Synopsis towards partial fulfillment of Ph.D.

(Management) degree in
Management Studies

On

A study of Total Quality Management (TQM) Implementation in Professional

Higher Education Institutions in Maharashtra.

Submitted by

Rahul Vishwanath Mulay

Ph.D. Registration Number. – 55/18-11-2016

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Vandana Tandon Khanna

Submitted to the

University of Mumbai

For

The Degree in Doctor of Philosophy- Ph.D. (Management) in Management

Studies

K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research

Vidyavihar, Mumbai, 400077

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 SYNOPSIS

Submission of Synopsis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy- Ph.D. (Management) in

Management Studies

Topic: A study of Total Quality Management (TQM)

Implementation in Professional Higher
Education Institutions in Maharashtra.

Name of the Candidate: Rahul Vishwanath Mulay

Registration Number: 55/18-11-2016

Name of the Guide: Dr.Vandana Tandon Khanna

Designation of the Guide: Professor, Marketing, K.J. Somaiya Institute of

Management Studies and Research, Mumbai

Place of Research Work: K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies

and Research, Vidyavihar, Mumbai, 400077

Date of Submission of Synopsis: May 07, 2019

Signature of the Candidate: _____________________

Signature of the Guide: _____________________

Seal of Head/Director/Principal
College Research Center

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 STATEMENT BY THE CANDIDATE

As required by the University Ordinance 770, I wish to state that the work embodied in this
thesis titled ―A study of Total Quality Management (TQM) Implementation in
Professional Higher Education Institutions in Maharashtra‖ forms my own contribution
to the research work carried out under the guidance of Dr. Vandana Tandon Khanna at the
K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research. This work has NOT been
submitted for any other degree of this or any University. Whenever references have been
made to the previous works of others, it has been clearly indicated as such and included in
the References and Bibliography.

_____________________

Signature of Candidate

Rahul Vishwanath Mulay

Certified by

_______________

Signature of Guide

Dr. Vandana Tandon Khanna

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Table of Contents

Chapter Chapter Name Page Number

Number
1 Introduction 135

2 Literature Review 138

3 Research Methodology 165

4 Data Analysis 177

5 Discussion of Results and Conclusions 192

References & Bibliography 196

Appendix A (Final Survey Questionnaire) 201
Appendix B (List of Publications) 206

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List of Abbreviations
AICTE All India Council for Technical Education
CII Confederation of Indian Industries
CRISIL Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited
E&Y Ernst & Young
FICCI Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry
UGC University Grants Commission

HE Higher Education
HEI Higher Education Institutions
TQM Total Quality Management

DV1 Dependent Variable 1

DV2 Dependent Variable 2
DV3 Dependent Variable 3
DV4 Dependent Variable 4

IV1 Independent Variable 1

IV2 Independent Variable 2
IV3 Independent Variable 3

TQML Quality Management Implementation and Leadership

IP Institute Productivity
SI Staff Interaction
QC Quality Control

AD Admission Process
EX Exam Process
PL Placement Process

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 Chapter 1
Introduction
Quality is one of the most sought after feature in all spheres of life. Quality of the business
process(es) and the deliverables are an important parameter in gauging the success of the
business. Customer‘s expectations and the value that they derive from the service(s) are very
important aspects of Quality. The Oxford Dictionary defines quality as ―degree of goodness
or worth‖. Some of the pioneers and quality gurus of the quality movement have given
definitions such as ―Conformance to the specifications, ―Fitness for use‖ and ―Meeting the
customer needs‖ and thereby creating Value and Business Transformation. Quality is thus
related to profitability and growth of the organization. These are generic definitions and are
applicable to all products i.e. goods and services.

Total Quality Management is a widely used to translate the customer expectations into
product specifications and the production process. Quality of a service is user based and
defined by the customer. TQM is applicable for goods and services. Hence, the importance
of meeting the needs and expectation of the customer at a cost that represents the best value
to him and enhancing the image of the organization.

1.1 Quality in Higher Education

The 21st century presents a challenging environment for Education institutes, and they have
to adopt to this fast changing environment. Academic institutes with quality delivery systems
will be able to survive. In today‘s age of fierce competition there are a number of quality
improvement methods such as Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Quality Circles,
Quality Function Deployment, ISO etc. for improving and managing quality (Sahu, A.R.,
Shrivastava, R.L., Shrivastava, R.R, 2013).

Higher education plays important role in realizing the potential of a country and thus lays the
foundation for its success. Quality in education services helps build skills and aids in the
development of the nation. Quality of higher education is essential for the country‘s
economic growth and technological innovation. Various reports point out the fact that
though the number of higher education institutions across India is high, the quality of
education is not upto the mark. In an era where some institutions are closing and many seats
are going vacant, a study of quality in the education will be helpful to the Board of
Governors and Managements of the Institutions. Rapid growth of institutes in India has

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raised a serious debate on quality (Jagadeesh, 2000 as quoted by Mahajan, R. et al. (2014).
Not more than 30 institutes in the country have systems and processes in place to deliver
quality education (Palety, 2009 as quoted by Mahajan, R. et al. 2014). The majority of them
face shortage of faculty and other sources.

In the past decade, much has been written about Total Quality Management (TQM) in
manufacturing; however, less attention has been paid to the education sector (Mehta, N. et
al, 2014). Total quality management (TQM) is a powerful tool to deal with the challenges
faced by the stakeholders. As far as the processes are concerned, TQM encompasses
continuous improvement and work improvement.

Quality in education has a systems approach. TQM is concerned with promoting

organizational effectiveness through the excellence, reliability of an organization‘s goods
and service, with its objective of creating a quality culture and developing the principles of
error-free work (Deshmukh, 2006).

The role of administrative staff is important as administration plays an important role in

smooth functioning of non-teaching activities of technical institutes (Singh et al., 2007)..
Many dimensions of it (administrative set-up) needs more close look for identifying areas for
possible improvement. Hence this area should be explored in detail for achieving global
quality standards in technical institutes. Administrative staff is important in the Input-
Process-Output chain of educational process (Sahney, S., Banwet, D.K., Karunes, S., 2010).
The satisfaction of the external customer is dependent on the internal customer and hence it
is necessary to obtain the internal customer perspective on Quality

1.2 The Idea of this study

The idea of this study was to find the Quality impact (in terms of customer expectations) in
some of the Administrative processes in professional higher education institutions. The
literature review revealed that TQM in higher education studies mainly focused on teaching,
learning, student issues, infrastructure, pedagogy etc. There are very few studies particularly
about the quality in terms of administrative processes, hence the researcher felt the need to
study this aspect. Further, there are few studies about this aspect of quality in private (un
aided) professional education institutions in Maharashtra.

