Quality Management In Higher Education

Quality has become the defining element of education in the 21st Century in the context of new social realities. Quality in Higher education provides opportunities for long life learning, allowing people to upgrade their knowledge and skills from time to time based on society needs. Quality management, in the higher education context, also covers the quality terminology: control, assurance and improvement. It encompasses those processes, “by which an institution discharges its corporate responsibility for articulating, maintaining and enhancing the academic standards of those activities for which it is responsible “and ensures that these processes are performed efficiently and effectively. The overall objective of this paper is to highlight the general principles of TQM involved and to point out how this approach has been and can be used to improve the quality of an academic institution. In this paper(artical) it has been tried to bring out clear status of higher education and emergent needs to enhance the quality of higher education. The main objective of this work is to highlight the general principles of TQM to point out how this approach can be used to improve the quality of academic institution. The objective is conducted towards an evaluation and assessment of the current quality of work in higher education. After realizing the importance of higher education a lot of innovative experiments are done to improve the performance of this sector. The way in which universities are working with quality issues will be compared with a TQM approach and the weakness and strength of the work of this institution will be recognized. After reviewing the problems in higher education many authors and the principles of TQM offer many recommendations and suggestions for improvement. Researchers used primary data in the form of interviews and secondary data from journals and books. In addition researchers use many Methodology to improve the quality of higher education. The paper attempt Theoretically conceptualize the TQM in higher education

1.    Introduction: Quality in higher education – how to enhance it and how to evaluate it – has been placed squarely on the contemporary agenda in higher education. The American Society for Quality says that the term Total Quality Management was first used by the U.S. The literature from late 1980s suggest considerable interest in the higher education sector in industrially popular ‘Total Quality Management (TQM) ’ model as alternative methodology/philosophy for governance. The theoretical compatibility of the measures to higher education raised a considerable controversy (Harvey 1995;Bensimon, 1995). Many Universities began implementing Total Quality strategies under an administrative leadership and shied away from classroom and curriculum issues (Brigham 1993). In a world of ever increasing competition, privatization and internationalization of education, many educational institutions in India and abroad apply TQM principles in education. The Round Table on Internationalization of Higher Education (2002) recommends an open door policy for education, academic restructure cafeteria – type approach (choice of subjects and courses by the customer) and internationalization of curriculum.


M.Tech(CSE) SSSIST,Sehore
MBA(HR) PCST,Indore
MBA(HR) SVIM,Indore
All this highlights the need for TQM in higher education. Internationalization of higher education has become a fact, just like Globalization.

Higher education has an important and seemingly increasing role in Indian society. This phenomenon can be seen from ever increasing proportion of the youth entering higher education yearly. At the same time there seems to be an increasing need for further education among people already in workforce. The situation has resulted the available government's higher learning institutions not being able to provide adequate places. A more open system of education has been adopted by the government acts as catalyst for present remarkable growth of private higher learning institutions offering various levels of Quantity Surveying courses with variety of arrangement .The phenomenon has given rise to increased public concern with respect to the quality of graduates produced by the institutions involved. The approach of TQM can be adapted in Quantity Surveying Education in the effort to produce quality graduates and enhancing the profession as a whole. The institutions that produce quantity surveying graduates must take part to enhance education quality in their organizations.
2.    Objectives of the Study:
•    The quality and social relevance of higher education imparted in developing nations remain quite low and deteriorating due to paucity of funds.
•    Total Quality Management (TQM) should be unavoidably common factor that will shape the strategies of higher educational institutions in a same manner.
•    The development of higher education is correlated with the economic development.
•    Study on the feasibilities of different strategies for TQM in higher education

3.    Concept of TQM: Prior to independence, the growth of institutions of higher education in India was very slow and diversification in areas of studies was very limited. After independence, the number of institutions has increased significantly. There are today, 214 universities and equivalent institutions including 116 general universities, 12 science and technology universities, 7 open universities, 33 agricultural universities, 5 women’s universities, 11 language universities, and 11 medical universities. Besides, there are universities focusing on journalism, law, fine arts, social work, planning and architecture and other specialized studies. In addition, there are 9703 colleges where 80% of undergraduate and 50% of postgraduate education is imparted. The number of students has reached the level of 6.75 million and there are 3,21,000 teachers in the higher education system. The government expenditure alone was of the order of  Rs. 42,126 millions in 1996-97, and during the subsequent period this has risen even higher. Vazzana et al (2000) in a survey involving 243 business schools concluded that few are using TQM to manage core learning processes.
Traditionally, the higher educational services include the three fundamental functions;
1.    Teaching
2.    Research; and
3.    Extension.
Teaching serves to transmit knowledge and skills from the teacher to the taught ones. The purpose of research is to explore new knowledge whereas the function of extension focuses on developing the application of the developed knowledge for addressing the common problems of the society.

4.    Quality: Quality is generally defined as conformance to requirements. It is also conformance to a standard that is required.
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5.    Total Quality: Total quality refers not only to the product but also to the way the product is made as well as presented to the customer. Total quality asks for customer orientation, process orientation, people management and leadership.

6.    TQM: TQM is a people driven process. It involves changes in people’s attitudes primarily. In addition, it deals with process orientation and continuous improvement of the process.TQM has been adopted as a management paradigm by many organizations worldwide. Quality movement in across the world starts with quality improvements project at manufacturing companies. But later it spread to other service institutions including banking; insurance, nonprofit organizations, healthcare, government and educational institutions. TQM models, based on the teachings of quality gurus, generally involve a number of “principles” or “essential elements” such as teamwork, top management leadership, customer focus, employee involvement, continuous improvement tool, training etc.

