Strategic Planning in Higher Education, a Need for Innovative Model

Recent years have brought enormous changes in all aspects of life, and universities all over the world have been confronted by dramatic changes in their external and internal environments such as decreasing financial support, rapid technological advances, changing demographics and outdated academic programs. Therefore, many universities have engaged in strategic planning to “make beneficial, strategic changes … to adapt to the rapidly shifting environment”.

The challenges which higher education institutions are facing nowadays raise the high demands to develop a new and innovative model for strategic analysis and planning that aims to help them to cope with these enormous challenges and to ensure their sustainability. Some of the Strategic models which suitable for business could be modified to fit the purpose of higher education institutions. One of these models is the one developed by Johnson et al. [1] that is based on the exploring strategy model developed and has three elements namely, Strategic position, Strategic choices and strategy in action.

The aim of this review, which has two parts, in its first part is to review strategy, its definition, models and its new trends. The second part of this review is mainly related to strategic planning in higher education institutions, the difference between it and business, the commonly used models in higher education and the need for change. The last part of the review includes a proposed model for strategic planning in higher education which is modified from Jonson’s model Keeping in mind the difference in context between business and governmental higher education organization. Also, some recommendations for improving the strategic planning process were included in the last part of this review.