This study focuses on some of the activities (processes) of academic institution with the
objective of identifying and measuring quality (from the stakeholder point of view) in the

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process that will aid in improving the quality of the academic institution. The outcome of
this study should help institutions to understand and focus on the activities to enhance
quality and customer satisfaction in the selected administrative processes.

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 Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is defined as the art of managing the whole system to achieve excellence (Besterfield
et al., 2008 as cited in Burli, Bagodi and Kotturshettar, 2012). This system consists of
processes and activities. TQM is a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that aid in
continuous improvement in the organisation.
Total means ―made up of the whole‖
Quality- ―Degree of excellence a Product or a service provides.‖
Management- ―The Act, art or manner of handling, controlling, designing‖
TQM requires a committed management to provide the required organisational support and
continuous focus on the customer (both internal customer and external customer)
(Besterfield et al., 2015). In TQM, the responsibility to achieve the desired goal is
everyone‘s and not just that of the Quality control department. The emphasis is on
prevention rather than only detection. The objective of TQM is to provide quality service,
which will in turn help improve productivity and competitiveness of the firm.
TQM has been used for quality improvement in different universities in different parts of the
world, including India. Quality as a concept has its roots in industry and management
(Gandhi, 2014)

2.2 TQM in Services

A process is a collection of interacting components that transforms inputs into outputs which
are of value to the customer (Gitlow, H.S. et al. 2009). It is the job of management to
optimize the entire process towards its aim. Transformation consists of addition of value to
the process. All processes in an organisation have suppliers and customers (internal and
external).
Employees and Information Technology are two main components of a service system.
Research has indicated that when employees‘ job satisfaction is high, customer satisfaction
is also high in a service business (Heskett et al. 2008). The intelligent use of Information
Technology leads to improved quality and productivity. Service industries exploit
information technology to improve customer service.

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Service quality is the difference between customer expectation and perceptions of the service
delivered by the firm (Raj, A.A., 2012).Service quality evaluates the reflection of the
customer perceptions. Of the dimensions of services. Service quality is judged by the
assessment of the user or customer of the service. In case of education, a service encounter
with the office staff could be one of the ways for evaluating the service quality (Hill, 1995 as
cited in Raj, A.A., 2012).
Higher Education (HE) sector has started implementing TQM, and has adopted a customer
centric approach. An appropriate way to measure quality in service is to assess the
perception of the customers (Jain, R., Sinha, G. and Sahney, S., 2011). An understanding of
how customer perceive quality can provide valuable information to design the service
delivery.
Knowing that quality is important issue in achieving success in a service business, the paper
pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of implementing QFD in a service sector
(Andronikidis, A., Georgiou, A.C., Gotzamani, K., Kamvysi, K. 1999). The unique approach
of QFD is its ability to integrate customer demands with the technical aspects of a service.
The authors have proposed a framework to make modifications to the QFD to provide a
quick response to changing customer requirements. This is because customer needs and
perceptions about a service change with time. Hence, to monitor the trend for each of the
customer requirements and service features, a markov chain model is integrated to the House
of Quality (HOQ). The paper proposed Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic
Network Process (ANP) based quantitative techniques that enhance the effectiveness and
efficiency of QFD

2.3 Higher Education

Higher Education is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after secondary
education. The institutions imparting higher education in India can be classified as:

1. Central Universities under the government

2. Autonomous Higher education institutes in the country

3. State Universities

4. Deemed to be Universities

5. Private Universities

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6. Aided and Un-aided colleges affiliated to the Central/State Universities.

During the year 2016-17 (last year of the XII Plan) there were 795 Universities (47
Central,123 Deemed, 360 State, 262 State Private and 3 Institutions under Special State
Legislature Act) (UGC Annual report, 2017-18). There were 24260 Private, unaided coleges,
which accounted for 64% of the total affiliated/constituent colleges.

The growth of higher education in India has been phenomenal (Kaul, S., 2006). In 1950,
there were 263000 students in 750 colleges. In 2005 the figure has grown to 11 million
students in 17000 colleges. Higher education in India is controlled by the University Grants
Commission (UGC as well as AICTE)
Getting grants for private colleges is difficult. Governments and universities are given
affiliation to unaided colleges and universities fore authorising self-financed courses (Kaul,
S., 2006). If India has to host the Research and Development and other facilities of the
world‘s best and largest companies, the emphasis should be on the Higher education to meet
the demand of qualified personnel.
The needs of higher education system have been increasing rapidly, forcing the government
to put in measures such as hike in student fee, student loans and privatization because public
budget alone cannot adequately fund higher education. These measures resulted in more
private institutions among the total Higher Education Institutions (Table 1) (FICCI Report,
2012). It is observed that, in 2012, there were 58.9% of students enrolled in private higher
education institutes.
Table 1: Private institutes account for the majority of HEIs as well as student enrollment

Private State Central

Number of HEIs by 63.9 35.6 0.5
Ownership
Enrolment by 58.9 38.6 2.6
Ownership

Source: Higher Education in India: 12th FYP 2012-2017 and beyond, FICCI Higher
Education Summit 2012

According to FICCI Higher Education Summit (2019), With over 720 Universities, 45000
colleges and 31 million students as of 2013, India‘s higher education system is among the
largest in the world. Higher education plays important role in realizing the potential of a
country and thus lays the foundation for its success. Quality helps build skills and thus aids
in the development of the nation. Hence understanding quality is important.

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With a large number of companies setting shop as well as outsourcing jobs here, the demand
for quality graduates in various disciplines has increased. This can be made possible by
focusing on the quality of education provided.
CRISIL did the study and graded the institutes on into 4 categories based on occupancy rate,
number of students placed, average annual salary and average course fees.
Table 2A: Grading Of B-Schools in Categories
Category % Of Occupancy Avg Annual Number of Program Fees
Institute Rate (in %) salary in students placed avg in RsLacs
s RsLacs in %
T1 Top B 1 95-100 9+ 98-100 12-15
Schools
T2 10 80-95 5-9 80-98 8-12
T3 52 70-80 3-5 60-80 5-8
T4 37 0-80 0-3 0-60 0-5
Source: Crisil Research Report
The four grades of institutions are Tier1, Tier2, Tier3 and Tier4, in the descending order of
the parameters stated above. Their report says that there are fewer takers for MBA programs
as placements are shrinking and the Quality of education is falling especially in such tier 3
and 4 institutes. As per the CRISIL research, 4500 institutes in the country fall in the T3 and
T4 category.
As per another report by Times News Network July 2014 says that 40% of the Management
seats in the State of Maharashtra are not filled in this year 2014-15. This again is a fallout of
the quality in education. Maharashtra has 45000 (forty five thousand). The report puts that
25800, 20757, 42490 students have filled up the forms for MBA/MMS courses in 2014-15.
2013-14, 2012-13 respectively.

