An MCDM Approach for Prioritization of Faculties and Disciplines in Educational Institutions: A Real Case Study

Due to countries’ increasing and competitive progress worldwide, the role of research and investigations has become more crucial. They are considered the prerequisite for the mentioned progress and advancement. Nowadays, educational institutions like universities and colleges are one of the principal influential factors in scientifical and technological discoveries and inventions, which can directly lead to the countries’ flourishing. Therefore, the performance evaluation of these institutions, especially regarding the efficiency of the academic disciplines, is a key that researchers in the last year have frequently analyzed. This study aims to introduce a prioritizing scale for ranking evaluation factors in this scope. Also, as a case study, bachelor disciplines at the Yazd university in Iran are prioritized based on mentioned factors. To this end first 23 evaluation factors are determined through interviews with 37 academic professors, and key factors are distinguished; after that, the most important key factors are weighted and ranked using pairwise comparisons (PC) and the Analytic hierarchy process method (AHP). Finally, the values of 7 key factors are calculated for 48 determined majors, and their final ranking of majors and faculties is determined. The findings of this study showed that the employment ratio, alignment with the vision of Yazd province, and entrance exam score of incoming students are the most important key factors. Also, architectural engineering at the faculty of art and architecture, civil engineering, and computer engineering at the technical and engineering campus are the most important, with the best performance majors and faculties as the results of the analyzed case study. Managers can utilize these mentioned findings to improve the performance of the universities and overcome their weaknesses.