In any quality improvement programme, measurement plays a vital role as it provides information for decision making. Finding the characteristics of quality is a prerequisite for the measurement process. Despite recent research on general service’s quality dimensions, little work has been concentrated on public services and in particular higher education. Examines conceptual models proposed for different environments for consistency with higher education. Reviews quality factors found in the relevant literature and presents a new framework for the dimensions of quality in higher education.

Posits that the role that quality plays in the higher education sector is becoming more important as the dominance of market‐orientation leaves no alternative for universities and colleges but to improve their quality while increasing efficiency. Philosophies like total quality management (TQM), which have been successfully adopted in commercial organizations, are generally seen as the way forward. Includes a review of the published literature on theories and applications of TQM in higher education. The case studies were analysed using ten features found to be critical to a total quality philosophy. Conclusions were drawn regarding similarities and differences between higher education and other environments as well as between US and UK approaches.

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Industrial engineering is an engineering discipline which, because of its multi-disciplinary nature, has played an important role in the development and optimization of different systems at macro and micro levels. In this paper, the results of a research to study the position and trend of Industrial Engineering research in recent years are described. The data from a sample of 7 114 IE-related articles from international journals during the last 27 years were used for the analysis. The results showed that the development of IE in many countries has a strong correlation with their industrial and economic development. However, IE research topics are spreading in other management and engineering departments and so there is a need to redefine the discipline and its specific areas of interest. According to the prediction made using time series analysis, the most favorite fields of IE research in future will be on subjects related to information technology, intelligent systems, optimization, quality, and supply chain management. OPSOMMINGBedryfsingenieurswese is 'n ingenieursdissipline wat vanweë die multi-dissiplinêre aard daarvan 'n belangrike rol gespeel het in die optimisering van verskillende sisteme op makroen mikrovlak. Hierdie artikel hou die resultate voor van 'n navorsingsprojek wat onderneem is om die posisie en rigting van Bedryfsingenieursnavorsing in onlangse jare te bepaal. Die data van 'n monster van 7 114 Bedryfsingenieursverwante artikels wat verskyn het in internasionale joernale oor die afgelope 27 jaar is gebruik vir die ontleding. Die resultate toon dat die groei van Bedryfsingenieurswese in verskeie lande sterk korreleer met industriële en ekonomiese ontwikkeling. Tog blyk dit dat die navorsingsonderwerpe van Bedryfsingenieurswese sprei na ander bestuurs-en ingenieursdepartemente en dus bestaan daar 'n nodigheid om die dissipline en die spesifieke belangstellingsvelde te herdefinieer. Volgens die vooruitskatting wat gedoen is met behulp van 'n tydreeksanalise, blyk dit dat die gunstelingterreine vir navorsing in die toekoms op die gebiede van inligtingstegnologie, intelligente sisteme, optimisering, gehalte en voorsienings-kettingbestuur sal wees.