Table 2B: Growth in Student Enrollment by Field of Study in India (2008-2016)

Field of Study 2008 2016 Increase Increase
(numbers) (%)
Engineering/Technology 1313706 4885134 3571428 272
Commerce/Management 2486901 4637317 2150416 86
Source: UGC India, Analysed by DrEducation.com

2.4 Privatisation in Higher Education and (Growth of Private higher education)

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Growth of private higher education has primarily happened in professional courses like
engineering, medicine, management, etc. India has the third largest higher education system
in the world, next only to China and the United States. The changed financing patterns have
had an impact on the regulations, efficiency and quality aspects of higher education (Joshi,
K.M., Ahir, K. V., 2013). Majority of professional institutions such as engineering and
management are in private sector (FICCI, 2011). As an example, 91% of engineering
colleges are set up by the private sector, and 9% are public institutions. In management
education, 64% of the institutions are private and 34 % are public institutions.

There has been a phenomenal growth in the Indian higher education sector.

Table 03A: The number of universities has grown more than six times in the last four
decades

Year Number of Universities in India

1970-71 103
1980-81 133
1990-91 190
2000-01 256
2006-07 387
2011-12 659

Source: Twelfth Five Year Plan: Chapter on higher education, as mentioned in the Higher
Education in India: Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) and beyond; FICCI Higher
Education Summit 2012

Table 03B Growth in Universities and Colleges in India (2008-2016)

Type of Institutions 2008 2016 Increase Increase

(numbers) (%)
Central Universities 25 47 22 88
State Universities 228 345 117 51
State Private Universities 14 235 221 1579
Deemed to be Universities 103 123 20 19

Colleges 23206 41435 18229 79

Source: UGC India, Analysed by DrEducation.com

Table 04: India has more than 33,000 colleges with one-third of the colleges having been set
up in the last five years

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Year Number of Colleges
1970-71 3,604
1980-81 4,722
1990-91 7,346
2000-01 12,806
2006-07 21,170
2011-12 33,023

Source: Twelfth Five Year Plan: Chapter on higher education, as mentioned in the Higher
Education in India: Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) and beyond; FICCI Higher
Education Summit 2012

A report by FICCI (2012) in its higher education summit indicates that the share
(percentage) of private institutions is steadily growing in India (Table 6). In 2001 about 42%
of higher education institutions were private while in 2012, the share has risen to 63.9%.

Table 5: The share of unaided private institutions in the total number of institutions
Year Percentage of Private
institutes
2001 42.6
2007 61.8
2012 63.9

Source: Higher Education in India: 12th FYP 2012-2017 and beyond, FICCI Higher Education
Summit 2012

In the 1980‘s, there was a huge demand for higher education to fulfill the needs of the
industry (Sinha Sujata, 2014). Government seats were limited, and payment capacity of
people increased. This, along with the economic reforms of the 1990s gave an impetus to
private (or non-subsidized) education. Privatization has resulted due to sort of state system
failure (Joshi, K.M., Ahir, K.V., 2013). Within a small duration of five years from 2001–
2006 the unaided private higher education accounted for 63 per cent (from 43 per cent in
2001) of the total higher education institutes and 52 per cent (from 33% in 2001) of the total
higher education enrolments (FICCI, 2011). Since 2005–2011, the State Private Universities
have witnessed a fifteen-fold rise in the number of institutes from 6 to 94.
Privatization means many things in higher education (Altbach, P.G., Reisberg, L., Rumbled,
L.E., 2009). Private institutions may operate entirely with private assets or partially with
public funds; they may be for-profit or non-profit; they may be accountable to the host
government or operate completely outside of local regulation; they may have owners or
investors or operate as foundations. Public sector, where institutions are being encouraged to

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decrease their dependence on public funds and be more competitive is also a kind of
privatization.
In India, the private sector has till now been instrumental in increasing penetration and
enrollment, especially in professional disciplines (FICCI, 2011). As per the report, unaided
private higher education institutions were 43% and 63% as a percentage of the Total
institutions in 2001 and 2006 respectively. Also, the enrollment of students in unaided
private higher education institutions was 33 % and 52% of the total enrollment in 2001 and
2006 respectively.
During the 1980‘s, business education was considered as passport to better jobs in corporate
by students (Kumar, M. & Jha, S., 2012). After liberalization in the 90s, many multi-
national companies came to India and the demand for business graduates sky rocketed.
Subsequently, many entrepreneurs and business houses tapped this opportunity and set up
management institutes in various parts of India. As the importance of Management has
increased, we find many students and working professionals wishing to do management
courses to achieve their career goals (Maharshi, N. et al., 2013). The study discussed the
current management education and the challenges therein. India witnessed growth in
management education because of the demand for trained management graduates.
The limited number of state-funded engineering education institutions (EEIs) in India and
the reduced funding in engineering education from the government have caused the
burgeoning of private institutions (Mehta, N. et al, 2014).
For the past few years, more private institutions than public ones have been founded in
developing countries and emerging economies of the world (Agarwal, 2006). Supporters of
privatization feel that privatisation of higher education will lead to improvement. Opponents
of privatization feel that private institutions try to gain profits. In the Asian countries, the
growth of private education is in response to demand. Insufficient public resources and new
liberalized environment are the two important factors for the growth of the private higher
education. In developing nations, when the demand for higher education rises, the
government cannot respond to all demands (Jamshidi, L., et.al. 2012). As an alternative, they
develop the private sector for higher education. In developed countries, the factors for the
growth of higher education are different. This paper investigated the main factors of
privatization in higher education of three developing countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and
Kenya. Reforms in higher education in China happened after the country liberalized in
1978. Prior to ESC (Pawan, A., 2006). Rapid growth in the Chinese higher education
happened after the private sector started participating in it. Similarly a large proportion of
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students (about 80%) in Philippines attend private institutions (James Estelle, 1991). This is
mainly due to limited space in public institutions in Philippines.
Studies done by National Knowledge Commission 2006 showed that government and
government aided institutions have increased by a small number while private institutes have
grown in large numbers. Along with this growth, there are many problems in the Indian
higher education. Many reasons can be cited for this situation- sub-standard quality of
education, absence of top notch faculty, poor utilization and crumbling infrastructure,
inadequate funding of institutions and excessive political interference.
To address the increasing skill challenges of the growing Indian economy, the steps were
taken to set up technical institutes at various levels on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode
(Annual Report, MHRD, 2011-12). The partners in setting up of IIITs were the MHRD,
Governments of the respective States where each IIIT will be established and the Industry.
The capital cost of each IIIT would be contributed in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the Central
Government, the State Government and the Industry respectively. In the North Eastern states
the Centre, State and Industry contribution ratio be 57.5: 35:7.5 respectively.

