ISO 9000 in Education: A Comparison between the United States and England

Abstract

Quality schooling has often been a subject of international concern. In an effort to meet government standards for federal funding, improve their performance, and obtain public trust, education institutions of all levels, in many countries are implementing the market-based ISO 9000 quality management system. ISO 9000 is an international quality management system created by the non-governmental organization, International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The literature surrounding ISO 9000 in education indicates that the application of this quality management system to education is debatable, the implementation process is time-consuming and difficult, and that the subject is understudied. While there have been numerous case studies on ISO 9000 in education, this was the first study to use quantitative survey research methods to examine and compare ISO 9000 implementation in education institutions in two different countries, the United States and England. Interestingly, US and English institutions turned out to be very much the same with regard to ISO 9000. For example, US and English education institutions have a similar time to ISO 9000 registration, define their customer, stakeholder, suppliers, and partners in the same manner, and are implementing ISO 9000 for similar reasons.