Enhancing the Quality of a Higher Education Course: Quality Function Deployment and Kano Model Integration

Abstract

There is an important relationship between the quality of undergraduate education and competitiveness in the global economy, especially for emerging economies. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is one of the important methodologies in Total Quality Management (TQM) to translate customer requirements into technical specifications. The purpose of this study is to apply Third Generation Western QFD methodology together with Kano model to categorize and prioritize the needs of customers to increase a graduate-level course quality in higher education. To this end, the Voice of the Customer was identified through the Kano technique that enables categorization and prioritization of student requirements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study in the literature that integrates the aforementioned methodologies in the field of higher education. With this integration, a focused quality house was generated which includes only prominent student and technical requirements. Accordingly, the prominent student requirements, which are classified as one-dimensional needs, are found to be the ones that are mostly lecturer-oriented attributes, such as the lecturer's theoretical and industrial knowledge. The interaction of the course with the industry, such as technical trips and invited speakers, which are called as attractive needs, are found to increase student satisfaction by creating delight. The prominent technical requirements are found to be budget/funds, number of students enrolled, lecturer workload, industry trip, good communication/empathy, lecturer qualifications, and competency in teaching. The combined framework may help educational decision-makers to identify and satisfy the main student requirements to enhance the quality of educational service processes.