Performance indicators: Just how do you weight them?

The development and use of performance indicators in higher education has become a major topic for research and discussion throughout the world. Research efforts and resources are being channeled into improving their use. These efforts include extending the range (including developing indicators of quality) and objectivity of indicators; improving the procedures for measuring weighting and combining performance indicators; and refining procedures for linking funding and resource allocation to performance indicators. This paper uses a questionnaire and a sample of responses to demonstrate a methodology for making explicit the weightings experts ascribe to individual performance indicators used in the process of comparing research attainment across different university departments.