The Role of Intellectual Capital in the Quality of Colleges and Universities in Colombia

Abstract

A bibliographic analysis is presented on the role management of intellectual capital plays in the quality of Colombian institutions of higher education (IHE). It is based on a systematic review of articles that were published in journals indexed in Scielo, Latindex, PubMed, Redalyc and Dialnet, between 1996 to 2015, UNESCO documents and books published in Argentina in 1997, in Valencia, Spain in 2009 and 2011, in Bogotá in 1993, and in the United States in 1999. Forty- ve (45) bibliographical references were selected. The historical analysis shows existing intellectual-capitalmanagement models respond to the needs of consumer companies, but not to those of IHEs. Another result concerns the components that make up the quality of higher education and how many of them refer to intellectual capital management, including a build-up in research and innovation processes at IHEs. Therefore, a new system for managing intellectual capital is needed, particularly one that responds to the fundamental functions of IHEs and has enough scope, as required by the nature of knowledge management, to be able to strengthen their quality processes with an eye towards greater recognition and positioning in society.