2.5 Quality Function Deployment in Higher Education

There has been a phenomenal growth in the Indian higher education sector. But, falling
quality standards (quality of students, of infrastructure, unclear vision, project guidance and
so on) have emerged as grave concern for the institutions (Sayeda, Rajendran and Lokachari,
2010). The objective of their paper was to study quality implementations in Engineering
Educational Institutions in India. Positive and significant relation between the 27 TQM
dimensions/factors and institutional performance was observed. Some of the prominent
dimensions covered were: Top Management Commitment, Top Management Support,
Infrastructure, Faculty and Staff Performance, Alumni Focus, Industry Interface, Research
and Development, Pedagogy.
A model of quality as applied to higher education at Rochester Institute of Technology's
College of Business provides a framework to identify research, teaching and operational
improvement opportunities (Mergen, Grant, and Widrick, 2000). Many universities and
AACSB have applied Quality management in education. In the late 80s the college of
business was facing problems of student enrollment and low research productivity. The
college had difficulty in applying the Quality Management principles, which motivated the
authors to have a framework. The model they proposed integrated the parameters that depict

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quality, and then applied them to the college operations. These parameters are interrelated
through a feedback mechanism, thus a change in a quality level can be attributed to a change
in some of the parameters.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a methodology for the deployment of features,
attributes, or functions that produces a quality product or a service (Hwarng and Teo, 2001).
QFD is helpful in answering how to deliver quality products and services based on the needs
of customers, or the voices of customer(s) (VoC). They demonstrated the implementation of
QFD in a higher education institution at an operational level. The voice of customer is first
converted into operational requirements, which are then the basis of solution. They
emphasized that a clear action plan on the voice of customer is needed to achieve quality
standards.
The four-stage QFD process includes transferring:
1. Customer requirements into product/service features;
2. Product features into design requirements;
3. Design requirements into process requirements; and
4. Process requirements into processes/methods (Hwarng &Teo, 2001).
QFD helps to deliver high quality which is important for product or services. The researchers
brought out the adaptation of the QFD model in an education setting. The real power of the
QFD is to translate the customer requirements into service parameters and in turn, service
parameters into actionable operations requirements. By putting the Voice of Customer
forward, the institutions can design processes leading to quality improvements. In the first
category, they focused on teaching effectiveness. In the second category, they focused on
design of engineering curriculum.
The aspects of an education system and its quality were brought out by (Mukherjee, 1995).
The process of selection of students resembles the ‗quality by design‘. The actual conduct of
processes such as admissions, placement and evaluation, are related to the ‗quality of
conformance‘. The customer of a process is concerned with the ‗Value to Price‘ whereas for
the producer it is ‗value to cost‘ that matters. In the developing countries, the resource
crunch affects the quality and productivity of systems in education systems. Despite having
talented and motivated employees, organization performance is not satisfactory because
physical and material resources are inadequate.
A study of customer complaints and the resulting strategies to be adopted in higher
education was done by Dolinsky (1994). According to the author, an effort to identify the
student complaints and address them is important for the success of a higher education
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institution. In their study the most frequently reported complaint was about the quality of
professors. A complaint framework as suggested by the author is a good way to understand
the voice of the customer.
An approach of QFD for business curriculum design by using a survey of employers was
presented by (Marvin E. Gonzalez et al., 2011). According to the author, the purpose of QFD
is to improve communication of customer expectations throughout the organization and to
improve the completeness of specifications and to make them traceable directly to customer
expectations and needs. Marvin E. Gonzalez et al., (2011) took the approach that employers
and not students represent the voice of customer. The student is considered to be a ―product‖
that needs to be ―designed‖ to meet the expectation of the employers. The House of Quality
(HoQ) constructed shows the relation between the customer expectations and the critical
elements of the International Business program. Based on the relation the study found that
―foreign language‖, ―communication and skills in international marketing as areas of
improvement.
QFD is a structured approach to integrate the customer requirements with products and
service design specifications and product development. QFD has been successfully used in
product and service design by many organizations (Pitman et al., 1995). They evaluated the
QFD technique in MBA programs at Grand Valley state university. QFD is a process of
ascertaining customer desires, prioritizing them, and then directing organizational resources
accordingly.

H. Brian Hwarng & Cynthia Teo (2001) demonstrated the implementation of QFD in a
higher education institution at an operational level. First, it converts the voice of customer
into operational requirements. These then are basis of solution. They emphasized that a clear
action plan on the voice of customer is needed to achieve quality standards. QFD helps to
deliver high quality which is important for product or services. They have also brought out
the adaptation of the QFD model in an education setting. The real power of the QFD is to
translate the customer requirements into service parameters and service parameters into
actionable operations requirements. They concluded by stating that listing correctly to the
Voice of Customer will help institutions design processes to improve quality.

2.6 TQM Models Applied in Higher Education

The educational system comprises inputs, transformation system and output (see Figure 1).

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 Fig 1: Education as a Transformation system Basic Model

Process
Inputs: Outputs:
• Teaching •
Human Resources Learning • Research Tangible outcomes
Physical resources • Administrative Value addition
activities •
Financaial Intangible
Knowledge
Resources outcomes
transformation

Fig 1: Source: Sahney, S., (2012). Designing quality for the higher educational system.

TQM has been used effectively in Manufacturing in the last few years as a tool to get
sustained competitive advantage. The study by Ho, Samuel K; Wearn, Katrina, (1995)
developed a model for TQM in higher education. The study aimed at finding how TQM can
be applied to HEIs. It used the concepts of Service Quality, ISO 9000 and Total Preventive
Maintenance (TPM). The authors stated that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK,
which teach TQM, did not embrace the practice due to some obstacles and hence felt that the
British universities were not in a position to adopt the TQM philosophy. Hence, they took up
this study to connect TQM with Higher Education. The authors have built up on the
definitions of Quality as given by various Quality Gurus and the TQM process which is
based on 5S, Quality Control, Quality Assurance Quality Control Circles, ISO 9000 and
TPM.

Based on the problems encountered while implementing TQM at De Montfort University,

the authors have proposed a higher education TQM model of excellence (HETQMEX). They
emphasize that it is a step by step continuous improvement model which can lead to
sustained competitiveness for the HEIs. The article describes how TQM can be applied to
HEIs by using the HETQMEX model, which is based on service quality. The model helps
focus on the diversity of customers for TQM. The study found that institutions usually focus
only on the students and employers, however TQM needs commitment and involvement of
everyone in the organization. HETQMEX is based on the understanding of the customer
needs, perception about service quality, management techniques and their sequence. The
authors opined that further study will be needed to validate the model for TQM in higher
education.

