Towards Good Governance Through The Implementation of Electronic University Management System: Qafqaz University’s Experience

Qafqaz University - Management Information System

Over the past few years, there has been increasing attention on how Information Technology (IT) supports good governance in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). It’s obvious that communications and information technology provides increasing opportunities to improve institutional effectiveness and efficiency. The use of technology is driving significant changes in the way educational institutions meet their goals and objectives. With the rapid pace of technological change and increased competition, good governance of HEI with the help of University Management System (UMS) presents significant challenges.
Parallel with general issues on the usage of IT in HEI governance, this paper provides brief information about Qafqaz University’s experience in this field and the vision of the university on the way to securing good governance, which is built on the following four main principles:

1. increasing transparency and accountability;
2. facilitating information access, and increasing functionality of pervasive information system;
3. facilitating decision-making process;
4. enhancing the efficient delivery of services to staff and students.

As it is well known from IT history, innovative technologies can start out as relatively small issues and suddenly become vitally important, requiring immediate solutions. In the same way, small IT initiative which had limited purposes has become the infrastructure with a strong strategic value and a great asset to achieve institutional strategic goals.