Rethinking University KPIs: What Happens When We Stop Treating Students as Sausages?

Universities love their KPIs. Applications, offers, acceptances, enrolments, they form the typical pipeline charts shown at every Council meeting. These numbers matter because, in a revenue-driven system, students are often framed (sometimes quite literally) as inputs to a financial model. I’ve even heard the phrase “sausage factory” used to describe a university suggesting that students simply enter at one end and degrees come out the other.

But is this the only way to think about the purpose of a university? How might alternate conceptions of a university’s purpose encourage us to develop more meaningful indicators than just “how full is the pipeline”?

Let’s revisit some alternative ‘ideas of a university’ and use those as lenses to reimagine what we measure.

The University as a Public Good: Beyond Revenue Pipelines

Much of our current KPI thinking comes from a “new public management” mindset where universities are quasi-businesses. Applications predict enrolments, which predict revenue, which predicts sustainability. There is nothing inherently wrong with this view; universities do require money to function.

However, universities historically exist to produce, protect and disseminate forms of knowledge that markets can’t do alone. Once we see the university as a public good, the question shifts:

• Are we attracting the right mix of students for the society we want to build?

This leads to very different indicators:

• The proportion of students entering fields of social need
• Participation of under-represented groups
• The alignment between university programs and societal needs

The pipeline is still there but it becomes a pipeline for public value, not just revenue.

The Ecological View: Students as Co-Contributors, Not Inputs

The idea of the ecological university provides another lens. In this model, the university is part of multiple ecosystems: knowledge, culture, politics, the environment, and the student lifeworld.

Students are not raw material. They are agents participating in an ecology of learning.

If we adopt this lens, enrolment KPIs broaden dramatically:

• How well are we enriching the learning ecosystem?
• How well are we sustaining student capabilities in the long term?

Measures of student wellbeing, belonging, intellectual growth, and capability development become core indicators and not optional extras.

The Democratic University: Students as Citizens-in-Formation

Universities are essential in educating democratic citizens, people who can think critically, debate respectfully, and understand the world beyond their immediate experience.

From this view of a university, student volume is less important than student development.

• What kind of thinkers and citizens are our graduates becoming?

This leads toward indicators like:

• Growth in critical reasoning
• Graduate contributions to communities
• Student exposure to diverse ideas
• Equity of access and equity of outcomes

These metrics might be harder to quantify, but they reflect a deeper purpose than simply “headcount”.

The Entrepreneurial University: Diversifying What We Value

The entrepreneurial university perspective views universities not just as centers for education and research, but as active agents that drive innovation and economic development by collaborating with government and industry

In this world, student numbers are not only about quantity but strategic composition.

• Where do our students enable innovation?
• Which cohorts create new research possibilities, industry relationships, or cultural vitality?

A university focused only on volume misses its own entrepreneurial potential.

So, What Does All This Mean for Student Number KPIs?

If we adopt some of these alternative views of what the purpose of a university is then the traditional student pipeline becomes only one dimension of performance.

A more forward-looking set of indicators might ask:

• Are we cultivating an inclusive and diverse learning community?
• Are our students developing capabilities that matter for society, democracy and culture?
• Are we creating an ecosystem in which students, staff and external partners co-create knowledge and value?
• Are our graduates contributing to the wellbeing of their communities?
• Are we strengthening the intellectual, civic and ecological fabric of our region?

None of these replace enrolment numbers but they do contextualise them. The purpose of a university is not just to convert applicants into revenue, but to sustain a complex ecosystem of knowledge, people and ideas.

Why This Matters Now

At a time when many universities are dealing with mergers, restructures, market volatility and demographic shifts, it’s tempting to remain focussed on the simplest KPIs.

But what if you had a chance to articulate a fresh purpose.

When purpose changes, measurement must change too.

And we must stop treating students as sausages!