Total Quality Management in Education

(Project NOVA POLYS I) (Diss.)

Researchers:

Partners:

ETH Zurich (Administration Services); a large commercial and vocational school (ICEC), in Bellinzona TI

Financed by:

Departement for Education and Culture, Bellinzona TI

As far as modern business management is concerned, quality has become of fundamental importance. At first, it was introduced in the industrial field in order to face the Japanese economic expansion. Then, it appeared in the service field and in the advanced tertiary sector. As a matter of fact, the control and the management of quality assumed an important role also in banks, insurance companies, software companies, health care and tourist organizations. In addition, we are witnessing the affirmation of international models for quality management, such as the ISO 9000 international standards, the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model in Europe, or the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in the United States.

To date, there is actually a field that has been ''forgotten'' from management theories and from quality management concepts in particular. That is the education field. In some European countries (particularly in Great Britain and in the Netherlands), this field has already experienced the introduction of concepts of quality management, with different results. In other countries, Switzerland included, a more ''personalized'' approach has been privileged. That is, every school can choose its own approach to the management of quality.The problem of choosing a model for the definition and the evaluation of quality in the school is still there. Questions that in a business can be clear, may instead be difficult to define in a school. What does quality in a school mean? Who are the customers? What are their actual demands? How do I measure them? How do I measure the success of a school? Etc.

The aim of the project was to develop a new reference model for the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in a school, on the basis of the European TQM-model (EFQM-model). The project was carried out between 1995 and 1996 in the Istituto Cantonale di Economia e Commercio ICEC, a large commercial-vocational school in Bellinzona, enabling the researchers to evaluate the EFQM approach in the educational field. A central quality-team was trainend in the main issues of quality management and in April 1996 it carried out the first self-assessment of the whole institute. Following the self-assessment, several quality improvements projects were launched, including a survey on student's satisfaction, definition of vision and strategy of the school and the improvements of the communication between students and school managers.

The main findings of the project were presented and critically discussed in a doctorate work published in 1998.