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Michael, Ramona Kay, Sower, Victor E, Motwani, Jaideep, (1997), proposed a general
definition of the term ―customer‖ and developed a basic TQM model that can be
implemented in universities. The authors stated that TQM needs to be modified so that it can
be applied in higher education.
While implementing TQM, it is necessary to know the customer first. American HE is facing
issues of mounting operating costs and reducing Revenues. TQM helps organizations
become leaner and hence Higher Education (HE) institutions are going for implementing
quality. Their paper also highlights the problems that can happen when implementing TQM.
Due to business and the environment considerations many HEIs are going for Total Quality
Management program. There are certain documented benefits of TQM, however many
institutes that attempted to go for a TQM program experienced obstacles in the form of
resources or people or people attitudes. From various studies and the literature the authors
have outlined issues that come up during implementation of TQM, particularly in the
teaching learning aspect. While describing the aspects of TQM, the author also defines the
―Customer‖ of HE. They have compiled the salient features of TQM implementations in
about 200 universities.

Orientation towards Quality and Competitiveness in HE has been gaining ground amongst
policy makers, and stakeholders of the HEIs (Sahney, S., Banwet, D.K. and Karunes, S.,
2010). Their study identified some critical elements of quality management in Higher
Education (HE). The authors have used an Interpretive Structural Modeling technique and
evolved a structure (framework) by categorization and prioritization of ideas. The
administrative staff is an important internal customer in the chain of activities of an HEI. If
the internal customer is satisfied, a good service will be provided. The authors define an
Educational system that comprises of various sub systems and processes, with inputs and
outputs which are synchronized to produce value. Cheng and Tam (1997) have given a
Process model and a satisfaction model. The authors have identified the design
characteristics of a system that would meet the requirements of the internal customer i.e. the
administrative staff. The ISM helped identify and prioritize the critical design characteristics
into drivers, facilitators/enablers, and dependents. Employee satisfaction was found to be a
major element for customer satisfaction.
The Process model (Cheng and Tam, 1997) explains Quality as an internal process that
includes teaching learning, administrative and support activities of the educational ―system‖.

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The purpose of the paper by Rajani Jain, Gautam Sinha, Sangeeta Sahney (2011) was to
identify the dimensions and develop a service quality model in higher education. In an era of
globalization, only the best services provider will survive. Hence it is absolutely required
that Indian Higher Education Institutions improve quality. Higher Education sector has
started to adopt TQM and it is important that they monitor the quality of their services on a
continuous basis. This has led to identification of the dimensions which indicate quality. In
the study the authors have outlined the studies by various researchers on service quality and
the higher education process. The authors have also cited studies where researchers have put
forward different dimensions of service quality in higher education. The model presented by
the authors considers 2 primary dimensions; Program Quality and Quality of life. Non-
academic processes are covered under ―Quality of Life‖ dimension.

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Fig 2: Conceptual model of service quality in higher education

industry
interaction

input quality
Program Quality
academic
facilities

curriculum

Service
Non
Quality academic
processes

support
facilities
Quality ofLife

interaction
quality

campus

Source: Rajani Jain, Gautam Sinha, Sangeeta Sahney (2011). Conceptualizing service
quality in higher education.

A model of quality as applied to higher education at Rochester Institute of Technology's

College of Business provides a framework to identify research, teaching and operational
improvement opportunities (Mergen, Erhan, Grant, Delvin, Widrick, Stanley M, 2000).
Many universities and AACSB have applied Quality management in education. In the late
80s the college of business was facing problems of student enrollment and low research
productivity. The college had difficulty in applying the Quality Management principles,
which motivated the authors to have a framework. The model they proposed integrated the
parameters that depict quality, and then applied them to the college's research, teaching and
other operations. These parameters are connected through a feedback mechanism, thus a
change in a quality level can be attributed to a change in some of the parameters. The mode

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is based on 3 parameters; Quality of Design, Quality of Conformance and Quality of
Performance. The model is a Triology, similar to the one by Juran.
The authors have represented the model as a 2 dimensional matrix that shows the
relationship between the parameters and the functional area of the higher education/college
operations.

Table 6: Quality Dimension and College Operation

Quality of Design Quality of Conformance Quality of
Performance
Operations Redesign of student Retention of students Placement of
registration process graduates

Source Mergen, Erhan, Grant, Delvin, Widrick, Stanley M. (2000). Quality management
applied to higher education.
There is a need to find out if TQM is just another management fad or a useful tool in higher
education. The key point is whether the quality system can help higher education institutions
to improve the quality of their services. During implementation, TQM is usually
implemented in non-academic sections because there seems to be a resistance from the
academic departments. The author has highlighted various criticisms about TQM models.
The author pointed out that there are some advocates of the TQM in HE. They quote
examples of ISO and Baldridge being applied in higher education. Some of the
implementations of TQM principles in higher education have been confined to the
administrative branches and nonacademic processes of universities.
The study by Maria, J., Pedro, M. S., Henrique, D. (2001) researches the concerns in the
implementation of strategic management and TQM principles, concepts and tools in
Portuguese higher education. Further, the collection of the related information and analysis
was done to develop an Excellence model. TQM implementation is not an easy process. For
performance evaluation and measurement, countries have developed assessment mechanisms
and they are going for models such as ISO, EFQM etc.
In their survey of Portuguese HE, the authors found out the areas in which the quality policy
was implemented at an institutional level. This included Administrative services among
others. In the effort to understand the existing quality models in HE, the authors found some
common criteria to achieve excellence in organizations. Considering the need to integrate

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 strategic management, quality and evaluation they conceived an overall institutional model
that covers both process management and results criteria. The salient features of their
model/finding was as follows:
- Model should integrate various activities.
- Model must have an indication mechanism of the satisfaction of various stakeholders
- The School actors, Leadership and State/society form the other blocks of the model.

Fig 3 : A model of excellence for Portuguese higher education institutions

Leadership

Org Policy and

Structure culture
INTERNAL CATALYST

Actors (Faculty,
Processes OUTCOMEs
Students and
employees)

State, Professional
Organizations and
Society

EXTERNAL REGULATION

Source: Maria, J., Pedro, M. S., Henrique, D. (2001). The development of an Excellence
Model for Portuguese higher education institutions

Kanji (1998) proposed a model of Business Excellence for UK higher Education.

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 Fig 4: Model of Business Excellence in Higher Education.

Source: Business Excellence Model, Gopal K. Kanji & Abdul Malek Bin A. Tambi, ―Total
quality management in UK higher education institutions‖, Total Quality Management, VOL.
10, NO. 1, 1999

According to him, Leadership is the prime driving force to achieve business excellence. His
model is based on the premise that to achieve customer satisfaction, the institute had to
continuously improve in its aspects of operations and this can be effected by leadership
taking appropriate and timely decisions.

