Improving University Performance Through Ict Based Knowledge Management System

Public universities are widely regarded not only as teaching establishments but also as organizations that create new knowledge and support social communities. Due to great competition at higher education level, a number of universities have implemented strategies and tools that improve the quality of students and research results and provide several community services for building their competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) is usually recommended as one of the important roles to improve efficiency and effectiveness in university mandates and provide many benefits to a university.Kasetsart University (KU), one of the Thailand's largest and most progressive public universities, has applied ICT based KM in its strategies in order to overcome resource scarcity and enhance its capabilities. It has developed several KM practices and projects using ICT in several activities which relate to mandates.The initial findings indicate that (1) an ICT based KM system significantly enhances the university's performance in terms of its quality of students, research results and innovative community services. (2) The specific KM practices and projects support different aspects of university mandates. This ICT based KM system has been implemented and proved to be practical. This system is suitable for the university in terms of its educational mission, research, and community services. This model could be the best practice for further improvement and could be customized to fit other universities in other developing countries.