The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), an economic concept introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, has been widely spread in the profit- and non-profit-sector. It has been a matter of controversial debate, there exists only little empirical evidence about the effectiveness and efficiency of the concept. Nevertheless, the concept has also been applied to institutions in higher education such as high schools and universities. This application has increased discussions relevant to the performance management and its measurement in higher education. The difficulties to define the output of higher education and academic institutions remain, cause- and effect-relationships, a distinctive feature of the BSC, have to be discussed, if the BSC is to be applied to the full extent. This paper seeks to analyse experiences that have been reported applying the BSC in higher education. Therefore, several questions are raised: if the original concept underwent any adjustments when introduced in higher education, how the institutions have dealt with the difficulties defining the output and how or if they have built cause and effect-relationships. It is also of great interest if the use of the approach has shown any influences on teaching and lecturing and whether it has enhanced the students’ learning. To conclude the paper, the results of the analysis should then be transferred to public schools in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. With the introduction of principals in the Zurich school system the question arises if economic approaches and instruments can also be transferred to the public school system and whether one can profit from experiences made in higher education.

A literature survey is intended on publications that broach the issue of performance management and particularly the use and application of the BSC in higher education. A particular focus will be on the discussion of the output of such institutions and on its measurement, and whether cause and effect-relationships have been built.

It is expected that the BSC needs modifications being introduced in higher education and that a transfer to public schools calls for even more adjustments. Speckbacher, Bischof and Pfeiffer (2003) introduced a typology for the BSC used in the private sector. It consists of three types, ranging from a very basic application and use as a multidimensional framework to an advanced type as an integrated strategic management system. It is assumed that in higher education mostly type one predominates.