With regard to approaches to university and college management, NIAD-QE conducts studies and research that form the foundation of support for its encouragement of institutional efforts to strengthen their operational base. It also gathers information on higher education policies, and the internal management of universities and colleges in Japan and overseas. Among the topics addressed by NIAD-QE are methods for the integrated use of financial and non-financial information in internal management, approaches to governance and financial affairs of universities and colleges, the development of analytical techniques relating to financial information, and approaches to senior management personnel and support staff at universities.

By analyzing and verifying the results of its past evaluations of the education and research activities of universities and colleges, NIAD-QE explores effective and efficient approaches to evaluation. NIAD-QE also conducts studies of quality assurance systems in other countries, through which it investigates the ideal shape of evaluation systems and criteria for the quality assurance of Japanese universities and colleges, while responding to trends within Japan and overseas.