The impacts of academic and administrative performance audit on performance of universities

An effective performance audit is important for public institutions as well as private sector organizations. As a matter of fact, the determination of the extent to which the organization has achieved its goals is possible with performance auditing. This research examines the effects of academic and administrative performance audits of universities. The aim of the research is to reveal the effects of the academic performance audit carried out by the Higher Education Council and the administrative performance audit implemented by the Court of Accounts. The effects of performance auditing were analyzed in two categories. First, as a result of the performance audit recommendations, it was examined whether the audited universities tended to make changes. In this context, the documents published by Higher Education Council and the Court of Accounts were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. Thus, it has been determined to what extent the deficiencies stated in the audit reports are eliminated by the audited universities. Secondly, it has been investigated whether performance auditing positively affects the academic performance of the audited universities. Quantitative data on the academic performance of universities were obtained through the URAP TR 2021 ranking prepared by the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) Laboratory in Middle East Technical University. The ranking is based on the academic performance of universities between the years 2016-2021. In this context, the academic performance score of the universities with performance audit and the academic performance score of the universities without performance audit were compared. Thus, it was determined whether the academic performance score of the universities whose academic and administrative performance was audited showed a significant difference compared to those that were not audited. According to research findings, it was concluded that the performance audit recommendations of both Higher Education Council and the Court of Accounts were largely fulfilled by the audited universities. However, it was understood that the performance audit did not have a positive effect on the academic performance score of the audited universities. Based on the findings of the research, suggestions were also made about what should be done to increase the positive effect of academic and administrative performance audit on universities.