Human Systems Management 41 (2022) 517–533 517

DOI 10.3233/HSM-211193
IOS Press

Performance and planning model for HEIs:

A developmental engine for intellectual
capital
Zuhair A. Al-Hemyaria,∗ and Abdullah M. AlSarmib
a University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman

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b Ministry of Higher Education, Muscat, Oman

Received 25 February 2021

Accepted 9 November 2021

Abstract.
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BACKGROUND: HEIs implement different techniques for the problem of assessing the progress towards the notified goals
or the achievements, which is the only way to ensure that the HEIs are functioning properly along the right way or not.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to propose a model for assessing the performance, which may be of interest to
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institutions, partners, society and students.
METHODS: In this paper, the technique of performance-related goals of HEIs, and a statistical approach are proposed. The
methodology of this paper will manage briefly the issues of the applicability of the technique, how to derive the “goals” for
HEI’s, taking into consideration the indicators of the Intellectual Capital (Human, Organizational, and Relational), and how
to collect the data from HEIs successfully. The processes of assuring the technique of performance-related goals, deriving
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and implementing the goals, and the acquisition and testing of data are developed.
RESULTS: The findings of this paper are in two directions, i.e. in the proposing of a performance model for HEIs which
is based on the goals of HEIs; and in the application side, i.e. in the practical results of the evaluation of HEIs and how to
clarify the performance of institutions and how to compare between them. The findings show that the practical results are
significant, and reliable.
CONCLUSIONS: This paper develops a significance model for performance appraisal of HEIs, how we can compare
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between the performance of HEIs, and to rank their performance. The practical results of the model are both accurate and
significant.

Keywords: Quality management, performance improvement, data modelling, goal, intellectual capital

Dr. Zuhair A. Al-Hemyari currently

∗ Corresponding author: Prof. Zuhair A. Al-Hemyari; Univer-
sity of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman. E-mails: alhemyari@unizwa.edu.om
and zalhemyari@gmail.com.
is a full Professor and expert in
research at the University of Nizwa,
Oman. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathemat-
ical Statistics from The Indian Insti-
tute of Technology. His basic research
interests are single and double-
stage sampling techniques, Bayesian-
shrinkage procedures, reliability the-
ory and applications, modelling and
optimization, data analysis, knowl-
edge management, intellectual capital
and performance indicators. Besides
teaching, he has published about 87
papers, participated in 43 international conferences. Formerly, he
is a full Professor and expert at the Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion, Oman. Prof. Zuhair was an Academic Advisor and Project
Executor of several projects.

ISSN 0167-2533/$35.00 © 2022 – IOS Press. All rights reserved.

