GROUP NO.

17
Andrew Seby Thattil
Case studies of TQM implementation (00420903616)

in Education Sector Anuj Taparia

(00820903616)
Importance of TQM in Education sector

• Quality education is a great concern in many societies across the

world. In a highly competitive education sector, the success of
academic institutions depends on the quality of education.
• There are a number of educational institutes but they provide
theoretical education
• However, insufficient emphasis is given to practical knowledge
• Quality should be the essence of the education system so that other
fields will empower, advance and get every type of assistance from the
education system

Thus, there is a need of Total Quality Management to be implemented in

the Education Sector. Educationalists, policy makers, scholars, and
researchers are showing their sincere interest towards (TQM) as an
effective management philosophy for continuous improvement, customer
satisfaction, and organizational excellence.
Earlier attempts to implement TQM in Education Sector

• In 1988 at Mt. Edgcombe High School in Alaska, David Langford the • Case study of TQM
schools technology teacher/coordinator, applied total quality concepts implementation in
in his classes University of
• The association for supervision and curriculum development, for Wolverhampton, UK –
1991-92
example devoted its entire November, 1992 issue of its Journal, • Vast literature is available,
“Educational Leadership” to quality movement in education detailing the case studies
• In support of the TQM initiatives in education, Crawford and Shutler looking into TQM
(1999) applied Crosby model to suggest a practical strategy for using implementation in schools
TQM principles in education of countries around the
• Their strategy focused on the quality of teaching system used rather world such as Australia,
than on students, examination results UK, Zambia, Mauritius,
Greece etc.
India’s case

• The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) termed the quality lack

as quiet crises industries routinely point towards huge skill shortage
and are of the opinion that growth momentum and development may
not be sustained unless the problem of skill shortage is addressed
• Over last sixty-sixty years India has covered a long distance on the
path of expanding the institutional capacity in primary secondary and
higher education. In 1950 India had just 25 universities now above
704, colleges were 700, now we have above 36000 colleges, we have
7000 teacher training colleges, 1244 polytechnics, 1552 engineering
colleges, 170 medical colleges
• But the increase in number of patents and researches haven’t been as
exponential
A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies(1)

• At the Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies (RIMS) in Bangalore,

recruiters and accreditation bodies specifically called into question the
quality of students’ educations
• Research by industry bodies stated that, most MBAs in India were
unemployable and not industry ready due to quality gaps in education.
• The faculty finally began to notice clear hindrances in the success of
graduates.
• The RIMS board decided it was time for a serious reassessment of
quality management.

(1)
Source: Business School Improves Learning, Research, and Placement Measures With TQM, Janet Jacobsen
A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies – Contd.

Steps taken at RIMS:

• The school nominated Chief Academic Advisor Dr Krishnamurthy to
head a volunteer team that would audit, analyze and implement process
changes that would improve quality throughout (all in a particularly
academic fashion)
• The team was tasked with looking at three key dimensions: assurance
of learning, research and productivity, and quality of placements
• Each member underwent extensive training to learn about action
plans, quality auditing skills and continuous improvement tools – such
as the ‘plan-do-study-act’ cycle.
• Once faculty members were trained, the team’s first task was to
identify the school’s key stakeholders, processes and their
importance at the institute.
• From there, Krishnamurthy’s team used a Ishikawa/fishbone diagram
to help identify potential root causes of the issues plaguing these vital
processes
A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies – Contd.

Deficits discovered:
• A RIMS students’ knowledge base was rated at just 36 percent, while
students at Harvard rated 95 percent
• Students’ critical thinking abilities rated nine percent, versus 93
percent at MIT
• The mean salaries of graduating students averaged $36,000, versus
$150,000 for students from Kellogg
A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies – Contd.

Plan to move forward:

• To tackle these issues, Dr. Krishnamurthy created an employability
team, developed strategic architecture and designed pilot studies to
improve the school’s curriculum and make it more competitive
• The school actually started to provide shareholders with detailed
plans and projections
• It proceeded with a variety of new methods, such as incorporating
case studies into the curriculum, which increased general test scores
by almost 10 percent
• Administrators also introduced a mandate saying students must be
certified in English by the British Council – increasing scores from
42 percent to 51 percent.
A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies – Contd.

Results of TQM implementation in RIMS:

9%
Increase in test scores post total quality management strategy
22%
Increase in number of recruiters hiring from the school
20,000
Increase in the salary offered to graduates
50,000
Rise in placement revenue

This team-based project was a finalist in ASQ’s 2010 Education Team

Excellence Award process and earned the “Award of Distinction.”
Steps for implementation

• All the educational institutions should be provided sophisticated

infrastructure, well qualified teaching staff, well qualified
management to make TQM implementation success.
• Not only government aided institutions but privately managed
educational institutions should be insisted to adopt the philosophy of
TQM.
• There should be autonomous bodies for all the levels primary,
secondary and university which can inspect the educational
institutions after every one and two years, so that implementation of
TQM can be ensured.
• The concept should be applied wholly and solely to change education
system which would be according to changing times.