Quality Management

Quality Management or in some cases Total Quality Management is applied to business and industry; but it has been recently introduced and experimented in higher education. Many universities and colleges apply Total Quality Management as a tool to enhance the quality of higher education. Because of increasing competition, privatization and internationalization of education, many educational institutions in India and abroad are applying Quality Principles in education.

Now the first question arises in the mind, what is quality.? 

Dictionary has many definitions of Quality, a short definition which is widely accepted is “customer satisfaction”
Or
Quality is the ability of the institution to fulfill its task and to achieve its goals.

Quality is relative term and can vary in different products.

Quality Management in in higher education means improving the quality of courses, input instructional process, resource management processes and structures  student support service.

The present paper is an attempt to bring out the compatibility of TQM in Higher education by –
•    Basic concepts of  TQM.
•    Process of Managing Quality
•    Structure of Quality Circles in Educational Institute.
•    Factors Affecting Quality Management in Educational Institute.
•    Obligation of Management in applying Quality in Educational Institute
•    Review and Findings of few past studies in this area
•    SWOT analysis of Quality Management in Higher Education.

Basic Concepts of TQM: TQM in any organization, Manufacturing unit or Educational institutes requires six basic concepts 
1.    A committed and involved management to provide support in the long run, whenever organization requires.
2.    24 × 7 × 365 focus on the internal and external customers.
3.    Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force.
4.    Continuous improvement of the business and process
5.    Treating vendors / suppliers as your own partners
6.    Establishing performance measures for the entire process.

These concepts outline an excellent way to run an organization. Lets understand them in detail –

1.    Management must participate in the quality program. And develop a clear vision and mission, set long term goals and establish process to achieve them. Management should also support the people involved in the implementing the process.

Placement Officer, Shri Vaishnav College of Engineering

2.    The key to an effective Quality Management program is its focus on the customers. An excellent place to start is by satisfying internal customers. We must listen to the voice of the customers. And make changes in the process / product as per their need.
3.    TQM is responsibility of everyone. All personnel must be trained properly  about the entire process so that they can effectively participate and do their jobs. Entire work force should not only come for the job but also to think about how to improve their jobs.
4.    There must be a continual efforts to improve entire business process. Such as on time delivery, least waiting time for customers, quality purchase of material, low inventory etc.
5.    All suppliers should be treated as company’s own partners. Suppliers should be few in numbers so that true partnering can occur.
6.    Performance measures such as absenteeism, customer satisfaction, on time delivery etc. should be determined for each functional area. These measures should be posted for everyone to see. And time to time measurement should be done for the continuous quality improvement. 

1.    Process of Quality Management: Quality Management is the process of identifying and administering the activities needed to achieve the quality objectives of an organization. The Universal process of managing quality is as follows – (Poornima M.Charatimath)
___________________________________________________________________________
Quality Planning        Quality Control        Quality Improvement
___________________________________________________________________________
    Establish Quality Goals    Choose Control        Prove the need
    Identify Customers        Choose units to measure    Identify Projects
    Discover Customer needs    Set Goals            Organize Project teams
    Develop Product features    Create a sensor        Diagnose the causes
    Develop process features    Measure actual performance    Provide remedies, prove that the                                                                                     Remedies are effective
    Establish process controls    interpret the difference    Deal with Resistance
    Transfer to operations        Take action on the difference    Change and control, hold the gains

2.    Structure of Quality circle in Educational Institute can be defined as
Parents    → Students → Teaching Staff / Non Teaching Staff → HOD → Principal → Director / Management
                    (Ref. S. Rajaram & M. Sivakumar)

3.    Factors Affecting Quality Management in Educational Institute
The quality of the high educational institutions is a very complex category and depends upon several factors:

    The staff, especially the academic one
    Students
    Management
    Educational and researching methods
    The content of the studying programs
    Educational and researching equipment
    Teaching aids (literature etc)
    Motivation
    Money, as a means for working and development
    The Market
Achieving or Applying Quality Management in higher education is a holistic approach. The support and cooperation of faculty and staff members are needed for quality improvement. Participatory team work of all in an institution occupies a critical place in the practice of TQM.

4.    The obligations of Management in the Quality assurance
The management is the first and most responsible factor in the quality assurance because:
•    It defines and projects the quality in all segments of working of the institution
•    It provides the conditions for realization of the planned quality
•    Undertakes activities for correction of the defects and prevention of the defects
    Introduces mechanisms for continued quality control.

Quality Management in higher education has following senses –
1.    Customer focus
2.    Involvement of Staff Members
3.    Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).