518 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
Dr. Abdullah M. Alsarmi is a
senior consultant in the management
and quality of higher education with
Ph.D. in Education from the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. He
has over 30 years of experience
in higher education. He developed
interest in performance indicators at
institutional, regional, and interna-
tional levels. He worked for over
16 years as the Undersecretary of
the Ministry of Higher Education, a
position that has given him a wide
exposure and insights to various issues
and challenges facing higher education not only at the national level
but globally as well. He ran students exchange programs with more
than 40 countries. He also chaired the board of the Omani Aca-
demic Accreditation Authority, the body in charge of regulating
quality of education in Oman.
1. Introduction
The topic of IC has gained a wide importance
among international organizations and researchers
from various disciplines due to the importance of
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the topic and its being an important resource for
achieving and maintaining the competitive advan-
tages.
Since the last decade, the intellectual capital (IC)
has received much attention and is considered as a
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critical engine for developing countries and societies.
Many international organizations and bodies have
been interested in the issue of how to develop the
intellectual capital; and they have given a great deal
of support to HEIs and research institutions which
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are among the most important centers designed for
developing the IC, where the teaching, leaning and
research activities significantly affect the IC.
Various international research organizations and
many researchers around the world have been propos-
ing models for measuring and developing the IC,
and studying the mechanisms and factors that allow
the development of the IC. Therefore, many mod-
els for developing the quality audit and performance
of HEIs have been developed to ensure the continu-
ous development of IC. It is worth mentioning that
there are many common bases in the field of strate-
gic management of these two topics. Some of the
bases which are common between the two concepts,
and can benefit from each other are “resource-based
view, knowledge-based view, intellectual capital-
based view, dynamic capabilities, and configurational
approach” [1].
The IC may be defined as “intellectual resources
that have been formalized, captured and leveraged
to create assets of higher value” (p. 1) [2]; or “as the
economic value of two categories of intangible assets
of a company: organizational (structural) capital and
human capital” (p. 3) [3]. Thus, based on the above
definitions, IC may be categorized to Human Capital,
Structural Capital and Relational Capital [4].
We may define the Human, Organizational, and
Relational Capitals as given below: Human Cap-
ital “is defined as the knowledge that the human
resources would take with them if they were to leave
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the institution”; Organizational Capital “is defined as
the knowledge that stays within the institution at the
end of the working day. It comprises the governance
principles, the organizational routines, procedures,
systems, cultures, databases, publications, intellec-
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tual property, etc.”; and Relational “is defined as all
resources linked to the external relationships of the
institution such as customers, suppliers, R&D part-
ners, Government, etc.” [4].
A plethora of IC literature shows that there is a
mutual importance of IC and HEIs; and furthermore,
several references show that the proposed models for
measuring and developing the performance of HEIs
of any country are significantly developing the IC
and vice versa because of the existence of several
common issues and measures between IC and HEIs
[5–12]. At the same time, the IC intangibles have a
dual impact on HEIs and the country. The IC intan-
gibles have an important impact on developing the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country [9].
One conclusion regarding the importance of IC in
GDP is as follows “the contribution of unmeasured
intellectual capital to economic growth was 10% –
11% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United
States over the period 1995–2003, rivaling the con-
tribution of tangible capital, and both types of capital
contributed equally to labor productivity growth in
those years” [4].
In addition, measuring the IC of HEIs has signifi-
cant importance to the HEIs. Also, the HEIs actively
contribute to the development of intellectual capi-
tal through the interaction between human capital
and other forms of IC through effective knowledge
management models and strategies [4, 6–10, 13–21].
In fact, HEIs typically have to run many activities
regarding the inputs, processes, resources, and out-
puts, and to be serviced properly. Thus, the strategic
plans of HEIs should have different compatible and
corresponding compositions and each composition
should service part of the corresponding activities.
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
In addition, the mission of any institution is the fun-
damental part of its strategic plan, also, the vision, and
institutional goals, which are parts of the supporting
compositions; whereas goals, objectives, strategies
and operation plans form the other parts of “strategic
plan” [22–24]. In addition, strategic plans in HEIs
are constructed for either a five or ten-year time-
frame, and “goals and objectives form the basis of
the portion of the strategic plan most often used as the
public document, approved by the governing board,
and distributed to the campus community” (p.11)
[23].
Moreover, the institutional strategy of any HEI
should facilitate the operation of the institution in the
direction of enabling it to achieve its policy of making
it an effective institution in terms of its development,
internal and external audits, fostering its internation-
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alization, and of its influencing and engaging the
community. Fielden and Abercromby [25] studied the
problem of how the management can affect the insti-
tution and the type of priority areas in creating an
effective institution. To fulfill this, he proposed the
following five main areas: “achievement of goals,
development of people, expansion/growth and self-
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renewal and impact on the wider community” (p.2)
[25].
Modelling the goals of HEIs, in order to measure
the quality and assess the performance of HEIs is an
international phenomenon and used in most interna-
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tional HEIs [26–38]. In addition, UoB [39] studied the
significance relation between leadership and institu-
tional performance/improvement; and its impact on
the students in achieving their goals.
The research-based studies on modelling and
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assessing the goals of international HEIs are quite
numerous, and assessing the performance of HEIs
through assessing the levels of achieving these goals
is an effective and accurate technique. At the same
time, there is a big gap in the literature of the above
issues in developing countries, i.e. it is very limited,
and if it is available it is not implemented or measured
[ 9, 11, 12, 26–28, 38, 40–43].
Throughout the world, the issue of structuring the
goals of HEIs is one of the important steps in estab-
lishing the HEIs, and, as mentioned earlier, it is a part
of any institutional strategy [25, 44]. Moreover, struc-
turing the goals of HEIs is widely used and the levels
to achieve these goals are required for the processes
of auditing and development. It is also required for the
continued advancement of institutional performance,
which gives rise to the educational accreditation
[13].
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Moreover, setting and performing educational
goals within the strategic plan of any HEI has a dual
importance: first for itself and second for utilizing the
benefits of goals setting aimed at improving the insti-
tutional environment, inputs, outputs and processes.
It is not possible to do so without a precondition,
i.e. assessing the progress towards the declared goals
(ibid).
Thus, the issue of robust and accurate assessing
of the progress towards the notified goals or their
achievements is the only way to ensure that the
HEIs are functioning properly along the right path
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(ibid).
A study called “Pathways to Success”, was con-
ducted for the US Government by the “Advisory
Committee on Student Financial Assistance” regard-
ing the 2020 goals [45]. In this regard, many issues
in his paper were explained. One of these issues was
“how to measure progress toward and the achieve-
ment of those goals?” (p. 9) [45].
Thus, the necessity of the topic of this paper comes
from the success of the above international appli-
cations of the technique as well as national needs
in regard to filling the gaps in the technique of
performance-related goals of HEI literature in higher
education. In addition, studying the performance of
HEIs in developing countries through the evaluation
of the learning goals has a number of significant aims
[ 9, 11, 12, 26–31, 46, 47].
This paper is intended as a main topic for man-
agement-stream, which emphasizes a managerial
practical side of quality. At the same time, it studies
a very important issue in institutional strategy, which
emphasizes the overall performance and performance
of HEIs goals. However, it serves as a reference paper
on statistical applications which contains a number of
statistical tools for accuracy, data collection and data
cleaning.
The writing of this paper has the following mode:
The literature of goals of HEIs are explained in Sec-
tion 2. In Section 3, the objectives of this paper
are given. Section 4 has focused on the tools and
methods used in this paper. The proposed goals are
explained in Section 5. The ways of data collection
are demonstrated in Section 6. The proposed rules of
data detecting and cleaning are confirmed in Section
7. In Section 8, the practical results of the overall
performance and HEIs goals are discussed. Com-
prehensive statistical testing of the practical results
is performed in Section 9. The concluding remarks,
expected problems and dilemmas are discussed in
Sections 10 and 11 respectively.
520 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
2. The importance of IC in HEIS: Review of
literature
The literature of IC practices of HEIs and the goals
of HEIs as a technique for measuring the performance
of HEIs are huge, and some of them are to be reviewed
in this Section.
Without any doubt, the existence of IC, and the
role of incubating IC institutions (HEIs, research cen-
ters,...) in enhancing its output, will inevitably lead to
playing a fundamental role in developing the perfor-
mance of institutions.That is the reason why we can
see several important projects in IC and new models
for measuring IC for different sectors proposed by
many pioneer international organizations (foe exam-
ple the World Bank, OECD, OEU,...) and European
HEIs (for example Sweden, Denmark, Austria and
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Spain) because the IC receives great attention. In
addition, the existence of an interrelated relation-
ship between IC and the performance of HEIs is well
organized in most international HEIs [2–21, 30, 31,
39, 48–50]; and most of the international institutions
believe in the possibility of achieving their institu-
tional goals through the development of IC and their
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performance.
In order to clarify the strong relationship between
IC and HEIs, it is important to be aware of the well
known essential role of HEIs in intangible activities,
where the academic staff of HEIs are storehouses
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of knowledge and information, and that they have
a role in transmiting these to students and to the
wider society; and that there are several essential
concepts and institutional processes in HEIs, such
as the input and output of HEIs, the goals of HEIs,
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policies, intellectual activities and the processes of
contributing knowledge, skills and personal devel-
opment to students and employees. In addition, the
institutional plans and processes through which they
seek to implement the institutions’ goals in produc-
ing, transferring and disseminating the knowledge,
and contributing actively to supply the labor mar-
kets with graduates with knowledge, i.e., developing
the human resources for society, constitute important
components of the intellectual capital.
The general importance of measuring and enhanc-
ing the IC for the economic growth is explained in
Section 1. The above cited authors have discussed
several important factors of IC for the HEIs. Some of
these are:
i. “it can help to identify strengths and weak-
nesses within the public organization, because
IC management implies a categorization of
resources and capabilities”;
ii. “it can help to reveal the current state of the uni-
versity´s mission and the level of achieving its
institutional goals, because IC reports show the
exact value added by the organization´s intangi-
ble assets and how the results of IC reports are
aligned with its institutional mission and goals”.
iii. “it can be used as a general controlling and
monitoring instrument, because IC is a set of
indicators that can be communicated and can
thus encourage discussion on what has to be
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managed”.
iv. “it can achieve greater information and trans-
parency about the use of public money due to
the continuous process of both academic and
financial accountability”.
v. “it can help to formulate the institutional strat-
egy”;
vi. “it can communicate effectively with external
shareholders”.
vii. “it can help to compete for funding; because of
the shortage of funding HEIs are competing and
under greater pressure to communicate their IC
results”.
viii. “it can lead to the enhancement of the perfor-
mance of HEIs and vice versa”.
It is well known that the mission of an HEI is the
foundation of the strategic plan. The vision and the
institutional goals and values, which are essential and
important parts of the supporting compositions, are
vital components in any given institution’s successful
functioning. In addition, goals, objectives, strategies
and operation/ enforcement plans are parts of any
strategic plan of HEIs.
In order to evaluate the quality, interpretation and
achievement of any HEI, the goals of HEIs have to be
identified and studied [ 9, 11, 12, 26–28, 38, 40–43].
In this Section, some papers on refining the goals of
HEIs are reviewed.
It may be mentioned here that the issue of develop-
ing the performance, resources and the management
processes of the HEIs has been considered by sev-
eral other authors from different directions (see for
example, [51–61]).
The “Council of European Ministers for Educa-
tion” met in 2001 to approve the proposed strategic
goals for European HEIs which denominate “the four
major World Declaration objectives” [25]. The “four
major World Declaration objectives” and some strate-
gic goals of several HEIs are given in Table 1.
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital 521