7.    Total Quality Management (Tqm) In Higher Education: A true total quality process has three fundamental bases, these are: student focus, continuous improvement and staff and employees involvement. Total Quality Management (TQM) (also known as Total Quality Control (TQC)) is the application of quality principles to all facets of an organization. Another definition of quality-exceeding the customer specifications! Indeed, there are many definitions of quality and total quality. Next, some of the views of the so-called quality gurus will be briefly examined.
For providing Qualitative management, it is necessary to recruit faculty who show the quality in terms of their qualification on the basis of PhD, M Phil or NET.
8.    Quality Higher Education Institution includes:
Curriculum            = Goal +objectives               Teaching Learning        Qualified Teachers+
                                  Peer feedback                    Evaluation     =                 Monitoring Student
Research                = Research Culture &                                                  Progress
                                  Publication
Organization &                                                  Infrastructure    =          Library + Computer
Management         = Budget +                                                                                 Centre
                                  Innovation &
                                  Welfare Scheme       
Healthy Practices = Quality +                             Student Support   = Financial Aid+
                                  Feedback                                                            Counseling   +      
                                                                                                             Health Centre +
                                              Sports

9.    Six Sigma Model for Quality Assessment: Apart from this, Six Sigma is slowly getting into academia as teaching course, and academic institutions are also trying to apply this model for Quality assessment and improvement. The method of Six Sigma is a systematic process covering five steps:
•    Define: Select project, set goals and targets, identify the cost of poor quality, prepare the     team.
•    Measure: Develop measurement tools and collect data.
•    Analyze: Cause and effect diagram, use of statistical data such as hypothesis testing, analysis of variances. 
•    Improve: Develop solution alternatives, probability of success, cost, time to execute.
•    Control: Put appropriate control in place to give a signal of negative developments.
10.    How Can The Quality Principles Work In Higher Education Institutions?
"The quality principles" are:    
 Vision, mission, and outcomes driven
 Systems dependent
 Leadership: creating a quality culture
 Systematic individual development
 Decisions based on fact
 Delegation of decision making
 Collaboration
 Planning for change
 Leadership: supporting a quality culture
           
The purpose of this report is to explain how the quality principles work in the context of higher education. The quality principles are essentially compatible with the values of higher education, but often the culture must change to support the principles. Most institutions have missions, but most are not accustomed to measuring the outcomes of their processes. Traditionally, constituencies within higher education institutions act independently rather than interdependently. Leaders are usually not trained in the tools and techniques used to improve systems and processes. Developing management skills and knowledge is not the norm in higher education. Professional development is more often discipline and person specific instead of developing members who can collectively improve institutional processes. Although data is collected for a variety of purposes in directing higher education institutions, the quality principles emphasize systematically collecting data before making academic and administrative decisions.
11.    Disadvantages of TQM In Higher Education: Application of TQM in Higher Education is concerned, there are serious problems identified with its adoption:
•    Lack of focus for the groups: In TQM the processes are supposed to be customer driven. In higher education the critical problem is identification of the customers or products to drive towards. The customers can variously be students, employers, government etc. and in the same way the products can also be education, knowledge, research etc. This creates a considerable lack of focus for the groups involved with the processes.
•    Based on Assumptions: TQM makes an implicit assumption that the processes are amenable to measurement. On the other hand many processes in education are too subtle to be measured.
•    Lack of Participation: There is rarely a shared vision and the academic managers in an attempt to retain power act as communication block. The participation in decision making at all levels rarely ever takes place.
Other Problems:
•    Lack of understanding of the quality assurance system
•    The political and sectarian interference
•    Lack of faculty and staff development
•    Lack of adequate library facilities
•    Lack of cooperation and coordination
•    Delays in posting new decrees on the Ministry’s website



12.    Challenges in TQM Implementation in Higher Educational Institutions:
•    Leadership: Unlike CEO’s of business organizations, Vice Chancellors/Directors of Universities/ Institutions do not enjoy ultimate authority hiring and firing personnel and allocating resources. Institutional heads can set goals, organizational values and performance expectations. However since they lack necessary authority, it is difficult for them to deploy these values and goals through the layers of higher education institutions.
•    Customer Identification: A different aspect of customer issue here is customer loyalty. In businesses, customer loyalty is very important because repeat buying by loyal customers has a direct effect on profitability. However higher education is “once in a lifetime activity”. If students are considered as customers, this concept makes sense only when they make donations as alumni. However if employers are customers, repeat purchase means recruiting at same institutions every year.
•    Cultural and Organizational transformation: Higher education institutions have deep-rooted traditions dating back to several centuries and are resistance to change. Eg. Universities and colleges are organized on departmental units. In adopting TQM culture, organizations move from product focus to market focus. But for faculty, particularly research faculty, primary loyalty lies in the academic field. Market requirement for their students are of secondary importance to them except for some professional schools as business and engineering.
•    Competition: For all but the most elite Institution, It is the buyer’s Market in the higher education. Both public and private institutions have to worry about preserving enrollment. In some Markets there is open and blatant competition for students among institutions.
•    Costs: Throughout the 1980’s,tution rose faster than the consumer price Index, and now students and public wants to know what more they are getting for their educational dollars.
13.    Conclusion: In education, as in business, quality is difficult to define and measure, but its absence is all too often obvious. Quality in education systems is not just about the difference between the excellent and the ordinary, or indeed between success and failure, although these are crucial, if sometimes simplistic, indicators of quality.TQM is the philosophy and methodology that assists institutions to manage change and to set their own agendas for dealing with external pressures. Transforming the culture of school, college, departments or institution is a slow process, but with ever greater pressure for change and for improvement; TQM provides an essential framework for transition