Abstract for: Modeling Graduate Education Management System Using System Dynamics Approach

Graduate education is a complex system with a wide range of dynamics behind it, where any decision affects other parts of system directly or indirectly. Decisions related to admission, funding allocation, resource management, and recruitment are the most important variables in system, which not only influence the internal performance of the school reflected, for instance, in the number of enrolled students, but also indirectly change the image the school has expressed in its ranking and reputation. Accordingly, a more systematic approach is required to consider all these relationships and the effects of various management decisions. This paper studies the basics of such a system instantiated by one of the graduate education programs in the United States, where the main goal of management is to increase enrollment without losing the quality and affordability of education.