Sakthivel & Raju, (2006), emphasized on the need for development of a new educational
excellence model, ‗TQM 9-C EDEX Model‘, in the field of engineering education in India.
They have developed a comprehensive TQM Model using the relationship of Commitment
of Top Management, Educational Service Quality, Customer Value and Customer
Satisfaction. The authors have conceptualized nine dimensions relating to TQM in
engineering education and evolved a model, the ‗TQM 9-C EDEX Model‘, (EDEX
represents Educational Excellence) establishing a relationship among these variables.

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 Fig 5: TQM 9-C EDEX Model

Source: P. B. Sakthivel, R. Raju, ―Conceptualizing Total Quality Management in

Engineering Education and Developing a TQM Educational Excellence Model‖, Total
Quality Management Vol. 17, No. 7, 913–934, September 2006

The authors emphasized that successful implementation of a quality management system in

an engineering institution cannot be achieved/executed without committed leadership and
continuous support of the Top Management. They should be giving their fullest cooperation
and support to all the members of the institution for effective implementation of the quality
initiatives. The Top Management should effectively communicate their directions, values
and expectations to all strata of hierarchy, starting from the top level to the menial staff. The
leadership must be ethical, transparent and democratic in their transaction.
The Management should provide a conducive environment to students that is conducive for
effective learning and personality development. The dimension of Customer-focused
performance is Service Quality, Customer Value and Customer Satisfaction (Wang & Lo,
2003, as quoted by Sakthivel & Raju (2006)). The value addition to the students can be
through good placements in reputed firms.
After the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was established, other
countries developed their own version of a national quality award (NQA)
(Abdul Razak A., Sonar, R. and Babu, S. 2011). However the emphases on criteria items
such as leadership, customer focus, resource management and impact on society are
different. The major national quality awards comprise of three European, two North

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American, four Asia Pacific and one South American. In India the process of National Board
of Accreditation (NBA) accreditation has been undergoing changes, with emphasis on
process orientation. However, as far the NQA models are in existence in India, Educational
institutions have not been assessed through them.
Many HE institutions around the world have embraced some form of Quality systems from
the various models of quality such as Deming, ISO Malcom Baldridge, EFQM (Yadollah
Mehralizadeh & Massoud Safaeemoghaddam, 2010). The author stated that TQM as a
managerial practice is still not accepted fully in an academic setting. In essence there has
been a ―fall‖ of TQM as far as HE is concerned. The authors studied if TQM can help HEIs
improve their quality of academics and services. With this objective, an attempt was made to
link TQM to scholarly sociological and organizational theories. However, their studies
pointed out that Quality systems are applied in non-academic areas in an HE institution such
as Registration, payments etc. The authors concluded that implementation of quality systems
does not meet the expectations in teaching; however there are some successful cases in non-
academic areas of HE.

2.7 Role of Statutory Bodies in Professional Higher Education

Exams is an important academic aspect in the lives of the student and teacher. One of the
major problems faced by the university is to conduct infalliable exams and provide tamper
proof certificates to the students (Report by Agarwal Committee for Reforms in
Examinations System in Universities in Maharashtra, 2012). Leakages of the question papers
defeats the main purpose of an exam and there have been allegations about this in
Universities in Maharashtra.
A typical examination process contains of three broad phases:
(Report by Agarwal Committee for Reforms in Examinations System in Universities in
Maharashtra, 2012).
1. Pre-Examination Phase
2. Examinations
3. Post-Examination Phase

Phase 1: Pre Examinations Phase This phase typically consists of activities like notification
of examinations centers, fee structure, examination schedules etc. to students, Issue of
Examination Application Forms, Generation of hall tickets, Setting Questions Papers,

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Printing & distribution of Question Papers to respective examination centers and custody of
exam related material

Fig 6 Phase 2: the Exam Phase

Opening of Question Collection of Answer

Conduct of Exam
Paper Packets books

Phase 3: Post Examination Phase:

Grievanec
Evaluation of Degree and
Resulst Processing Redresal
Anser sheets Convocation
Revaluation

Source: Report by Agarwal Committee for Reforms in Examinations System in Universities

in Maharashtra, 2012
Table 7: Challenges in Exam system.
Challenge Types
Administrative Improper packaging, Delay in delivery of question paper, delay
in assessment, cancellation of exams, Printing errors.

Infrastructure Lack of secured facilities, non-availability of ICT infrastructure

Resource Allocation Lack of adequate trained permanent staff in the exam cell, non-
availability of eligible faculty for assessment

Security Challenges Leakage of papers, malpractices in exams, tampering of hall

tickets and answer papers, generation of fake marksheets,
certificates

Other Quality of question paper, geographic limitations

Source: Report by Agarwal Committee for Reforms in Examinations System in Universities
in Maharashtra, 2012
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The report presents some cases of successful implementation of Information Technology in
Examination system in Maharashtra. The report also gives Recommendations for effective
use of ICT in examination system.

2.8 TQM in Higher Education/Higher Education Processes

The Indian higher education system is plagued by three fundamental challenges: Access,
Equity, and Quality.
Some Quality related issues in the Indian higher education scenario are presented in the
below table.
Table 8
Faculty shortage 45% of the positions for professors, 51% positions for
Readers (now Associate Professors, and 53% positions for
lecturers (now Assistant Professors at all grades) were vacant in
Indian universities in 2007-08.
Poor academic The system is plagued with outdated curricula and ill-equipped
standards libraries (average 9 books per student vs. 53 in IIT Bombay).
Unaccredited As of March 2011, only 161 universities and 4,371 colleges had
institutions been accredited by NAAC.
Deficient physical 48% of universities and 69% of colleges have infrastructure
infrastructure issues.

Source: UGC: Higher Education India 2008; 11the Five Year Plan Volume II 2004-05;
National Assessment and Accreditation Council Annual Report; NAAC Website as
mentioned in the Private sector participation in Indian higher education, FICCI Higher
Education Summit 2011

In the face of demands and expectations of stakeholders, educational institutions are

realizing the importance of customer centric practices. Improving Quality and the efforts to
determine, design, implement and measure it are being addressed by educational planners
and administrators (Sahney, S., 2012). Technical and Managerial education forms a major
share of higher education in India. Higher Education (HE) sector has started implementing
TQM, and an appropriate way to measure quality in service is to assess the perception of the
customers (Jain, R., Sinha, G. & Sahney, S., 2011).

