Abstract:

Quality management, audits and accreditations are current topics in higher education institutions on management level, academic level and service level. Different systems, standards and approaches are in use in higher education, as external recognition is considered important.

There are over one million organizations in over 170 countries certified to ISO 9001 Quality management standard, but the system is not widely used in education organizations. The ISO system follows a process approach, and it is built on the concept of continuous improvement and risk-based thinking. In the competitive era the universities are living in, the quality management principles guiding the ISO standard can be considered essential for success; Customer focus, Leadership, Engagement of people, Process approach, Improvement, Evidence-based decision making and Relationship management.

Satakunta University of Applied Sciences has been adopting these quality management principles for a long time, and for the past 10 years it has had externally certified ISO 9001 compliant quality management system covering all the activities in all the faculties and services. The journey has required a lot of work, and it is still ongoing daily. The system has improved operational processes, given structure for the staff and students. At the same time quality management systems can be considered bureaucratic, increasing documentation needs and limiting innovation and experimenting.

There was a study made to find out how the teaching and research staff in engineering faculty perceive the structured, externally audited standard-based quality management system in their work, taking into consideration the concept of academic freedom and innovation needs. The study explored how staff perceive the importance of quality management principles in their work, and how the importance of a quality management system is perceived. As a result of the study, it was found out that the framework provided by the quality management system is perceived as important, but its processes are not always perceived as normative. Too strict rules are perceived to restrict an expert's freedom to do work, which is why many experts rely more on their own views on quality practices. As many expert organizations comply with the standard, there may be a difference in education experts’ view on quality compared to industrial organizations. This may impact student experience in different ways.

Based on the study, the engineering employees mainly understand the importance of quality management principles of ISO 9001 standard. The role of customer satisfaction is one of the most interesting aspects, as students are not always considered as customers. But, according to the study, the staff does not experience the benefits of standardization when considering purely internal and student-related operations. The external significance for the stakeholders, for example, is understood more easily as a marketing and assurance tool. Despite lacking to achieve deep relevance with the target organization’s staff members, the system is mainly in use and structures are appreciated. But in many cases it is considered that good quality does not require external certification and validation.

Keywords:

Quality, quality management system, ISO 9001.