Table 1
Examples of strategic goals/ objectives of HEIs

Author Identified Strategic Goals

[47] “Statewide Campus”, “Compelling Learning Experience” and “Top-Tier University”.
[13] “Promotion of access to higher education based on merit, and, addressing the areas of equal opportunity; seamless and open
access to higher education and assistance to minorities and the disadvantaged”; “Modernization of higher education systems
with a focus on access rates and overall participation rates; funding for research and development and review of international
trends including fees and mobility trends”; and “closer linkages with society, especially with the world of work; lifelong sources
of professional training and the development of entrepreneurial skills – higher education to turn out job creators, and, social
responsibility”
[58] “To develop relevant programs that will equip students with lifelong decision making, planning and management skills”; “To
ensure an effective and efficient system-wide approach to student access, success and retention by assisting faculties and

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cooperating with related institutional units”; “To develop relevant programs that will equip students with life-long career
decision-making, planning and management skills”; “To provide guidance & support to all WSU faculties in designing &
managing academic programs” and “To promote excellence in learning and teaching by means of integrated information and
communication technology”.
[37] “Promote academic quality by building and supporting a distinguished faculty”; “Provide opportunities for a public university

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education and contribute to economic and cultural development”; “Provide a premier student-centered, educational experience
that fosters retention and success”; “Enrich our learning and working environment by attracting and supporting a more diverse
faculty, staff, and student body” and “Develop and manage human, financial, physical, and technological resources effectively,
efficiently, and ethically to support the university’s mission”.
[59] “To develop our capacity to generate and share knowledge in the UK, Europe, and globally, ensuring significant contributions to
public policy-making and economic growth”, “To work effectively with other institutions and organizations, where such
OR
partnerships can lead to outstanding research and teaching”, “To enhance structures for collaboration across departments,
colleges, and the University”, “To fulfill the aims that no potential student should be deterred from applying to Oxford by
financial or other barriers and that no student’s success should be hampered by financial difficulties”, “To ensure, through a
commitment to the personal education of each student, a quality of education and experience which enables students to apply the
values, skills, and intellectual discipline they have acquired in their future lives and careers, and which generates a lifelong sense
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of connection with Oxford”, “To contribute effectively to the cultural, social, and economic life of the city of Oxford and the
Oxfordshire region”, and “To recruit and retain the best academic staff and ensure that under-represented groups have equality
of opportunity in recruitment, personal development, and career progression in all areas of employment in the University”.
[60] “Sustainable comprehensive internationalization as an integral part of the university’s mission and strategic plan”; “Promote
greater involvement of all students in significant international education experiences”; “Create and maintain a stimulating and
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supportive academic and cultural environment for international students and scholars”; “Increase the international activity of
faculty and professional staff”; “Internationalize the curriculum”; “Assure research and scholarship pertaining to international
matters permeates disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields”, and “Ensure international awareness is an integral part of
appropriate outreach and extension activities”
[42] “To continue building Keele as a broad-based research-led University of about 13000 students recognized internationally for
excellence in education, research and enterprise”; “To deliver international excellence and impact in focused areas of research”;
“To contribute positively to the society, economy, culture, health and well-being of the communities we serve”, and “To
promote environmental sustainability in all that we do”.
[41] “Establish a centralized location for plans, programs, and activities that include extension activities in Frankfort city and the
Frankfort area”; “Augment the University’s community relations role in Frankfort and the Commonwealth”; “Support the
University’s brand by deepening business and educational relationships with additional Frankfort businesses and government
agencies”; “Support the University’s goals 2 and 3 by establishing a unit that provides financial returns to the University”, and
“Support the University’s other strategic goals by enhancing the impact of the University in the community, thus, improving
student enrollment and the quality of KSU’s campus life”.
[34] “Knowledge and learning are for everyone”; “Openness enhances scientific research and collaboration”; “Our University is the
best place to study and work”; “Our University is a leader in responsibility and sustainability”.
522 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
3. Research objectives
In this research, our objectives are [to]:
• discuss the most settled goals for several HEIs,
• propose the technique of performance-related
goals for assessing HEIs,
• examine and realize the mechanisms of refining
the “goals” of HEIs,
• clarify the strong relationship between IC and
the performance of HEIs,
• estimate and discuss the performance of the
private HEIs in accordance with the overall per-
formance and the performance of each goal, and
• study the practical results and determine their
level of “reliability”, “efficiency”, “significance,
“relationship” and “solidity”.
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• discuss some of the expected problems.
4. The tools and methods
4.1. Assuring the technique of
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performance-related goals
Several international practices with respect to the
methods of monitoring and evaluating the perfor-
mance of HEIs numerically were studied. It may
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be worthwhile mentioning that the national com-
prehensive exercises are not available. After a long
debate, it was eventually agreed that the technique of
performance-related goals of HEIs is preferred.
As it was mentioned in Sections 1 and 2, the issue of
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structuring the goals of HEIs in any institutional strat-
egy is well-known, and assessing the performance of
HEIs through assessing the levels of achieving these
goals is an international phenomenon and used for
auditing and development. Nevertheless, we believe
that it is necessary to obtain the views of an elite aca-
demic body on their understanding of this technique
and its applicability in Oman.
In order to assure the technique of performance-
related goals of HEIs, the main question related to
the proposed technique is developed and split into
four secondary questions, each of which are to be
assessed. The main question is,
MQ: Based on your experience, what is the impor-
tance of evaluating the performance of HEIs in
terms of assessing the level of achievement of
their goals?
For the problem of assessing the main and sec-
ondary questions, a survey was prepared, edited and
disseminated to 77 teaching staff from HEIs to gauge
the secondary questions. The secondary questions
are:
SQ1: Based on your experience, what is the pos-
sibility of evaluating the performance of your
institution in terms of assessing the level of
achievement of its goals?
SQ2: Based on your experience, what is the possi-
bility of splitting the goals of your institution into
objectives in order to assess the level of achieve-
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ment of the goals?
SQ3: Based on your experience, what is the possi-
bility of splitting the objectives of your institution
into indicators in order to assess the level of
achievement of the objectives of your institution?
SQ4: What is the possibility of measuring the
indicators of your institution in order to evaluate
the performance of your institution?
In order to measure the respondents’ opinion, the
five-level Likert scale: (1) Strongly disagree; (2) Dis-
agree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5)
Strongly agree, is used in this survey. The survey was
designed, evaluated and disseminated to a sample of
77 senior “academic staff” from most of the HEIs in
Oman. The completed surveys were collected from
64 respondents and the results of the surveys were
analyzed.
For the purpose of clarifying the results of the
survey, it is necessary to rely on the answers of
the respondents in calculating the weighted aver-
ages and percentages, because they are accurate,
simple and understandable measures. The number
of respondents to the survey, weighted average and
the proportion based on the above scale is given by
Table 2 below,
It may be worthwhile mentioning that the weighted
average and the proportion of each question are cal-
culated by the equations:
Weighted Average = {(1x number of respondents
of Strongly disagree) + (2 x number of respondents
of Disagree) + (3 x number of respondents of Nei-
ther agree nor disagree) + (4 x number of respondents
of Agree) + (5 x number of respondents of Strongly
agree)} / 77.
And
Percentage = {[(1x number of respondents of
Strongly disagree) + (2 x number of respondents of
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital 523

