Enabling Future-Ready Tertiary Institutions Through MIS Effectiveness Framework

Evaluating Management Information System (MIS) effectiveness in tertiary education remains conceptually fragmented, with existing models primarily emphasizing technical performance rather than organizational interdependencies. This study develops a structural framework for assessing institutional MIS effectiveness using a sequential mixed-methods design integrating inductive construct development, expert validation, and quantitative dependency modeling. Fifteen themes and fifty-eight subthemes were identified as core dimensions of MIS capability within tertiary education institutions. Dependency and reliance analyses reveal strong systemic interconnections, indicating that institutional MIS functions operate as an integrated organizational system rather than independent domains. The framework is represented as a directed weighted graph to preserve enabling relationships, and a maximum spanning arborescence is derived to provide an interpretable implementation backbone. By modeling structural interdependencies explicitly, the proposed framework supports more informed prioritization of MIS development, strategic alignment across institutional functions, and evidence-based governance decision-making. The framework is intended primarily for evaluating organizational, governance, administrative, and institutional dimensions of MIS effectiveness within tertiary education institutions and does not explicitly assess user-level constructs such as usability, interface design, accessibility, or individual user experience. The study establishes a foundation for future empirical validation and cross-institutional benchmarking.