Establishing a quality culture in Higher Education: A South African perspective

The merger of Higher Education Institutions (HEI´s) has created monolithic organisations of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in administrative and academic processes. It was the result of mismatched and outdated processes inherited from merged institutions. The student or customer is deprived of a quality service by the unwieldy processes. The end users of the product from the HEI´s are uncertain of the quality of the finished product that would be employable. Employers measure qualified students to certain quality standards. In the past-two decades industry realized to remain competitive, continuous improvement became imperative for success. HEI´s is not excluded from competitive pressures. The debate currently raging is whether total quality management (TQM) principles could be applied in HEI´s. The methodology of TQM has been utilized in industry over an extended period of time with impressive results. A major obstacle in applying TQM in HEI´s is the argument that there are environmental differences between industry and HEI´s. The aim of the article is to find common ground between industry and HEI´s. The above could be achieved by tailoring the major features and potentialities of basic TQM principles and guidelines to fit HEI´s.