Table 2
The number respondents of the survey, weighted averages and proportions based the five-level Likert scale

SQ Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly Averages Percentages

disagree nor disagree agree
SQ1 0 1 0 16 58 4.62 92.73%
SQ2 2 1 1 22 49 4.42 88.31%
SQ3 1 2 2 32 38 4.27 85.46%
SQ4 1 2 2 32 38 4.27 85.46%

Disagree) + (3 x number of respondents of Neither of Oman [38]. It was simulated by global

agree nor disagree) + (4 x number of respondents practices and has to be coordinated with the

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of Agree) + (5 x number of respondents of Strongly vision and mission of HEIs.
agree)] /(77x5)}x100 – Goals have to be wide or bulk, and thus they
are not easy to be gauged [14, 24, 40, 46, 61].
Table 2 shows that the weighted averages (and
Step 2: A set of goals have been proposed on the
the proportions) of the respondents rating of the
bases of The Education Strategy – 2040 of Oman.

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secondary questions are equal respectively to 4.62,
Moreover, the proposed set of goals was suscep-
4.42, 4.27 and 4.27 and the corresponding percent-
tible to a lengthy debate with the stakeholders of
ages of the respondents rating of the same secondary
HEIs.
questions are equal to 92.73%, 88.31%, 85.46% and
Step 3: In order to study the characteristics of
85.46% respectively. These results show a high level
the proposed goals (“specific”, “clarity”, “impor-
of acceptance of the implementation of the proposal
tance” and “approbation” of goals, the proposed
of the technique of performance-related goals of
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set was investigated, reviewed by a group of “aca-
HEIs.
demic staff” from HEIs and revised in [29, 30].
In order to handle the second issue/ problem of
4.2. Deriving and implementing the strategic the research, i.e. how the goals and the process can
goals be implemented, the following steps have been
taken:
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In the last Section, the survey shows that the pro-
posal of the technique of performance-related goals
of HEIs has been assured. In this Section, the pro-
cesses of refining and implementing the goals are to
be discussed.
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Step 4: Each goal was divided into many statistical
indicators. It may be worthwhile mentioning that
the goals were refined to 116 statistical indicators
(ibid).
Step 5: The total weight of overall performance

Several strategic goals of international institutions
are reviewed in Section 2. For measuring the perfor-
mance, progress and achievement of HEIs in Oman,
the goals of HEIs have to be derived and should be
confirmed. The methodology of this paper will man-
age briefly the issues/ problems of how to derive the
goals for HEIs from some resources and how the goals
and the process can be implemented. The following
steps were taken:
Step 1: In order to propose goals for HEIs, several
papers on how to write the performance-related
goals/objectives of HEIs were studied. It is worth
mentioning that in this paper we have considered
the following two principles in constructing the
goals:
– The Goals of HEIs in Oman should be drawn
from the national policy of the Sultanate
and the weight of goals, and the scale of measure-
ments of each goal/indicator have been proposed
and discussed with many experts and HEIs, and
thus subsequently modified. It may be worth-
while mentioning that HEIs were divided into two
categories (university colleges and colleges) on
the bases of many important factors. The weight
of the overall performance was assigned (1000
points) for each of the HEIs (university college
(UC)/college (U)), and the weights of the goals for
university college/ college are given in Table 3.
4.3. Population and sample
The framework of this research constitutes the total
number of government and private HEIs in Oman.
Typically, the “population” should be chosen on the
524 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
Table 3
Weight of Goals (w(gj ))
G UC
G1 200
G2 450
G3 100
G4 100
G5 150
Total 1000
basis of the framework of the research, and thus
the framework of the research contains all HEIs in
Oman (10 government HEIs, 6 government technical
colleges, 15 government institutes of health, and 40
private HEIs). In this research, because of the bulk and
diversity of the population, the private HEIs are iden-
tified as the population of the study. It may be worth
mentioning that 6 HEIs were exempted because they
were only just started at the time of implementation
and 4 did not support the data of this research.
In order to compute the qualitative indicators of
the goals, the percentage of partecipants) from stu-
OR
dents/academic staff) from the population of HEIs is
about 11%, i.e the size of the sample is 4571 stu-
dents and academic staff members which consists of
3689 students and 882 academic staff members. It
may be worthwhile mentioninng that the population
TH
of this study is 42188 (40281 students and 1907 aca-
demic staff); and the sample size of the academic staff
is very high)about 46%) because the number of aca-
demic staff in some academic programs is very small,
and it is not possible to take a sample from it, and for
AU
the purpose of studying their opinions, the majority
of them were selected in the sample.
In addition, the total sample of this study is divided
into sub-samples (stratified random samples) taken
from each institution/program randomly. It may be
remarked here that, the MoHERI has data bases for
collecting diferente types of data from the private and
goverment HEIs regarding the students, non-acdemic
staff, academic staff, resources, activities, etc.
Regarding the 10 non-participated HEIs in this
study. it was mentioned that 6 HEIs were exempted
because they were only just started at the time of
implementation, and 4 institutions have apologized
for not participating, because of the lack of time and
the lack of statisticians to help in collecting the data
of the indicators which were required for the study.
It is useful to clarify that there are no actual
national studies related to the problem of measuring
the performance of HEIs in Oman that included the
process of collecting data from the HEIs.
C
It may be worth mentioning, because of this
research is dealing with the derivation of goals of
200
HEIs, the development of quantitative indicators,
550
sampling and data collection technique, that a com-
50
prehensive plan has been developed that explains
50
some of its steps through the Sections of this paper
150
and includes the following:
1000
a. “Identify potential or available sources of data”,
b. “Generate a list of data collection options”,
c. “Decide on an appropriate data collection
PY
option”,
d. “Select and develop a data collection tool”,
e. “Develop and implement a system for collecting
data on a continuing basis” (see [62], page 7),
f. Develop some accurate equations for calculat-
CO
ing the performance, and
g. Decide on appropriate statistical measures and
techniques to analyze the performance.
5. The proposed goals
In the last Section, the proposal of the technique
of performance-related goals of HEIs was assured
through the main and four secondary questions,
and the processes of refining and implementing the
“goals” of HEIs of Oman were discussed.
This section provides the derived goals, which rep-
resents the second stage of the methodology. The
description of each goal is as follows.
Goal 1: “To promote access and admission
to higher education”. It may be possible to
describe access and admission in two dimensions:
“through participation if the policy of ensuring
that students are able to enter and commence
study at an institution of higher education is
ensured. A&A with success goes a step further,
defining true access as completion of a degree or
certificate program that prepares one for a voca-
tion” [45].
Goal 2: “To develop a culture of academic excel-
lence and achievement among undergraduate and
graduate students”. Academic excellence may be
described as “excellence in teaching and learning
in the context of an overall case for excellence,
and will show exceptional quality over a range
of activities. Promotion will be achieved on the
basis of outstanding contributions to leadership in
teaching and learning”. “Excellent performance”
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital 525

