UNDERSTANDING UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT USING SYSTEM DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS, A REVIEW BASED ON RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

Abstract

University management implies a great variety of decisions that need to be made in order to maintain financially affordable programs that successfully meet the educational demand and thus achieving a generally understood goal which is that the University works as a self-sustainable system. The Systems Thinking research group (GPS) has developed a variety of projects which main purpose was to use System Dynamics modeling to support University management at Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga. A detailed revision of these projects is presented to distinguish common objectives, methods and strategies, organizational learning experiences and along with them, a variety of uses of System dynamics tools that are to be discussed leading towards an extensive reflection about organizational complexities beyond management strategies.