An integrated framework of indices for quality management in education: a faculty perspective

Purpose – Education is becoming much more of a “product” with varying customers and stakeholders. There are huge pressures to become more accountable and responsive to customer needs, and educational institutions need to become more efficient, effective and customer‐centric. Quality is fast emerging as a theme that is rapidly spreading within the higher education institutions. However, the emphasis has been essentially an external customer's perspective, i.e. an employer or a student perspective. The internal customer's perspective has generally been ignored. This study aims to examine faculty's, i.e. an internal customer's, perspective about quality systems in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – The study undertaken is exploratory and diagnostic in nature, aimed at identifying the set of minimum design characteristics/quality components that would meet the requirements of the faculty. An extensive literature review led to identification of variables that were pilot tested for validity and reliability. The empirical study was conducted across engineering and management institutions in and around Delhi, India, imparting graduate and post‐graduate professional degrees/diplomas with the sample comprising the faculty. Multiple tools and techniques were used to quantitatively and qualitatively arrive at a synthesized and integrated model of quality management in education. Findings – Based on the analysis of data through quantitative and qualitative tools, the study helped in the identification of quality components, which, if adopted and implemented, could lead to satisfaction of the faculty. Practical implications – Employee satisfaction is a major driver towards adoption of a customer centric philosophy by any organization and the educational system is no exception. Every organization should consider the requirements of their employees and initiate measures to meet them so as to cultivate employee satisfaction. Originality/value – While quality management in higher education has been a focus of research all over the world, the vast array of literature illustrates that research has essentially focused on the external customer of the educational system. The study was conducted with the objective of obtaining an internal customers' perspective by focusing on the faculty and proposing an integrated framework for quality management in education.