in teaching and related administration is also an about Organizational/Structural Capital and 21

essential prerequisite” [26–30, 39]. indicators about Relational Capital.
Goal 3: “To form themselves into a centre which 2. Some of the proposed IC models for HEIs in the
has the highest academic standards and excellence world with applications are:
of research”. Excellence in research should be “in
Fazlagić, [14] (is based on Human Capital,
the context of an overall case for excellence, and
Structural Capital and Customer Capital); Leit-
will demonstrate work of originality which has
ner, et al., [15]; Leitner [16]; Sánchez, et al., [4,
made an observable impact on the subject”.
18, 19]; Sánchez-Torres et al., [20]; Chu et al.,
Goal 4: “To enhance institutional internation-
[13]; Malhotra, [3]; Al-Hemyari and Al-Sarmi
alization”. The typical and common (“widely-
[9] (are based on Human Capital, Structural
cited”) definition of “higher education interna-
Capital and Relational Capital) and Najar, et
tionalization” is “the process of integrating an
al., [17] (is based On Human Capital, Orga-

PY
international / intercultural dimension into the
nizational Capital, Technological Capital, and
teaching, research and service functions of the
Relational Capital).
institution” [22]. It may also refer to “the pro-
cess of integrating the institution and its students, 3. Most of the proposed IC models in the literature
faculty and staff into a globalizing world” [22]. of IC have neither given nor implemented any

CO
Goal 5: “To promote community engagement”. of the numerical results of the IC indicators.
“Community engagement” means the level and
variety of connections between HEIs and the
community. It “describes collaboration between 6. The acquisition of data
institutions of higher education and their larger
It is well-known that “one of the connections
communities (local, national, global) for the
between strategic planning and continuous quality
mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and
OR
improvement is the reliance on data as the basis for
resources in a context of partnership and reci-
decision-making” [32] (p. 8). At the same time, one of
procity” [61].
the well-known problems with HEIs in the develop-
ing countries is the lack of capable databases. In fact,
it was planned that the process of acquisition of the
5.1. Remarks
data from HEIs would be by using successive steps.
TH

Therefore, we had used the following main ways:

1. In this paper there are five goals to be mea-
sured and studied, where each goal is split into
several indicators. In fact, each goal contains
some indicators related to IC. Specifically, and
AU
a. The Statistical System of the Ministry of
Higher Education (MoHERI) contains different
information on students, academic staff, non-

based on data availability in HEIs, there are 15
indicators developed about the Human Capi-
tal (Average class size; Student-Instructor ratio;
Student-Administration staff ratio; IT support
staff in relation to all students and staff; Total
number of computers in relation to all students;
Ph.D. holders in relation to total academic staff;
Total number professors and associate profes-
sors in relation to total academic staff; The
total number of funded research proposals in
relation to total research projects and papers
of the institution; The institution’s budget allo-
cated to conference participation in relation to
total budget; The institution’s budget for aca-
demic staff training and development in relation
to total budget; The institution’s budget for
non-academic staff training and development in
relation to total budget; . . . etc), 24 indicators
academic /administrative staff, many institu-
tional activities; national/international patents,
student appeals, number of text books, building
areas, laboratories’ area, library area, student
hostels, sport fields, . . . etc. This information is
used to check the second method of collecting
data.
b. The second method of collecting data was con-
cerned with self- reported data, data which is
collected and submitted by all private HEIs. This
channel provided data for most of the quan-
titative indicators. The implementation of this
channel involved the following sub-steps:
i. A workshop for all private HEIs was orga-
nized to satisfy the intentions:
– Discussing the proposed package of
goals, objectives and performance indi-
cators.
526 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
– Identifying a contact person at HEIs as
the point of connection for the research.
– Distributing the list of PIs to all HEIs,
where the precise form of the data col-
lection has been specified for each of the
PIs.
ii. Finally, the self-reported data were sub-
ject to many actions of data cleaning, after
which they were discussed with the contact
persons of the HEIs.
iii. In order to obtain a high level of inter-
action and co-operation, completion and
submission of the self-reported data, the
HEIs were given sufficient time to submit
the self-reported data.
c. In this research whenever data is required to
be collected for the qualitative/ indicators, the
CO
sample size taken represents about 11% of the
population. It may be noted here, that the sur-
veys were designed in [26] and applied in this
research.
Remark: It may be noted here, that the raw data of
the 116 indicators from HEIs are collected and avail-
OR
able on the website of MoHERI Oman (and submitted
to the editor).
7. Data detecting and cleansing
TH
The analytical process of the data collected in this
project comprises many steps, whereas the data clean-
ing constitutes an important and major step of the
process. As mentioned earlier, the process of data
AU
acquisition from HEIs has used two channels. In this
research, the most proposed indicators are quantity
indicators; and because of the lack of databases of the
HE sector; the self-reported data was mainly used.
For the problem of analyzing the data precisely, an
appropriate screening process, controlling sampling
error and non-sampling error (coverage error, non-
response error, response error and processing error)
have to be considered and developed ([63]).
For the problem of controlling the sampling and
non-sampling errors, the following actions were
taken and to be discussed briefly:
• To minimize the response errors in the self-
report data of private HEIs, the definitions
of indicators, scale of measurements and the
required data for indicators of each goal were
supplied as a glossary to all private HEIs.
• To minimize the non-response error, i.e. the
problem of failure to get data from the HEIs;
direct communications and regular meetings
were convened between the contact persons and
the research team.
• In the case of collecting data for qualitative indi-
cators, the coverage error and sampling error had
to be controlled. For this purpose, the following
actions were applied: selecting samples from all
academic programs, representing all the study
variables (gender, year of study, age of student,
level of study etc), implementing a random strat-
PY
ification protocol and using larger sample sizes,
whenever possible.
• The data was checked by using many mea-
sures of exploratory data mining [63]. Also, any
activity with anomalous data was diagnosed and
isolated for further clarification with HEIs.
• The data was compared between HEIs (pair wise
and multiple; within HEIs) and a cross-check
was used, where possible.
8. The practical results
In previous Sections the acquisition of data and
data detecting and cleansing, were explained respec-
tively. As mentioned earlier in previous Sections,
each goal was divided into many components/
indicators [29, 30], and the row data of the 116 Ind
(indicators) from HEIs are collected and available on
the website of MoHERI, Oman (and submitted to the
editor).The final results (estimators) of the indica-
tors, goals and of the overall performance of each of
the HEIs are obtained by combining the results of the
related indicators, weights (Table 3) and applying the
index-equations 1–3 below, given in Tables 4 & 5 and
presented in this Section.
The above measures of HEIs were achieved by
SPSS Statistics-22 and hereby given as numerical
values in Tables 4 and 5.
8.1. The practical results of the overall
performance
In order to compute the overall performance of
HEIs, the performance of each goal in any of
the HEIs, and the “average” (estimated mean) of
each goal, three equations have been developed are
explained below.
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital 527

