Improving HEI Productivity and Performance through Project Management Implications from a Benchmarking Case Study

As higher education institutions (HEIs) look to be more commercial in their outlook they are likely to become more dependent on the successful implementation of projects. This article reports a benchmarking survey of PM maturity in a HEI, with the purpose of assessing its capability to implement projects. Data were collected via questionnaires from 110 employees involved in projects. The key results indicate the university to be low in overall PM maturity, particularly in the areas of leader ship and project support structures and to have a maturity profile similar to business sectors that are late adopters of PM. These findings suggest the HEI, and probably others in the sector, may have difficulty in sustaining activity in which PM maturity is a pre-requisite. Their capability to implement new teaching methods through project-related change management is potentially impaired by a lack of PM maturity, as is their ability to adapt to the increased project focus in non-teaching areas of activity, such as research and enterprise. To this end, defining a systematic process for increasing PM maturity that aligns corporate practices in a manner that is appropriate to the ethos and culture of HEIs is clearly a priority for attention.