ABSTRACT
Despite voluminous research on higher education, very little attention has been paid to the strategies pursued by institutions in this industry. Institutions of higher education are normally viewed as a “black box” into which resources flow and out of which various products such as degrees or research are generated. Like most large organizations, institutions of higher education have strategies. As a basic definition, a strategy means to set goals, make plans for achieving them, and set indicators or benchmarks to assess achievement of these goals. Such a strategy is instrumental in allowing an institution to meet its underlying objective of profit or revenue maximization. Identifying institutional strategies helps us understand the ways the sector as a whole operates and responds to changes in its operating environment.
