Hiroshima University’s goal is to become one of the world’s top 100 universities within the next ten years and to be able to properly allocate resources to produce the best results in terms of both research and education as a university. The University has established its own Achievement-motivated Key Performance Indicators (AKPI®) to clarify the steps that need to be taken to achieve this goal.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are used by companies or other entities as performance assessment indicators which quantify the degree of achievement of its objectives. Hiroshima University’s Management Planning Office has examined the kinds of indicators that should be selected as its KPI. Through such examinations, the University has conceptually developed the values that the University should achieve as one of the world’s top 100 universities and has targeted achieving those values within 10 years.

The University’s AKPI® have dual functions. One function is to monitor the level of achievement until the University becomes one of the world’s top 100 universities. The other function is to quantify the research and educational tasks undertaken by each faculty member, which can then be used by the University to properly allocate its resources in various fields.
In order to quantify the tasks taken on by each faculty member, the tasks are converted to points with the goal of each faculty member earning 1,000 points. Different tasks have different point values assigned to them. The breakdown of the point system is as follows:

(a)Classes to be taught and Exam preparation

The target is 300 points per faculty member. The breakdown of these points is:

• Classes to be taught: The number of credits for a class will be multiplied by the number of students who enroll in the class and the total will be the number of units earned. Units for a subject = (Credits for a class) × (The number of students who take the class) Total units = ∑{(The number of credits for a class) × (The number of students who take the class)} The total credits required for all students (the number of students enrolled) to graduate is the theoretical value of the total annual units. In the case of Hiroshima University, the annual total units are approximately 440,000 units. This is the number of units required for the University to confer degrees to all of its students as an educational institution. Unless the enrollment capacity drastically changes, this number will not significantly fluctuate in the future. The number of full-time faculty members at the University is approximately 1,800. Therefore, the University can only remain an educational institution that satisfies the aforementioned required units, if each full-time faculty member earns about 244 units through teaching. These 244 units will be converted to 244 points. In addition, faculty members earn approximately 18,000 units through teaching non-regular students, such as short-term exchange students, so each faculty member will need to earn about 10 units for teaching these students. These units will be converted to 10 points per faculty member.
• Preparation of entrance examination questions for departments and other tasks: The annual task of preparing entrance examination questions is undertaken by question preparation members, checking members, and other faculty members. When this task is represented by scores according to the tasks involved, the total scores for the entire University are about 3,500 scores. This is equal to approximately 2 scores per full-time faculty member, which will be converted to 6 points (3 points per score).
• The number of classes taught in a foreign language currently averages 0.2 classes per faculty member. Our goal is to have each faculty member teach 2 classes in a foreign language, which will be converted to 40 points (20 points per class taught in a foreign language).

(b)Supervising students to earn doctoral degrees

The target is 150 points per faculty member. The breakdown of these points is

• New M1: Our goal is to accept 2,300 new M1 students. A faculty member who takes on the task of being a primary supervisor will receive 5 points for each new M1. As such, the 10-year target to be achieved is 1.2 students per faculty member, and the target goal per faculty member is 6 points.
• New D1 and D degree conferral: Our goal is to accept 1,100 new D1 students and to confer doctoral degrees to 1,100 students. A faculty member who takes on the task of being a primary supervisor will receive 120 points for each new D1 student, and an additional 120 points for each student when the student under his/her supervision earns a degree. As such, the 10-year target to be achieved is 0.6 students per faculty member, and the target points per faculty member are 144 points.

(c)Number of SCI papers

The target is 300 points per faculty member. One SCI paper will earn a faculty member 100 points. For the University to become one of the world’s top 100 universities, it is necessary for the University’s faculty to publish at least 5,400 papers per year. This translates to an average of 3 papers per faculty member.

(d)Acquisition of external funds

The target amount of total external funds to be raised in 10 years is approximately 27,000,000,000 yen. This averages to approximately 15,000,000 yen per faculty member, which will be converted to 150 points.

(e)Internationalization

The target for internationalization is 100 points per faculty member. The breakdown of these points is

• The University currently accepts 0.6 foreign students per faculty member. The target is to accept 2 students per faculty member, which will be converted to 40 points. (Faculty members tutoring a foreign student will earn 20 points per foreign student)
• The number of internationally co-authored papers is currently 0.2 per faculty member. The target is 1.5 papers per faculty member, which will be converted to 30 points. One internationally co-authored paper is equal to 20 points.
• The target for the total number of researchers who are invited to the University and faculty members who visit overseas institutions from the University is 5,400 per year. This equals three invitations/visits per faculty member per year, which will be converted to 30 points. Inviting one foreign researcher, or visiting an overseas institution once is equal to 10 points.

The grand total of all aforementioned points is now referred to as X. When each faculty member achieves X=1,000 points, then Hiroshima University will have become one of the world’s top 100 universities. What has been explained above is the quantification of the process to achieve this goal.

Average AKPI® per faculty: X=a+b+c+d+e=1,000
(Target to be achieved by FY2023)

By using this total value X and the value for each item (a~e), it will be possible to compare activities of faculty members specialized in different fields and to set a common target value. Furthermore, faculty members can be allocated throughout the University based on these values. All faculty members are not necessarily required to achieve each of these target values. There may be a situation where some faculty members teach a large number of classes but do not publish many SCI papers, or some faculty members acquire little external funding but take on the task of tutoring many foreign students. When the target values are achieved on average, then it will confirm that HU is an active university where degrees are being conferred to students as an educational institution, globally-recognized research is being conducted, and researchers and students are gathering from all over the world.