A conceptual framework for guaranteeing higher education

Abstract

The lessons of quality management apply to services as well as tangible goods. Awareness also has been increasing that services, like tangible goods, can be guaranteed as a means of implementing a total quality management (TQM) orientation in the organization. While higher education has been exploring some of the tenents of TQM, it has been slow to embrace the power of service guarantees. In this conceptual article we present a system of service guarantees designed to foster a TQM orientation in higher education. We propose that institutions consider a system of guarantees aimed at three primary constituent groups – students, faculty, and employers – over the short, medium and long term. The rationale and implications of the guarantee system are explored, and possible impediments are discussed.

Quality Management Practice in Higher Education - What Quality Are We Actually Enhancing?

“…Quality management framework (Widrick et al, 2002); five-step programming model (Motwani and Kumar, 1997); TQM (Aly and Akpovi, 2001); service guarantees (Lawrence and McCollough, 2001); Hoshin Kanri model (Roberts and Tennant, 2003); continuous quality improvement (Roffe, 1998); self-rating scales (Pounder, 1999); TQM in HE (Srikanthan and Dalrymple, 2002); QFD (Thakkar et al, 2006;Hwarng and Teo, 2001) • Encourages disciplined thinking about tangible and intangible aspects of academic activities and operational aspects required in design and delivery of courses. • Improvements identified in customer service, university processes, staff and faculty morale, course quality and personnel hiring.…”

Establishment and application of performance measure indicators for universities

“…To adapt to the great competition from all over the world, there is an important and immediate required improvement to the quality of higher education to meet international academic trend and raise overall academic standards and education quality. In response to growing concerns from stakeholders about poor or inconsistent quality, institutions of higher education are increasingly seeking ways to improve education quality (Lawrence and McCullough, 2001). Many colleges and universities have looked up methods from industry and adopt some type of total quality management (TQM) system to create competitiveness (Hubbard, 1994;Vazzana et al, 1997).…”

Top management commitment and overall engineering education excellence

“…The concepts and principles of TQM, which are effectively used in today's competitive production and business environments, have become indispensable in today's business of higher education (Hwarng and Teo, 2001). It is precisely because of concerns of a loss of academic quality and rigor and a decreasing student focus that many institutions are exploring TQM (Lawrence and McCollough, 2001). Badri et al(2006) have strongly insisted that more research on the impact of services on customer perceptions of service quality be conducted.…”