Question

Subject Total quality management

1000words each words.

CASE STUDY

The State of State Universities

As a result of the drastic cuts by the Ministry of Education in its operating budget over the years, management of state universities have raised tuition fees to be paid annually by both local and foreign students.

Five years ago, the cost of education at the university was a negotiation with local and foreign students; now it has become very expensive to pursue university education. An immediate consequence is the sharp decline in applications for admission to the universities. Since funding a university is directly linked to enrolment figures, universities try to maintain their enrolment levels but in case of any shortfall, they reach deep into their pool of applications to consider some less-qualified students.

The increase in the cost of obtaining a university degree has caused legislators, parents, and students to do a needs assessment of the courses offered by the universities. Parents and students are particularly concerned with value for the money they invest in education. They are also interested in the perception fuelled by the numerous media reports about the poor quality of teaching in the universities. They question why faculty members would abandon their work to graduate students and teaching assistants who are so over worked. For this reason, the Legislature’s committee on Higher Education has been tasked to hold “outcomes assessment programs” to determine how well state universities are working towards achieving their core mandate of producing high quality graduates.

In addition, a huge number of eligible students are expected to gain admission to the universities this year. Key members of the Government have told the universities that they will be expected to absorb additional students within the next decade. Also, because of the budgetary constraints, they have been told not to expect any increase in funding to cater for new facilities such as classrooms and for faculty. In effect, they will be expected to manage with their existing facilities. This is not to say that Government is unaware of the infrastructural deficit and work load of faculties in comparison to universities elsewhere. In fact, Government often cites the example of universities which are able to accommodate extra students by keeping to a time-bound period of four years and reducing the contact hours in some cases.

This entire scenario has compelled a university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kojo Boateng to consider retiring. He has summarized the problems to his administration as “having to do more or better with little.”

One of the first things he did to address these problems was to set up a number of committees made up of faculty and administrators to brainstorm on various topics. Among topics discussed by the committees were: quality education, educational success, graduation rates, success rates in courses (i.e. the percentage passes and failures), teaching, time of graduation, faculty issues, student-issues, facilities, class scheduling, admissions, and classroom space.

Each of the committees included faculty in Management, I.T. and Marketing. These committees noted that many of the problems facing the university could be solved with the principles and practices of the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach. These suggestions have appealed to the Vice Chancellor and the academic staff.

1-Based on marketing perspectives, discuss possible marketing tools in your estimation that can be used by university administrators to influence the customer (in this case students/ parents and all stakeholders) about the image of state universities for general student enrolment.

2 Demonstrate how best state universities can benefit from international quality standards using ISO 9000: 2015.

3. Discuss how you will use strategic quality planning in managing the quality of state universities.

Answer 1

1. In this context, the central issue or challenge caused by the overall budgetary reduction implemented or enforced by the Ministry of Education involves the maintenance of acceptable and proper quality management of education in public state universities. With a significant reduction in educational spending or expenditure by the ministry and further decline in the overall admission or enrollment rate which happens to be the main and foremost source of revenue for the public state universities, maintaining adequate and superior infrastructural and instructional quality has become a major concern for the university administrations. This includes major considerations such as overall quality of education, teaching infrastructure, the general quality of teaching, educational success of the students reflected by the overall graduation rate, the quality of existing academic facilities and resources, and so on. Therefore, from the marketing and promotional standpoint, some of the marketing tools that the university administrations can possibly include displaying or disseminating the major successes and achievements that the respective universities have achieved in the recent past and strive to continue the same momentum even following the budgetary reductions. In this pursuit, the administrations can use various popular and comprehensively followed marketing platforms such as social media websites, video hosting or promotions through online commercial promotional mediums such as Youtube, other digital marketing tools and techniques such as SEO(Search Engine Optimization)/email targeting/official website promotion, local media channels and newspapers, various local or regional and national news channels, etc. The various social, public and other digital marketing platforms and mediums would be effective in maximizing public accessibility and gaining mass attention by considerably reducing or controlling the marketing and promotional costs or expenses. Again, the main focus or objective of the university administrations should be to display and highlight the positive aspects of the overall quality of education, existing infrastructural facilities and resources, and the major or notable successes that the individual universities have achieved in the recent past and would strive to maintain the same regardless of any kind of external adversities or difficulties.

