Title: Measuring academic quality: a three-dimensional approach for internal audit using DMAIC

Authors: Seena Biju; N. Sreekumaran Nair

Addresses: Department of Operations and Information Sciences, T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal, Karnataka 576104, India ' Department of Biostatistics (Biometrics), Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Dhanvantri Nagar, Puducherry 605006, India

Abstract: While institutes of higher education are progressively working to match their competencies with student priorities, market forces and academic concerns it becomes imperative for the institute/university to be able to link the three and comprehend the holistic impact of these dimensions on its quality index. Through this study the authors design and implement a three-dimensional model for measuring the perceived quality for institutes of higher education mapping its quality parameters with the stakeholder-expectations and based on the operating levels - this using the DMAIC roadmap in partial. The tool that is conceptualised in this study is an outcome of a pre-design survey (Define) following which the tool was developed and tested (Measure). The findings are based on the observations from two institutions of higher education (Analyse); this presented to the respective managements for their perusal and action (Pre-Improve) while confirming (or negating) their prior notions of Quality at the institute.

Keywords: academic quality; six sigma; lackademics; market priority; process operating level.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2017.086600

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2017 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.236 - 257

Received: 12 Aug 2016
Accepted: 04 Aug 2017
Published online: 12 Sep 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article