The customer determines the quality. The student is a customer since the student is buying Professional course and has the unmistakable right to expect certain things for his/her money : Relevant course content fairness, access, expertise and a reasonable learning situation ). The student, both the customer and co-producer, since learning is the joint effort of the teaching staff and the student. Teaching Staff and the student jointly produce a product — learning.

Broadly speaking it is the combine effort of students, parents, alumni, community and faculty. But the other practical question is whether every stake-holder including the student has a right to demand quality or excellence in education. Since education institution is by definition charitable, it is the duty of the Government or other funding agencies (as western countries) to see that it is heavily subsidized with regard to cost and it is equally strongly the duty of the stake-holders to see that the quality is ensured, ‘whoever may be the cost bearing group.

The stake-holders include both internal customers and external customers.


Internal Customers            External Customers
1. Students                 1. Community
2. Faculty                 2. Employers
3. Administrators             3. Universities
4. Administrative staff Agencies    4. Accrediting
5. Board of Directors.             5. Alumni
6. Donor

All parties in the institution are customers. But the internal customer play a crucial role in the policies of the organization. The external customers have the freedom to choose their customers on the basis of quality.

5.    Past Studies in field of Quality Management in Higher Education: The TQM programs of the following institution were taken for analysis to prepare broad guidelines for quality management in an educational institution :

1. IIM, Calcutta
2. Nagpur University and College of Engineering
3. Anna University, Chennai
4. Kerala University

On the basis of analysis and conclusions derived, the suggested approaches for TQM in University and Colleges are summarized as follows: 

1. Identifying customer needs
2. Specific quality standards
3. Bench marking
4. Identifying gaps in the existing system.
5. Planning for improvement
6. Implementation of improvement plans
7. Monitoring and evaluation
8. Modification of plans.

The formation of Quality Circles is a prime step in TQM. The heart of quality management is improvement in teaching-learning process. Voluntary effort of all staff and faculty from “top to down “and from “bottom to up” levels are needed for TQM. Improvement in TQM is to be in all service areas viz.Library. Academic, Administrative and Finance.

The following processes are suggested in the colleges and universities in Kerala for quality up gradation, to begin with:

1. Performance of teachers to be appraised by students
2. Teacher – Parent Meetings.
3. Department meetings
4. Time Table which includes teaching hours, seminars, exam etc.
5. Student Faculty Forums (Quality Circle)
6. Faculty Administrative Forums
7. Class-room feedback services, viz. exam, quizzes, seminars, etc.
8. Alumni
9. Student support services cell, sports, counseling , library, etc.
10. Social Audit team–To inspect documents and performance in every six months

(Performance improvement reporting system).

TQM need to be implemented in all colleges and universitics even if there is no accreditation or certification, to take the bull of internationalization by the horns. The faculty and staff will be experiencing the pleasure of working in tight time schedule, whether accredited or not. Let us wait and watch to see whether TQM is a Panacea or Placebo. The leadership must not only “talk the talk” but also “walk the talk”.

6.    Swot Analysis In Relation To the Quality Management in Higher Education
S. Strong sides
•    Well educated academic staff.
•    Large number of the students are ready better for jobs, increase in higher placement through campus
•    The content of the studying programs are widely recognised.
•    Wide recognition of the entire college.

W: weak sides
•    Not enough elaborated management for quality assurance (No strict measures were undertaken for eliminating of the weak professors  and the weak students).
•    Obsolete methods of education according to the model “ex cathedra”
•    Insufficient equipment of the faculties for theoretical and practical curriculum
•    Insufficient foreign literature for learning
•    Weak motivation of the teachers, low salaries and inadequate conditions for working.
•    Weak motivation of the students for learning, due to not having possibility for employment.
•    Very poor financing.
•    Weak scientific cooperation of the university and the faculties.

O: Opportunities
•    PHARE-TEMPUS program for development of the education (1996-2006)
•    UNESCO-CEPES programme for development of strategic management, Financial management and Quality assurance and development of studying programs
•    Projects for introduction of new approaches financed by the Ministry of education and science, Open Society Institute and other donators

T: Threats
•    Low quality culture
•    Material crisis in the country, in the economy
•    Life Insecurity in the country

7.    References:
1.    P .K. Tulsi (2001), Total Quality  in higher education, Reforms and Innovations in Higher Education AIU, New Delhi
2.    Hansen, W. Lee(1993), Bringing
3.    Total Quality Improvement into the College Classroom, Higher Education
4.    K.B.Powar(2002), Internationalization of Higher Education, AIU,New Delhi
5.    K.B.Powar(2002), Internationalization of Indian Higher Education, AIU,New Delhi
6.    Papers presented by Bryan R. Cole, Shang-Shing P .Chou, Paul Nugraha, Ellen Gunawan and Barry J .Banny in the Seminar on Total Quality Management of Institution for Higher Education in Asia