2. In the context of actively attempting to improve the qualitative standards and conditions of the state universities, abiding by the International Quality Standards(ISO) using ISO 9000:2015 can expectedly benefit the universities. ISO 9000:2015 ideally represents an official certification or recognition that any particular commercial organization has satisfactorily followed and maintained certain qualitative standards and mandates in accordance with the international regulatory expectations and stipulations. It is basically related to certain principles and ideas of proper quality management which are globally associated with development of acceptable quality standards, consumer trust and confidence on the product or service quality provided by any organization, operational and productive efficiency of any organization, proper and clear communication among concerned organizational entities pertaining to quality management, proper and adequate training, evaluation and advice related to quality management, and so forth. Therefore, an official recognition or certification under the ISO 9000:2015 can immensely benefit the state universities in regaining or enhancing overall public trust and confidence through a convincing assurance of proper and adequate quality management and operational efficiency and productivity reflected by well-maintained teaching and infrastructural facilities and academic resources and endowments for students.

3. With regards to the various respective steps of strategic planning that can be considered to ensure proper and acceptable quality management, it is fundamentally necessary for the university administrations to reanalyze or re-emphasize on the specific student needs and requirements from a general perspective before designing any concrete quality management policy/s or plan/s. This entails holistically understanding the dynamic and constantly changing educational needs and requirements of the students intending to pursue higher education which have to be incorporated in any policy decision pertaining to quality management undertaken by the administrations. Secondly, the university administrations should also consider the main target consumer base of the state universities which predominantly includes students from lower and middle-income groups considering relatively lower admission and tuition fees compared to private universities. Therefore, the socioeconomic predispositions of the target consumer or student base are also crucial in the determination of any administrative policy or decisions regarding the admission and tuition fees and the educational quality standards. Thirdly, the university administrations should also predict or effectively forecast the factors or attributes that can potentially affect the overall qualitative standards of the universities and the enrollment or admission level. Some of these factors might include the changes in fiscal spending or expenditure on higher education both at the national and state level in the future, changes in the socioeconomic and demographic conditions of the students, variations or fluctuations in the labor market conditions or professional specifications of the firms or companies in various industries that might affect the educational needs and requirements of the students pursuing higher education, and so on. Fourthly, based on a predictive analysis or forecasting, it is imperative for the university administrations to compare the gap between the current state of the qualitative conditions or standards in the state universities and the expected future condition of the overall educational quality and standards that need to be ascertained. Fifthly, the administration has to identify the appropriate measures or policies that need to be implemented to diminish the gap between the current and future expected state or condition of the overall qualitative standards of the state universities. Based on the information provided in the case study presented in the question, some of these policy considerations can relate to the educational success of students, the overall graduation rate in the respective universities, teaching and infrastructural quality, admission or enrollment levels, classroom space, etc. Sixthly, on the basis of this analysis in the previous step, the university administration should come up with proper and revised planning on how to implement positive changes and required improvement in these aforementioned areas pertaining to the overall quality management. In this regard, the administrations can consider the necessary modifications that are required in various qualitative criteria or parameter such as teaching quality, infrastructural and academic resources/facilities available to students, classroom space, teacher to student ratio or composition, and so on and the proper budgetary allocation that would be required to effectively incorporate such changes in the operational system of the state universities. Lastly, the university administrations must thoroughly analyze how to practically implement these proposed or concerned changes that would expectedly improve the overall qualitative standards and conditions in the state universities. This comprises of the particular policies or measures to be implemented in each of the issues pertaining to the quality management that needs to be improved and a proper and concrete strategic planning on how and when such changes would become officially effective. It also involves a potential cost-benefit analysis of the respective administrative measures and policies regarding restructuring and improvement of the existing quality standards and conditions.