Table 4 The overall performance of an HEI j is computed

shows that the overall performance of HEIs by the following equation,
HEIs 
OP HEIs 
OP HEIs 
OP 
5
j =
OP P(gij ) × w(gi ), i = 1, 2, ...5,
HEI 1 608.719 HEI 11 696.934 HEI 21 503.587
i=1 (1)
HEI 2 459.629 HEI 12 536.633 HEI 22 577.969
HEI 3 467.586 HEI 13 539.765 HEI 23 602.346 j = 1, 2, ...30,
HEI 4 467.114 HEI 14 585.252 HEI 24 483.139
HEI 5 628.376 HEI 15 524.222 HEI 25 536.420
where P(gij ) represents the performance of each goal
HEI 6 428.629 HEI 16 541.652 HEI 26 697.439
(G) i in institution j and w(gi ) represents the corre-
HEI 7 478.933 HEI 17 438.247 HEI 27 458.341
sponding weight (Table 3). The average (estimated
HEI 8 594.681 HEI 18 562.834 HEI 28 540.494
mean) of the overall performance is computed by,
⎛ ⎞
HEI 9 645.033 HEI 19 589.829 HEI 29 584.964 30

PY
HEI 10 634.729 HEI 20 575.875 HEI 30 490.052 OP = ⎝  j /30⎠ =
OP
Average 548.029 j=1
⎛ ⎞ (2)
30 
5
Table 5 ⎝ P(gij ) × w(gi )⎠ /30.

CO
Shows the performance of each goal of HEIs j=1 i=1

HEI G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 Finally, the “average” (estimated mean) of each

1 138.8 285.72 52.2 65.4 66.6 goal (G) is computed by,
2 104.4 261.23 25.4 6.4 62.2 
30
3 111.8 264.99 25.4 6.4 59 P̄i = P(gij )/30, i = 1, 2, ...5, j = 1, 2, ...30.
4 111.8 260.31 25.4 10.6 59 j=1
OR
5 161.8 382.98 17.4 4.8 61.4 (3)
6 105.8 256.83 9.6 15.6 40.8 Tables 4 and 5 show that the overall performance
7 103.6 293.53 22.4 3.2 56.2 of HEIs and the performance of each goal for HEIj ,
8 156.2 244.28 58 51.8 84.4 j = 1,2, . . . ,30.
9 133 358.03 29.4 33.2 91.4
i. It has been noticed from Table 4 that the over-
TH

10 165 249.53 66 56.6 97.6

all performance of HEIs and the performance of
11 150.4 372.13 39.2 27.2 108
each goal varied from 428.630 to 697.439.
12 109 265.63 39.6 48 74.4
ii. The average of overall performance as a national
13 125.8 264.97 40 43.2 65.8
standard for private HEIs is equal to 540 out of
14 112.8 345.25 28.4 22.8 76
1000. This shows that the national value was an
AU

