Given the normative changes in higher education at European, national and regional levels, together with social, economic, demographic and technological developments, universities need to adopt a client-oriented approach and to make this client orientation an integral component of their strategic planning process. The university's ‘clients’ should thus be involved in its strategic planning. This paper demonstrates how an importance–performance analysis applied to the perceptions of different groups of clients and stakeholders about the institution can be an effective tool in this regard. The proposed methodology will assist managers, and those responsible for university planning, to diagnose the internal situation of the institution by building matrices of points of excellence and deficiencies. In illustrating the effectiveness of this methodology, the authors stress the need for higher education institutions to move from a product orientation, based on the notion that the institution is best able to decide what its clients need, to a client orientation, based on knowledge of who its clients are and on a detailed investigation of their needs and interests.
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