Improving leadership selection in higher education through multicriteria decision analysis

In higher education institutions, the selection of senior administrators such as campus directors is a critical decision-making process that impacts institutional leadership, planning, and academic performance. Despite its importance, the process is typically conducted without formal decision support tools, considering the multidimensional nature of leadership competencies. This work proposes the development of a multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) model for a transparent and methodical director selection. The model employs a mixed-methods design, utilizing qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire outcomes to identify and formalize relevant decision criteria. It applies the Value-Focused Thinking approach to organize strategic, fundamental, and operational objectives, alongside the hierarchical interval outranking method to approximate decision-maker preferences under uncertainty and create an ordinal classification of candidates. This approach enables the management of complex evaluation schemes, including hierarchically structured and interacting criteria. The application of the model in a case study involving more than 120 national campuses across Mexico demonstrates that the proposal facilitates better-informed, consistent, and transparent selections compared to typical ad-hoc methods.