15 141.2 236.62 39.4 31.6 75.4

average.
16 133 317.85 5.6 14.4 71
iii. Based on the same Table, the overall perfor-
17 150 183.05 14 31 60.2
mance of the HEIs may be classified into four
18 134.2 334.83 29 17.4 47.4
sets: the first set: (below average < μ̂): {HEIs:
19 163.4 229.23 39.6 69 88.6
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28,
20 154.8 240.28 75.6 38.6 66.6
30}, the second set: (were “average and above
21 110.4 307.99 7 22.4 55.8
average” ([μ̂-Std. Deviation ≤ OP  j < μ̂ + Std.
22 142.8 362.17 15.6 11.6 45.8
23 82 399.55 26.8 37.2 56.8 Deviation])): {HEIs: 1, 8, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23,
24 124.2 278.14 19 8.4 53.4 29}, the third set: (good ([μ̂ + Std. Deviation≤
25 131.8 316.02 4.2 2.4 82
 j < μ̂ + 2 Std. Deviation])): {HEIs: 5,9,10}
OP
26 189 307.24 56.2 66 79 and the fourth set: (very good ([OP  j ≥ μ̂ + 2Std.
27 154 222.94 27 0 54.4 Deviation])): {HEIs: 11, 26}.
28 154.6 226.49 52 47 60.4
29 152.4 335.36 11.8 26.2 58.4 8.2. The practical results of the goals
30 163.2 224.05 31.6 13.8 57.4
Mean 135.71 287.58 29.35 27.74 67.18 iv. The average and results of G 1 are shown
in Table 5. The average was 135.707 and
528 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
performance of most HEIs was ≥ average and
varied from 82 to189.
v. The performance of HEIs in accordance with G
2 was high (287.57) and varied from 183.05 to
399.55 and the performance of half of the HEIs
was good (Table 5).
vi. We observed that the performance of most of
HEIs in accordance with G 3 was below the
average (29.353) and ranged from 7 to 75.5
(Table 5).
vii. The results of Goal 4 for the thirty HEIs are
given in Table 5. The Table shows that the per-
formance of 13 HEIs was equal to or greater
than the average (27.740) and the results of this
Goal ranged from 0 to 68.
viii. The performance of Goal 5 for the 30 HEIs, is
given in Table 5. Table 5, shows that the perfor-
CO
mance ranged from 40.800 to 108 and that there
were 12 HEIs which had performance equal to
or greater than to the average (67.180).
ix. The results show that the performance of
IC indicators as well as the results of the
Human, Organizational, and Relational Capi-
tals of HEIs is almost average, which is quite
OR
satisfactory if we know that the attention paid
to this issue in most developing countries is
simple.
x. Regarding the HEIs, 15 out of 30 HEIs achieved
performance average or more than average in
TH
overall IC indicators, and another 15 achieved
below the average in overall IC indicators.
9. Statistical analysis of the practical results
AU
The theoretical bases of qualitative measurement
and quality processes of any practical results require
testing, screening, evaluating, and addressing ques-
tions such as: How stable are the measurement scales?
How efficient are our estimation processes? How
good and accurate are the practical results?
For the studying of the problems which are
addressed in the above questions, i.e. to emphasize
the efficiency, significance, relationship, substance
and solidity of the practical results, the following
statistical tests and methods were demonstrated.
9.1. Hypotheses testing
For the problem of investigating the variation in the
practical results of the overall performance and each
goal, the T-test can be developed. It is well-known
that the T-test is applied to determine the significance
of the differences in a sample. In addition, the data
should include one continuous variable, which is sim-
ilar to what we have in this research, i.e. 30 values
for overall performance of HEIs and the performance
for each goal of 30 HEIs. Moreover, one of our pur-
poses is to find out the significance of the differences
between the results of the HEIs.
The hypothesis in a T-test is that the results of the
overall performance and all goals of the 30 HEIs are
being compared so as to achieve the same results.
The hypothesis is denoted by H0 : ␮i = Wi , against
H1 : ␮i =/ Wi , i = 1,2,3,4,5,6 where μi represents the
PY
mean of ith factor (the overall performance and the
five goals) and Wi , represents the test value (weight)
of each factor (see Table 3).
The analytical results of the T-test for the overall
performance and the five goals show that all the above
null hypotheses are rejected (Sig. values (p) = 0.000).
The results show that there were significant differ-
ences among the results of the 30 HEIs with respect
to the overall performance and the five goals.
9.2. Correlation coefficients analysis
In this section, we are concerned with detect-
ing the level of the simple correlation between the
overall performance and each goal of the results
of the 30 HEIs. In other words, to be sure that
there is a significant relationship between the over-
all performance and each goal or not, the correlation
coefficients (η) were computed and tested by the fol-
lowing hypothesis, H0 :ηoxi = 0, against H0 :ηoxi = / 0,
where 0 represents the overall performance and i
represents the ith goal. The results of the Pearson cor-
relation coefficients between the overall performance
and each goal are equal to 0.467,0.564,0.465,0.557,
and 0.650 respectively with the significance values
(p) ranging from 0.000 to 0.008. It is realized that
there were good values of ηoxi and there were highly
significant relations between the overall performance
and the results of each “goal” of the 30 HEIs.
It is good to have a high and significant correlation
coefficient between the results of each goal and the
overall performance of HEIs. Also, the above results
of the correlation coefficient are good, especially with
highly significant probability to show that the mean-
ings of these results are substantial. At the same time,
it is not possible statistically to obtain a very high
correlation coefficient because the combined goals
constitute the general performance, and this is what
Table No. 7 shows in its last line.
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital 529

9.3. Stepwise regression analysis Table 6

Method of Stepwise regression
In this study, we are much involved in studying M Variables Entered
the possibility of modelling the relation between the
1 G4
overall performance and the five goals. Unequiv-
2 G2
ocally, there is a number of multiple regression
3 G3
methods in the literature of modeling which can be
4 G1
used.
5 G5
The “Stepwise Multiple Regression Method” is
one of the efficient techniques used for building a
“multiple linear model” between a dependent vari-
Table 7
able and a set of independent variables in accordance
Model Summary

PY
with a number of estimation and testing rules [64].
In addition, the stepwise method usually chooses the M R R2 F Change Sig.
best predictors from a set of independent variables F Change
(the goals in this research) to predict the values of a 1 0.650 0.423 21.260 0.000
dependent variable (the overall performance). 2 0.831 0.691 24.205 0.000

CO
It may be worthy of mention that there are many 3 0.934 0.873 38.854 0.000
applications in most of the academic disciplines 4 0.982 0.964 64.979 0.000
(science, education, engineering . . . etc.), which are 5 1.000 1.000 178076.49 0.000
dedicated to “the topic of modelling of the linear
regression model in trying to describe how variables
are related” (ibid). Table 8
In fact, in the topic of model building, the main aim ANOVA
OR
of the researchers is to detect a statistical model that M Item Sum of Squares df F ratio (p)
is appropriate to represent the phenomenon on the 1 Regression 64943.71 1 21.260 0.000
basis of a set of data of the phenomenon and which Residual 88588.233 29
can be generalized and used as a predictive model for Total 153531.94 30
the phenomenon in future. 2 Regression 106017.45 2 31.238 0.000
TH

In addition, the goal and the effort of the process Residual 47514.495 28
of model building are achieved if the error of the pre- Total 153531.94 30
diction values is small, which completely depends on 3 Regression 134051.06 3 61.930 0.000
the quality of the collected data and the estimation Residual 19480.883 27
procedure of the unknown parameters of the model. Total 153531.94 30
AU

4 Regression 147964.69 4 172.755 0.000

In this paper, we studied the overall performance
Residual 5567.246 26
and the performance of the five goals. To complete
Total 153531.94 30
the study, we tried to find a good forecasting model 5 Regression 153531.16 5 982321.597 0.000
for the overall performance as dependent variables Residual 0.781 25
and as a linear function of the five goals by using the Total 153531.94 30
stepwise regression approach. In each step/model of
the approach, the multiple correlation coefficients R2 ,
analyses of variance, significance values and estimat- Table 7 shows the computed values of multiple cor-
ing the unknown parameters in each step/model were relations R (second column), multiple correlations R2
calculated. (third column), R2 change, and the values of the crite-
The outcomes of the stepwise regression approach rion F change are good and increasing with the moved
are presented in Tables 6–9 (in the appendix). Table 6 variables (std. error of the estimate and R2 change
shows that the five steps of the approach are given which are decreasing functions of the models). It
as five models and the entered variables/ removed is really interesting to observe that R = 1 (R2 = 1) in
variables on the bases of cumulative R2 of each goal model 5.
(goal 4, goal 2, goal 3, goal 1 and goal 5) and the Table 7 also shows the most important results (in
probability of significance (0.05) are also presented. the last column), which are the values of Sig. F
In Tables 6–9, M stands for Model of stepwise. Change. Sig. F Change values are highly significant
530 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital

Table 9 all the independent variables (goals) are important

Coefficients predictors for the dependent variable (the overall per-
M Item β Std. Error (p) formance). The final estimated regression model may
be constructed on the basis of model no. 5 in Table 9.
1 Constant 347.822 44.804 0.000
G5 2.999 0.650 0.000
2 Constant 162.909 50.277 0.003 10. Concluding remarks
G5 2.821 0.486 0.000
The technique of performance-related goals of
G2 0.685 0.139 0.000
HEIs was proposed in this paper and confirmed by
3 Constant 106.709 34.001 0.004
assessing four secondary questions through collect-
G5 1.678 0.366 0.000
ing the opinions of a sample of 77 senior “academic
G2 0.923 0.098 0.000
staff”. The process of refining the goals of HEIs was
G3 2.070 0.332 0.000