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Quality was originally implemented in manufacturing industry. M.M. Gandhi (2014) has
given the evolution and definitions of quality in Higher education. According to him, Higher
Education is the main instrument for development & change and has the important task of
preparing leaders for different walks of life, especially in country like India. M.M. Gandhi
(2014), points out that only a few reputed institutions such as the IITs (Indian Institutes of
Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) are providing education of a
desired quality. Higher education, particularly professional education, should be able to deal
with market and technological changes and global requirements. Total Quality Management
(TQM) in Higher Education is a process of continuous improvement with the following
features: (1) Focus on customer (stakeholders) expectations, (2) Prevention of problems (3)
Building commitment to quality in the work force and (4) Open decision-making.
Institutions and faculty need to take proactive initiatives and measures for successful
implementation of TQM in Higher education. However there remain hurdles in the
implementation of TQM due to the approach of some stakeholders. The author has
mentioned that with proper motivation TQM can be achieved.

Burli, S., Bagodi, V. & Kotturshettar, B. (2012), in their paper have investigated the
dimensions of TQM, analysed interrelationships between them and their combined influence
on results achieved in ISO certified engineering institutes in India. The factor analysis done
by them confirmed the existence of ten important dimensions of TQM that guide ISO
institutes in their quality journey. As per their study Leadership of top management was the
main driving force for establishing an effective quality management system (QMS) in
engineering institutes.
Total Quality Management (TQM), if properly implemented, can enable organizations to
cope with the fast changing environments in a sustainable manner (Hackman and Wageman,
1995)
TQM in higher education involves improving the quality of courses, input instructional
processes, resource management processes and structures, student support service and
linkages with the world of work and other organizations. (Tulsi, 2001, as quoted by Sayeda,
ChandrasekharanRajendran, Prakash Sai Lokachari (2010).
Jain, R., Sinha, G. & Sahney, S. (2011) have conceptualized the dimensions of service
quality in higher education. In the era of competition between institutes, the students have
more choices and options. It is imperative for the institutes to understand the student
expectations and adopt Total Quality Management concepts. The importance of quality
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management in education is being increasingly recognized by the various stakeholder
groups. Technical and Management education has a major share in the higher education.
Educational institutes should incorporate the TQM in their activities and processes. It is
important to understand the customer expectations properly so that systems leading to
customer satisfaction and delight can be designed. They studied the stakeholders as follows:
faculty, administrative staff, students and industry. The study was confined to engineering
and management institutions at graduate and post graduate level in and around Delhi.
Institutes of higher education should monitor the quality of their services and adopt
continuous improvement. Their proposed model identifies dimensions of service quality.
The proposed model has 2 levels of dimensions: Program Quality and Quality of Life.
Program Quality comprises
 Curriculum
 Industry Interaction
 Input Quality
 Academic facilities
Quality of Life comprises
 Support Facilities
 Campus
 Non Academic processes
The aim of the study was to understand the dimensions that determine students‘ perceptions
of service quality in higher education.
There are critical barriers to the implementation of TQM in academia (Matthews, 1993).
Important among them are: 1) a lack of consensus within the academic environment as to the
meaning or implications of "quality and excellence‖ 2) the reluctance of college or university
leaders to play an aggressive and creative role in TQM implementation. Mathews (1993)
suggested seven steps for TQM implementation. He believes that these seven steps will help
institutions of higher education to introduce quality and excellence into all aspect of
academic life and at all levels of staff.
The cost of quality can be substantial, but it can also be a source of significant savings
(Gouws, D.G., & Wolmarans, H.P., 2002). Their study attempted to provide a framework in
terms of which these costs can be quantified through the application of the principles of
quality costing in tertiary education. Student failure is an important quality failure cost and
there are means to improve the situation. A focus on quality will increase profitability by

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increasing student throughput and by decreasing the cost of providing the services. Quality
costs have received little attention in tertiary education institutions. Since opportunity costs
are usually not recognized in accounting records, certain quality costs remain hidden. These
hidden quality costs can be significant and should be estimated. The author, in their study
stated that a number of assessment opportunities are along the way, any of which may cause
the student to take longer than the minimum time to complete the degree course. The
students may even drop out of the system. Both these possibilities would bring about
increased costs to the system, which means that the unit cost of each graduating student (a
―completed product‖) would increase.
One important aspect of quality is the absence of defects and failures (Gouws, D.G., &
Wolmarans, H.P., 2002). Defective products result in high quality costs, but, more
importantly, they result in dissatisfied customers, which in turn is the worst type of
advertisement. Similarly, a student who has failed a course has to be reprocessed (i.e. he or
she has to repeat the course) before he or she satisfies the industry (customer‘s)
specifications. The cost associated with student failure is not accounted and hence it is not
possible to determine the opportunity cost of poor quality. The author mentioned the
Prevention, Appraisal, Internal and External Failure costs. Their research was based on
internal failure costs in tertiary education. The student failure results in loss of reputation and
waste of tax payers‘ money.

Understanding of the customer‘s needs is an important aspect of the Quality philosophy. An

open, caring attitude towards the needs of the students is advocated and is an important
aspect of the human relation between the student and staff (Tofte, 1995, as cited in Owlia &
Aspwinwall. 1997)
Due to significant expansion and internationalization of higher education, defining exactly
what quality looks like and measuring the same has become difficult. The massive growth in
enrolment at the end of the last century and the subsequent diversity of both students and
institutions add many layers of complexity to quality assurance efforts (Altbach, P.G.,
Reisberg, L., Rumbley, L.E., 2009). As the higher education landscape has become more
complex, so have the expectations of individual institutions. Quality assurance addresses the
challenge of defining what quality actually means in higher education. The general
understanding of quality has evolved with each passing decade and continues to adapt to
changing contexts and requirements.

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The issue of quality is addressed more usefully as a process, where key elements of higher
education are measured. It is in this process that the concepts of performance, standards,
norms, accreditation, benchmarks, outcomes, and accountability overlap to form the
foundation of the quality culture.
Owlia, M.S. & Aspinwall, E.M. (1998), validated the framework for the dimensions of
quality and its measurement. The characteristics of Competence dimension include adequate
number of teaching staff and their qualifications. Jain, R., Sinha, G. and Sahney, S., (2011),
conceptualized the dimensions of service quality in higher education and the importance of
understanding the student expectations and adopting total quality management concepts.
Leadership is a key criterion for ensuring the availability of all other factors that affect the
quality of management education (Mahajan, R. et al., 2014).
Prominent weakness of present technical education in India (Gopalan, 1994 as quoted in
Viswanadhan K.G. et al., 2005) are described as: Mismatch between production and demand
for engineers; Uneven standards; Archaic curricula; Poor quality of training; Meagre
infrastructure facilities; Inadequate faculty; Absence of R&D activity and tenuous linkage
between technical institutions and user agencies.
As far as Higher education is concerned, Quality can be defined in different ways because
the process of Higher education is itself complex (Janne, P., 2002). It investigated various
models of measuring quality in higher education. In some countries, the emphasis is on
continuous development, while in some other countries the focus is on setting the minimum
standards.
Demand and supply of faculty impacts the Quality of higher education (Sen, C., 2011).
According to him, there is a shortage of faculty in Indian institutions of higher learning to
the tune of 35 to 40%, and the trend is to hire part time people. He stated that to improve the
quality of education services the faculty shortage has to be tackled and suggested actions that
can be taken by the policy makers and institutions.
Quality of education and faculty attrition rate in B-schools are a function of governance
(Jha, S. & Kumar, M., 2012). Decision-making is one of the important facets of governance.
A further quality issue is that proportions of staff with higher degrees such as Masters or
Ph.D. also differ markedly across the sectors. Thus, faculty and staff quality is a widespread
problem, with Mochtar and Buchori showing that in the late 1990s only 8.6% of public HEI
academics possessed doctorates, and 29.2% Masters level qualifications, the situation in
private HEIs is ‗even worse‘.

