The continous process of planning an academic program and the institutional development plan

Abstract

The development of an academic program and of an educational organization requires essential documents to guide its advance and to define with prospective criteria the parameters within which it must progress. Therefore it is necessary to exercise the planning abilities of all the groups that integrate the organization establishing continuous development of plans flexible enough to be adapted to all the changing conditions of the modern world. This planning effort viewed as a continuous process has been carried out by the Faculty of Agri business Administration of La Salle University lt has been divided into a number of stages, starting with the essential work of self evaluation, and continuing on to the planning stage within a holistic approach, the elaboration of an improvement plan as part of the University's accreditation project, and the proposal of the planning action as part of a quality management system following the ISO standards that are being applied within the entrepreneurial world, and are presently being adopted by the higher education sector. All these activities hove been put together by the Management Team in the lnstitutional Development Plan 2004 - 2010, which defines different guiding frameworks and concludes with the proposal of projects to be undertaken within the groups of strategies corresponding to the objectives of the above mentioned institutional policies. This article synthesizes the advances made in each of the proposed stages, making it clear that all development plans that may be made within the Academic Programs must follow the lines drawn by the lnstitutional Plan, but specific adjustments may be made given the needs of the Faculties such as timing and the characteristics of their field of action