional, business and IT goals of the organization within the process of turning the institutional vision and mission into long-term policies and strategies, complied with the specifics and changes in the surrounding environment and resource provision, contributing to the pursuit and realization of the organization’s goals and controlling their achievement. Taking into account the specifics of modern universities this concept should be extended by creating a new hierarchical element (academic architecture), building on the classical business architecture of the institution and combining the educational and scientific architecture specific to universities. The results of the international survey ‘Challenges facing the IT management in universities’, carried out among the higher schools in Central and Eastern Europe between 31 October and 30 November 2016, showed that in spite of the high degree of development and distribution of information technologies in the Balkan universities, the IT managers expect an increase in the demand and use of IT services in universities, and among the main challenges of digital economy they point out the growth in competency-based education, electronic research and the role of the institutional brand. In Bulgaria both the reconsidering of the business model and the role of the innovative educational spaces are also highlighted. The current use of information technologies in the educational process is related to improving the process of mastering knowledge by students and there is an expressed preference to the hybrid form of education to the entirely online education. Among the educational innovations, which will most positively affect higher education on the Balkans in the future, are personalized adaptive learning, hybrid courses and open educational resources. In purely technological terms, the expectations for the changes setting in are related to the penetration of mobile technologies and social networks, business modernization, internet of things, managing and storing data and cloud services, and the Bulgarian IT managers link their professional challenges both to cloud computing and the processes of optimizing the server infrastructure through its virtualization and the growing need for ensuring the security of information. Along with that, the financial management of the IT processes in universities is characterized by high centralization, limited target funds, lack of specialized IT budget and insufficient participation of IT managers in determining and prioritizing the IT expenses, the key financial factor being the low purchase price. What is worrying is that a large number of universities do not use financial measures to analyze and manage their IT budgets, and as regards the assessment of investment projects there is generally an extremely low use of the classical financial indicators.