Strategic Planning and Higher Educational Development: Challenges and Prospect in the Developing Muslim World

Abstract

The growth and development of any nation over history highly depend on the achievement derived from the fruits of education. Education as argued by many scholars is the bedrock of all civilization, transformation and restructuring of a society from one stage to another, development of human and material resources basically for nation building and wellbeing of the populace. Institutions of higher education as known by their nature are avenues where creativity, innovation, critical thinking and intellectual property are explored, exchange of ideas, values and knowledge between scholars and students in order to improve the standard
of living, inculcate the culture of quality and standard in all human endeavors. Most of the universities or institutions of higher education in the developing Muslim world operate below expectation in terms of quality of knowledge, facilities, curriculum, research culture, learning environment and process. The pressing issue ahead these institutions is the proper application of strategic planning and successful implementation tool, which will converge between achievement of goals, mission, vision and spiritual attainment of eternal success (al-falah) in the hereafter. Therefore, this study adopted a methodology based on systemic literature review where thematic analysis was generated to identify and examine the significant of strategic planning on education and presented some of the challenges and prospects of strategic planning faced by universities in the developing Muslim world.