IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS ACHIEVED BY THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a way of managing everything in an organization or institution in order to get the level of excellence. The present study is conducted to investigate the implementation of TQM elements in public and private universities, the results achieved by the universities and to compare the implementation of TQM elements and results achieved by public and private universities. Mixed methods research design was used in this study. The population of the study was directors of quality enhancement cell (QEC), teachers and students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data from directors of QECs. Close-ended questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers and students. Quantitative data were analyzed by mean scores. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative. In order to compare the results achieved by the public and private universities t.test was applied. The findings showed that public and private universities are struggling hard to implement TQM elements, but still they are lacking behind in some aspects like quality of infrastructure and quality assurance process, it is recommended to obtain feedback from students and teachers every semester, involve teachers in quality planning process, provide reward and appreciation to teachers for their better performance which may improve students and teachers’ level of satisfaction and quality of teaching learning process.