Objectives priority in university strategy map for resource allocation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) to prioritize its objectives. This will be achieved by providing strategy map using balanced score card (BSC) method. Design/methodology/approach – This research result is based on 21 managers’ opinion about relation among university objectives, gathered by questionnaire. DEMATHEL method which is a structural decision-making model is used to process data in questionnaires and discover casual relationship between university objectives. Findings – According to this research result “Having productive competent human resource that are committed to Islamic values and professional ethic” has the highest priority among FUM objectives while “Achieving educating excellence especially in graduate programs and research” has the lowest. Practical implications – FUM managers need to focus on their human resources and enhance their competency in order to achieve academic excellence. Originality/value – Achieving superiority in university competitive position based on its education and research activities is FUM vision. As a non-profit organization due to resource restriction and environmental circumstances it has to fulfill this goal with higher productivity. BSC as a performance management system will help it to achieve this goal by translating vision into objectives and defining casual relationship between them. This method is rarely studied in the context of universities especially in Iranian universities. This research applied strategy map, one of BSC implementation stages, in a public university in Iran to illustrate series of objectives that leads to mission accomplishment.