Change and innovation in the university towards high-impact University.
Dr. Yahya bin Nasser Al Sarhan, the Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Faculty of Administrative and Financial Sciences of King Khalid University, has presented a model that can contribute effectively to the activation of the change and innovation management at the university. The model is to re-structure the change and innovation management in order to achieve the existence of two parallel lines in the organizational structure - which are the power line and advisory line - so as to help the university achieves its vision, and to be a high-impact University. At a workshop which was presented on the sidelines of the International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education in its sixth session, Prof. Al-Sarhan pointed out that "higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia generally has made a significant development within a short period as a result of government policies that gave higher education a top priority in development plans. The King Khalid University featured a model of development in higher education. Despite the growth that has been achieved, it highlights many challenges that must be dealt with by administrative contemporary visions."
The professor continued "Perhaps the most that can contribute to addressing these challenges is activating change management and innovation for the development of an effective organization that contributes to the achievement of excellence not only at the local level, but on a global level". Prof. Al Sarhan pointed to a report that compares the level of higher education in most countries - 21 University Assessment of 2014. The report offered a system comparing higher education system in 50 countries based on four areas represented in resources, environment, local and global relationship, and outputs. The report highlighted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies a prominent position in higher education in the world, where the Kingdom occupied in the overall level of assessment the 30th rank globally. According to the resources area in the evaluation, the Kingdom has been ranked the 8th on global level. Prof. Al Sarhan stressed that the development achieved in education was clearly reflected in the progress that had been made in the King Khalid University (KKU). The King Khalid University was founded in 1999 as a result of the integration between the University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University and King Saud University. In 2005, a number of women's colleges, health colleges, and teachers' colleges were joined. Many of the academic programs that cover almost all scientific and social development were developed. As a result, the number of students in King Khalid University reached over 70,000.
Prof. Al-Sahran further stated "this growth has been a challenge for the university, which necessitates the need for effective organization and working with a clear vision represented in achieving excellence in the fields of higher education; teaching, scientific research, and services. The University seeks to achieve this according to local and international standards. So, the University works on getting local and international academic accreditations to be the mechanism by which the university measures progress and development level in accordance with the orderly change mechanism. Perhaps this trend is the first step in the change management adopted by the university in its efforts toward high-impact University".
