JEROME DE LISLE© 2011
SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONUNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES St. Augustine.
QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS:THE WHOLE OR THE PART?
Accreditation and registration are a quest for quality
• ACTT Registration Standards• CRITERION 3.0: Quality Management System - The institution has a well-planned Quality Management System that is in keeping with its vision, mission, policies, processes, organisational structure, responsibilities and resources, in order to assure the quality of educational outcomes.• CRITERION 6.0: Review - The institution’s management reviews the Quality Management System at planned intervals to ensure that it is suitable, adequate and effective. Records of the review are kept.• CRITERION 7.0: Continuous Improvement - The institution continually reviews its Quality Management System.
Stakeholders’ and organizational member's worldviews are critical to achieving quality
Value-Assumptions and Beliefs are critical in fostering institutional change
Gladstone Mills
Edwin Jones
Metapatterns and Meta-Myths are hidden parts of that iceberg
Organizations are more than structures & processes
Quality is a multi-dimensional concept
Quality
ExcellenceRanking?
PerfectionZero-Error?
Fitness for Purpose
Standards & Goals?
Value for Money
Completion Rates & Costs
Transforming
Innovative & Creative?
Characteristics of an effective quality management system
1) clear specification of roles, responsibilities and procedures;
2) enabling of institutional aims and objectives to be achieved;
3) informing decision making;4) freedom from individual bias;5) repeatable over time;6) involves all staff;7) includes the specification of standards and
acceptable evidence;8) prompts continuous improvement
The argumentQuality
Management
System
Quality Culture
Evaluative Thinking
Systems Thinking
The value of systems thinking
•Systems thinking is the process of understanding how different parts influence one another within the whole.
The Value of Systems Thinking
•There is value in conceptualizing the whole rather than just the part
The Value of Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking helps us deal with unpredictability
Systems Thinking is needed for innovative solutions to problems
Adding evaluative thinking to our worldview
•“Evaluative thinking includes a willingness to do reality testing, to ask the question: how do we know what we think that we know. To use data to inform decisions — not to make data the only basis of decisions — but to bring data to bear on decisions”.
• Michael Quinn Patton
Organizational Learning as a critical outcome
Organizational Learning
Systems Thinking
Evaluative Thinking Continuous
Improvement
Fostering organizational learning
Organizational learning and system renewal-The path to continuous improvement
•We can learn from ‘failures’ too - That is what corrective action is about.
Leadership must model the correct thinking
The QMS is the embodiment of a quality culture
1) an open and active commitment to quality at all levels;2) a willingness to engage in self-evaluation;3) a firm regulatory framework; clarity and consistency of
procedures;4) explicit responsibilities for quality control and quality
assurance;5) an emphasis on obtaining feedback, from a range of
constituencies;6) a clear commitment to identifying and disseminating
good practice;7) prompt, appropriate, and sensitive managerial action
to redress problems, supported by adequate information
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