Measures of efficiency and effectiveness as indicators of quality: a systems approach

The focus of this paper is to examine the systematic use of benchmarks for evaluating educational efficiency and effectiveness and a good practice model for system implementation. Put in the simplest terms, ‘Efficiency’ is a measure of the work-rate of a process by which system inputs are turned into system outputs. ‘Effectiveness’ on the other hand is considered to be a measure of the ‘quality’ of the outcomes being achieved by the system. This paper argues that effectiveness can really only be defined through the application of some qualitative ‘fitness-for-purpose’ criteria – and that together with some key efficiency measures, these indicators can be used as proxies for the measurement of quality. The paper looks at work being done at Swinburne University of Technology Australia, which uses a combination of ‘criterion reference’ and ‘quantitative’ benchmarks to measure both efficiency and effectiveness, in a planned program of institutional self-review.