Outsourcing in Higher Education: A Survey of Institutions in the District of Columbia,Maryland, and Virginia

摘要

Introduction Given the need to recruit students, make budgets cuts, keep up with innovative technologies, and cope with demographic growth trends and pressure from nontraditional educational institutions, today's colleges and universities are facing intense pressure (Glickman, Holm, Keating, Pannait, and White, 2007; Lee and Clery, 2004). They must remain competitive while retaining the essence of their existence: education. Additionally, students are demanding more from their higher education experience, so institutions have to deliver superior quality and customized services (Bekurs, 2007). Therefore, to survive, higher education institutions are exploring corporate best practices to achieve cost savings, effective management, and better supplier-relationship strategies (Comm and Mathaisel, 2008). Many managerial and accounting concepts, such as zero-based budgeting, management-by-objectives, balanced scorecards, and total quality management can be applied to the management of higher education (Kirp, 2003). It is not surprising that outsourcing is also used at many higher education institutions and that the decision to outsource has become increasingly important. Further, there has been a change in focus; the decision most institutions face today is not z/they should outsource, but how they should outsource (Gose, 2005).