Exploring Total Quality Management (TQM) Approaches in Higher Education Institutions in a Globalized Environment- Case Analysis of UK and Sweden (Published)
Universally, the role of Higher Education is changing and getting becoming more and more integrated with the process of economic development and prosperity by contributing to the intellectual capital of many a country and act as a source of physical and social capital. This integrated global phenomenon is throwing multitudes of critical challenges in terms of developing qualitative approach towards managing higher education in a global platform with a clear objective to bring uniformity in many critical areas and reduce the gap of discrimination in terms of quality of education towards knowledge and skill building. This prudent approach and quality focus will make higher education not only more integrated with the global standards but also contribute to the talent equation of any country perfectly ready to take on global challenges and contribute towards economic growth and prosperity. The genesis of this research comes from the above backdrop which added to my quest to explore Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to Higher Education in a globalized environment with special focus on practices in United Kingdom and Sweden and analyze the practices of University College in Sweden. The quest to adopt TQM approach is to make the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) more qualitative in the knowledge generation and dissemination as measured in the three most critical areas of Teaching, Research and Consulting as a part of extended activities. Total Quality Management (TQM) is inevitably common factor that will shape the strategies of Higher Education Institutions in their attempt to satisfy major stakeholders like students, industry, society etc. This research is an attempt to explore adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) in HEIs as adopted by various industry and created bigger and better value delivery to its’ respective stakeholders and contributed richly to the economic development and prosperity of the nation. The adoption of Total Quality Management in education sector will have profound impact on the critical dimensions such as: Consistency, Fitness to purpose, Value for money, Transformative. The evolution of various internationally recognized quality agencies like EQNA in Europe and QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) in United Kingdom is making the tough task of bringing and managing quality in Higher Education Institution possible and creating a framework for meeting the increasing expectations of stakeholders in alignment with the changes in external environment. Last but not the least, TQM is a general management technique can be applied to Higher Education Institutions to define and attain quality with a focus to meet and exceed the expectations of stakeholders by instituting the process of continuous improvement. Over the last few years, TQM has been applied in the education industry. Majority of the applications have been in the administrative side of the institutions, but some institutions have applied TQM to curriculum development and delivery area.
Keywords: Culture, Customers of higher education, Higher Education Institutions, Implementation, Models of implementation, Quality in Higher Education, Total Quality Management, Transformations
PERFORMANCE CONTRACT IN KENYAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES; IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND STRATEGIES (Review Completed - Accepted)
The purpose of the study was to investigate performance contract implementation issues and strategies in Kenya, a case study of Moi University.The objectives of study were to; investigate performance contract implementation issues in relation to staff performance review; asses performance contract issues in relation to consequences of signing performance Contract ;establish staff issues in relation to implementation of performance contract policy for lecturers.A case study was used to guide this study which utilized mixed method approach. The target population was 761 academic staff and 994 non academic staff. Purposive sampling was used to select 19 staff of high cadre. Proportionate stratified sampling was used to get 50% of the departments from each school and from departments in the administrative unit. A total of 170 academic staff and118 non academic staff participated in this study. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview shedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics whereby frequencies and percentages were used. The study found out that employees were not allowed to participate and contribute in setting targets at the beginning of the contract period. Furthermore, it was found out that signing of performance contract led to improved service delivery,greater job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. However, good work is not noticed, recognized and rewarded and no sanctions were made at the end of the contract period. It was recommended that the institution should ensure that staff are allowed to participate and contribute in setting the realistic and achievable targets in their departments at the beginning of the contract period. The government through universities should design a reward or sanction system as they implement the signing of Performance Contract in government institutions. It was further recommended that; for proper implementation, more training on the content of the performance contract should be done. It is hoped that the findings of this study will form a basis for formulation of policies on strategies for effective implementation of performance contract in gorvenment institutions. Furthermore, policy solutions will be provided on challenges of implementing performance contracting. .
Keywords: Implementation, Issues, Performance Contract, Service delivery, Strategies.
STRATEGIES FOR REVITALIZING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN TECHNICAL, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) TO ENHANCE SELF-EMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA (Published)
The study was carried out to determine strategies for revitalizing the implementation of entrepreneurship education in Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to enhance self-employment in Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The population was made up of 61 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) administrators and 96 entrepreneurs in Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs in the geo-political zones covered by the study. The instrument was face-validated by five TVET experts in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the reliability and a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data collected. The study found strategies for revitalizing the implementation of entrepreneurship education in TVET as well as the basic entrepreneurship skills for self-employment and the challenges of revitalizing entrepreneurship education implementation in Nigeria. It was recommended that government should create an enabling environment for smooth running of the laudable entrepreneurship education programme Teachers in TVET should adapt to changes by making themselves available for training and re- training on the nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship education
Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, Implementation, Revitalizing, Self-employment, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET).