A Review of Quality Management research in Higher Education institutions

The purpose of this study is to determine the state of research in quality management in higher

education institutions based on a review of the academic literature. The aim is to provide

universities with the best evidence for informing their focus and models for quality

improvement. Despite quality’s role growing in importance as universities strive to compete in

an increasingly underfunded market for students and research funds the findings show that

research is limited in volume and scope. The findings show that the three most common topics

are quality management implementation issues, quality management models, techniques and

tools, and quality management dimensions. The key quality management enabling dimensions

found are: people management, process management and information and analysis, while the

results dimension is predominantly focused on an understanding of stakeholders’ requirements

and feedback on their perceptions of performance. We find in this literature that students are

discussed as both end customers as graduates and participants in the learning process who have

views on their experience. Also provided is an analysis that shows popular journal outlets,

research methodologies used and country focus. The paper concludes with recommendations

for the development of quality management for universities, and a future research agenda