The project-vector management method application in higher education quality assessment

Aidos Mukhatayev^1,2Serik Omirbayev²Oleksandr Kuchanskyi^2,3Andrii Biloshchytskyi^2,4Yurii Andrashko^3*Svitlana Biloshchytska^2,4Ilyas Kazambayev²

• ¹Higher Education Development National Center, Astana, Kazakhstan
• ²Astana IT University, Astana, Kazakhstan
• ³Uzhhorod National University, Uzhhorod, Ukraine
• ⁴Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine

The study addresses the pressing issue of assessing and improving the quality of higher education in Kazakhstan, where existing evaluation systems often rely on fragmented indicators and administrative control rather than systemic analysis. To overcome these limitations, the research applies the project-vector management method as a quantitative and diagnostic tool for modeling universities' trajectories in a multidimensional quality space. The study combines secondary data from the Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education with survey results from 10,718 participants representing four stakeholder groups: students, faculty, university administrators, and employers, as well as expert interviews. Based on these data, a structured SWOT analysis was conducted to identify key barriers hindering the enhancement of education quality. The integration of monitoring, survey, and interview data enabled the calculation of resistance coefficients that reflect infrastructural, financial, and managerial constraints. The results showed that excessive preventive control, limited institutional autonomy, and uneven resource allocation increase systemic resistance and slow universities' progress toward the target quality level. The project-vector management method demonstrated its potential as an effective and transparent methodological foundation for monitoring, diagnosing, and managing quality improvement processes in higher education at both institutional and national levels.