PY
discussed, and the goals of HEIs were refined. In
4 Constant –16.100 23.983 0.508
addition, tools and methods of measurement were
G5 1.271 0.206 0.000
proposed and a flexible framework/ methodology of
G2 0.996 0.054 0.000
the problem was developed. The practical problem
G3 1.671 0.188 0.000
of assessing the overall performance and the perfor-
G1 1.043 0.129 0.000

CO
mance of the goals of HEIs were discussed.
5 Constant –0.171 0.292 0.565
Five broad goals were defined and studied. The
G5 0.998 0.003 0.000
framework, data collection from 30 HEIs, data clean-
G2 1.000 0.001 0.000
ing and data analyses were proposed. An interesting
G3 0.998 0.003 0.000
likelihood is to develop a flexible methodology and
G1 1.002 0.002 0.000
feasible policy for assessing the performance of HEIs.
G4 1.002 0.002 0.000
The performance of HEIs was estimated, discussed
OR
and compared in accordance with the overall per-
formance and the results of each goal in order to
(0.000), which gives signals to the improvement pro- search for the best HEI. In addition, the performance
cess in model building; and it is significant in all of HEIs was placed into four categories. In fact, the
models. performance of a few HEIs was very good.
TH

The analyses of the tests of ANOVA for the 5 mod-
els are given in Table 8 (in the appendix). Table 8
indicates very robust results that show that the resid-
ual is a sharply “decreasing function” with the models
(the F ratio is an increasing function with the mod-
AU
The statistical approach, analyzes and tests the
practical results which have been developed in this
paper through reliability analyses, hypotheses test-
ing, correlation coefficient and stepwise regression
analysis. The results of statistical measures indicate

els), and there were highly significant differences in
each model (Sig. values (p) = 0.000).
Finally, Table 9 gives the results of the estimation
values of the unknown parameters of each model and
the results of testing the significance of the parameters
of each model.
It is interesting to observe that the constant term
of each model is decreasing, whereas the estimated
values of each of the parameters of all goals in each
model are tested and accepted with high probability
(the rejection probability (p) = 0.000). Table 9 (in the
appendix) shows that the best fitted model is model
no. 5 - this being on the basis of the results (F Change
and F ratio respectively) of Tables 7 and 8 which show
the smallest values of std. error (column 4, Table 8)
in comparison to the other models.
In addition, by concentrating on model 5 of Table 9
(ignore the row of constant), we will notice that
very robust results which are highly significant of the
actual practical results (Tables 4 &5).
A clear statement regarding the main objective
of data analyses is identified. The findings show
that practical results (see Sections 9.1 and 9.2 and
Tables 6–9) are significant, reliable, correlate and
confident. Moreover, comparing the modeling and
testing procedures used in this paper with those used
in existing literature shows that developed tests dom-
inated the others.
It is worth noting that this study of IC indicators
has been developed for the first time in Oman, with
a good number of IC indicators being implemented
in 30 HEIs, and, that these HEIs have been informed
about their results. The results were average; and their
being so were due to several reasons, including the
lack of databases of complete data in the HEIs of
IC indicators, and the weak level of attention paid
 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
in HEIs concerning this matter. But in general, the
research has achieved important results, which are in
bringing the HEIs’ attention to the importance of IC
issues - especially to IC indicators for HEIs, and, that
this research is considered as an attempt to activate
the HEIs databases to be more effective.
Thus, the theoretical approach proposed in this
paper is examined and there are many insights into
its applicability; and these should be used by HEIs
for internal auditing. Furthermore, the gains of the
practical results of this paper are very important and
have to be considered by the private HEIs for future
improvement in their achievement and performance.
11. Expected problems and dilemmas
In this section, some important issues are explained
CO
to exemplify some expected practical problems that
appear when working with the problem of assessing
the performance of private HEIs. Some suggestions
and recommendations have also been discussed with
regard to where they might be used in future applica-
tions intended to increase the efficiency of the results.
OR
• In this paper, many important educational activ-
ities are studied and estimated, while some other
important activities are not considered for some
purposes, e.g. availability of databases or the
difficulties in assessing these activities. Thus,
TH
it may be necessary to consider a number of
other activities in future implementation. This
is a challenging task.
• Excellence of some educational activities
(institutional facilities, research, and interna-
AU
tionalization) may have been achieved but only
with high funding/costs. In fact, private HEIs are
funded by private authorities, fees and govern-
ment. Yet, the policies and the limited resources
of private HEIs in developing countries may pre-
clude the achievement of the excellence of some
activities. This is another challenging task.
• Private HEIs in many countries offer different
programs. The second goal (to form themselves
into a center which has the highest academic
standards and excellence of research) may not fit
properly with the objectives of some programs
like music, drawing, stitching, . . .
• Most national databases collected data from
HEIs annually. These databases suffer from
two main problems. Firstly, the information in
these databases has not been collected prop-
erly. Secondly, the collected data usually are
531
in different educational configurations. Using
these databases is very difficult to understand
and analyzing the data of these databases is a
complex task.
• Proposing the central theoretical approach for
assessing private HEIs in developing countries,
sometimes is not acceptable because of the find-
ings of such an approach affecting the marketing
purposes of the HEIs. For this reason, and as
an agreement between the HEIs and the MoHE
regarding naming the HEIs, has been forged,
thus the explicit names of HEIs are not given
PY
in this paper.
• Private HEIs are not similar in terms of their
buildings, laboratories and classrooms. They are
managed by one shift of staff, and sometimes by
the same, and at other times by different shift(s)
of students. These problems definitely affect
the computations of some indicators/activities,
which is called “school crowdedness”. These are
measured in square meters and are related to the
size of buildings, sports fields, library, students
per laboratories and classrooms.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to Mr. Francis Andrew,
Polyglot Institute Ibri, Oman, for proofreading the
paper. The authors are also thankful to the editor and
the anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions
that helped to improve this article.
The research has not received any funding source.
Author contributions
CONCEPTION: Al-Hemyari and Al Sarmi
METHODOLOGY: Al-Hemyari and Al Sarmi
DATA COLLECTION: Al-Hemyari
INTERPRETATION OR ANALYSIS OF DATA: Al-
Hemyari
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: Al-
Hemyari and Al Sarmi
REVISION FOR IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL
CONTENT: Al-Hemyari and Al Sarmi
SUPERVISION: Al-Hemyari and Al Sarmi
Supplementary materials
The data of this paper is available on the web-
site of MoHERI, Oman. https://www.moheri.gov.om/
userupload/PDFs/1515.pdf
532 Z.A. Al-Hemyari and A.M. AlSarmi / A developmental engine for intellectual capital
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