Good Institutional Practices – Case Studies from Salvadoran Higher Education Institutions

The Activity has supported selected Salvadoran higher education institutions (HEIs) to set priorities and implement strategies to adequately respond to private sector needs and play their role in meeting the higher education needs of El Salvador. The Activity focused on system effectiveness and institutional capacity, ensuring that the higher education system is animated by objectives that are realistic and calibrated to the wants and needs of the current and future economy, as well as students and prospective students. Stronger HEIs are key to the success of the Salvadoran higher education system, and to the human capital development that will drive El Salvador's economic growth and stability. The Activity used the Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) model for sustainable performance improvement, which puts institutions at the forefront of their own development, boosting their self-reliance. The HICD model was used to support five HEIs: Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA), Universidad Don Bosco (UDB), Universidad Católica de El Salvador (UNICAES), Universidad Francisco Gavidia (UFG), and Universidad Gerardo Barrios (UGB). The Activity has resulted in the development of five good institutional practices, which are intended to support the teaching and learning experience, resulting in better quality and more relevant higher education. These practices include formulating effective strategic and annual operating plans, engaging in international organizational certification systems to ensure quality management practices, instituting online and blended teaching and learning systems to ensure the accessibility of market-relevant coursework, improving university fundraising strategies, and instituting streamlined management information systems to track the achievement of priority objectives and provide timely information to external stakeholders. The five HEIs supported by the Activity have adopted these good practices, which contribute to the broader areas supported by the Activity: higher-quality human capital development, more relevant and effective curricula, and improved higher education system capacity to stimulate broad-based economic growth and social development, and to adequately respond to the country's productive sector needs.