University as education provider to community: applying theory-based impact evaluation (TBIE) approach

Abstract

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was established in 1972 and is one of the well known Research Universities (RU) in Malaysia. With a large number of postgraduate and undergraduate students—which are 13,780 and 11,392 respectively, the numbers show the role of UTM in providing the local community and nation with access to quality educational programmes. However, just mere numbers could not determine the outcome and impact of UTM as a quality education provider to the community. The following questions cannot be answered by enrolment statistics alone. For example, (i) Are UTM graduates well educated and equipped with other life skills other than academic knowledge? (ii) Do parents see the differences in UTM’s graduates before and after their children studying in UTM? (iii) Do UTM graduates meet the requirements or needs of the industry? All of these questions could be answered through an impact study using the well-established Theory Based Impact Evaluation (TBIE) framework. This conceptual paper summarises the steps involved in applying TBIE to investigate the impact of UTM as an education provider to the community.