Investigation on Quality Enhancement in Engineering Colleges in Kerala Using TQM

Abstract

The quality of higher education is everybody’s concern today. Various studies and commission reports at official
level has recognized the same and given recommendations for its improvement. Engineering education is currently being
steered towards a market-oriented environment. Philosophies like total quality management (TQM), which have been
successfully adopted in commercial organizations, are generally seen as the way forward. Institutions of higher learning have
now begun to re-examine the educational process and the application of TQM principles in academics. TQM in engineering
education is a process that involves the institutions adopting a total quality approach to the entire academic process and
environment. For the proper steering and implementation of TQM in engineering education a study is need to be conducted.
For the study purpose the engineering education institutions in Kottayam district is selected as the target population.
To ascertain and understand the key issues in relation to the working of the engineering education system a pilot study was
carried with three focus groups top management, teachers and students. The main aim of the study is to propose a framework
for effective Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation in engineering Education. A theoretical framework of the
Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for implementing TQM is developed from the literatures. The current climate in engineering
education places students as primary consumers, for that the study adopts the SERVQUAL instrument to assess the quality
services from the point view of the students. On the other side a structured questionnaire survey is carried out to gather
information from management and staff. Finally, the work concludes with proposing a framework for effective implementation
of TQM in engineering institutions and some recommendations for education development in the light of TQM and some
recommendations for further studies.