A 3D view of issues of quality in higher education

Abstract

This study presents the results of a comparison of the maturity of the quality management systems and the results of higher education institutions in relation to graduates and their employers. The comparison drew on the perspectives of three most important interested parties – teachers, graduates and their employers. The study examines arguments regarding the meaningfulness of support for improvements in management systems in higher education. It provides information on the purposes and benefits of total quality management (TQM) in higher education, which have previously been discussed mainly in theoretically oriented studies. The study is based on an analysis of attitudes to quality in higher education institutions. The empirical part of the study aims to fill the research gap into the measurement of the benefits of TQM for higher education institutions. The study formulates its own methodology for this based on elements of the Common Assessment Framework and the European Commission's system for measuring education outcomes and national quality assessment in the Slovak Republic. Two hypotheses were made during the formulation of the research problem regarding the positive contributions of TQM and these were confirmed through stratification and subsequent regression analysis. The statistical reliability of the sample was taken into account when testing the hypothesis.

Keywords:

• TQM
• quality
• learning outcomes
• higher education
• teachers
• graduates
• employers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Miroslav Hrnčiar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9630-7239

Peter Madzík http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1655-6500

Notes

1. The research was designed and implemented in the Slovak Republic (SVK). Slovak law includes requirements for QMSs in higher education that are based on the ESG. These requirements include, for example, an obligation for every higher education institution to design and implement its own quality management system. These systems are inspected and assessed by the Accreditation Commission, which is an advisory body to the government of SVK.