Re-conceptualisation of higher education quality management problems using feedback systems thinking Online publication date: Mon, 20-Jul-2009
by Benedict Oyo, Ddembe Williams
International Journal of Management in Education (IJMIE), Vol. 3, No. 3/4, 2009
Abstract: Higher education institutions' quality management related problems are rooted in the underlying dynamics, complexity and nonlinearity of the systems' structure in educational settings. An attempt to address these problems before understanding their causes has often led to no lasting solution. It has also been suggested that the degree of success of any intervention approach to quality improvement depends on the rigour of problem conceptualisation phase. This paper calls for the adoption of cause-effect analysis in identifying and representing higher education quality management problems, taking into account the inherent feedback within the quality system structure. The paper contends that feedback systems thinking provides higher education managers and quality assurance researchers with tools for quality process analysis. A feedback structure drawn from the Ugandan universities' setting is used to illustrate the usefulness of feedback systems thinking for conceptualisation of quality problems.
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