Transition toward a sustainable digital university based on the conceptual framework of “European Foundation for Quality Management” (EFQM)

Abstract

In order to be able to adapt and keep pace with the dynamic changes in the digital era. One of the important and urgent missions of every university/ higher education institution is to strive toward a sustainable digital university. From academic point of view, no previous academic study has proposed a holistic framework to drive such a mission to success. Thus, this paper aims to bridge the gap by proposing a conceptual framework based on “European Foundation for Quality Management” (EFQM) to transition universities toward sustainable digital universities. EFQM has been wildly accepted as a systematic framework that drives an organization toward excellence. EFQM divides success factors into 3 factors including “enabler factors”, “result factors” and “learning and innovation factors”. Enabler factors comprise of 5 components as “leadership”, “strategy”, “people”, “partnerships and resources” and “process management”. While, the results factors comprise of 4 dimensions as “people dimension”, “customer dimension”, “society dimension”, and “business dimension”. Lastly, “learning and innovation factors” are factors that stimulate the driving mechanism towards sustainability. The article provides academic value by proposing ways to put this conceptual framework into practice in order to drive the university towards a successful transition to a sustainable digital university.