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Many European countries have been working on the development of mechanisms for quality
assurance in higher education (Lj. Cerovic et al., 2014),. Despite working on the systems of
quality assurance, the problem is that most of them are focused on the teaching activity.
Only a small number of institutions (less than one-third) are working on the development of
quality assurance in research (scientific and professional). Moreover, less than a sixth of
institutions include support services in quality assessment.
The focus areas of quality that are being addressed by policy makers and educational
administrators are to Define, Conceptualize, Implement and Measure quality (Sahney, S.,
2012). She has conducted the study on select higher educational institutions to identify the
various design characteristic constructs which would form the quality components for an
educational system. According to her study, an educational institution must identify
―Quality‖ and then incorporate the principles of quality management. Quality in education
includes the quality of inputs such as students, faculty, support staff, infrastructure and
capital; the quality of processes such as teaching, learning and administrative activities; and,
the quality of outputs. The study has helped to identify the components which would help
design quality from the perspective of higher education institution.

2.9 Research Gap

From the literature review, it has been observed that there are studies about application of
Total Quality Management (TQM) and stakeholder expectations in higher education
institutions. Also there have been studies on quality in academic settings. Some papers have
thrown light on the Exam, Results, Student participation and Effectiveness of teaching
learning process. But there is not much study on Quality while implementing TQM in
Admissions or Placement process. Moreover, there are no studies particularly in non-aided
professional engineering and management colleges in Mumbai
A major gap that has not been addressed here is the relationship (link) between TQM
initiatives and its impact on the quality of processes such as Admissions, Examinations and
Placements..
It would be interesting to study the link between TQM implementation and ascertain the
variables which affect the quality of the above 3 processes in professional higher education
institutions. Having ascertained the important variables, it would be interesting to find the
way the 3 processes link to each other in terms of quality.

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The present study tries to address the above in the interest of higher education institutions.
Hence the researcher has undertaken the study to find the relationship of Total Quality
management with the Quality in selected processes of professional higher education.

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 Chapter 3
Research Methodology

3.1 Approach of Research

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a research problem and understanding
the scientific way of doing research. This encompasses the steps undertaken by the
researchers to study the problem, and the logic behind the same.
Having gauged the significance of Quality in higher education I have used the literature
review to arrive at the research gap. This further leads to the research problem, research
questions and hence the objectives and hypothesis. I have found that very less has been
studied about the Admission Exam and Placement processes in terms of quality in
Engineering and Management higher education institutions. Our research questions and
objectives try to understand what variables in the processes affect quality, what variables
constitute quality in these processes. Then I tried to establish a framework between
Admission, Exam and Placement processes and Quality (i.e. the way the 3 processes link to
each other in terms of quality).

To identify the appropriate Research papers, keywords such as ―Higher Education‖,

―Quality‖, ―Total Quality management TQM‖, ―Professional‖, ―Engineering,
―management‖, ―Business Schools‖, ―Admissions‖, ―Examination‖, ―Placement‖, ―Process‖
were used. There was no specific timeline used, however majority of the papers studied were
in the last 15 to 20 years timeframe. The focus when doing the literature review was TQM,
TQM in Services, Higher Education, Private Professional higher education, QFD and Voice
of Customer in higher education, Role of Statutory bodies, role of Accreditation and finally
study on TQM in Higher education with a view about processes such as Admissions, Exam
and Placements. About 50 research papers, 6 reports and 3 books were covered for the
review.

3.2 Research Design

This was a Descriptive and Empirical study. I started studying broad aspects of Quality
management and TQM. Then I studied some aspects of services and Quality management in
services. Then I went into details about Higher education and Privatization of Higher
education in India. Then I further delved into TQM and Quality management in Higher

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education. The literature revealed that there were very few studies about administrative
processes, particularly in private higher education in India. That led us to the research gap
and helped us frame our objectives. Based on the previous studies in this field, I found that
administering a questionnaire about quality in administrative processes was a good way to
collect data about our research. With some suggestions from expert faculty about the target
audience and sample, I decided to study private un-aided engineering and management
institutes in 5 major cities in Maharashtra. Quota sampling was used to select the
engineering and management colleges. Further details about the data collection, sampling,
questionnaire, scope of the study, objectives and hypothesis and data analysis are mentioned
in further sections of this chapter.

3.3 Research Problem

To understand what variables impact the quality in the Admissions, Exam and Placement
processes of a higher education institution. The researcher also wants to understand if there
is relation between the activities of the above processes in terms of Quality.

3.4 Nature of study:

The study is about ‗Total Quality Management implementation in Professional Higher
Education Institutions in Maharashtra‘. The study is descriptive and emperical in nature.
With the help of Interviews and Surveys, the study describes the relation between
stakeholder expectations and the quality in the academic institute processes.
The Pilot study was done in Mumbai city, where we collected the required data from 2
engineering and 2 management institutes. The data (about 150 forms) was analysed using
SPSS software. The pilot study questionnaire had 73 questions. The analysis helped me to
refine the questionnaire to 53 questions. This modified questionnaire was used in the main
study. As per the scope, the main study was conducted in 5 cities in Maharashtra.

3.5 Scope of study

The research relates the Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation aspects in
Admissions, Placement and Exam process with the Quality in a professional higher
education
The following processes in academic institutes were studied. The activities carried out in
these processes (transactions) were considered. Its impact on quality was analysed.
1) Examination
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2) Placement
3) Admissions
Scope of the Type of Institutes and the Geographic area.
Type of Institutes Area Level
Private (non aided) institutes Management schools and Undergraduate and Post
and colleges in Maharashtra, Engineering colleges in graduate programs
affiliated to the State following cities region wise:
Universities in Maharashtra
Kokan Region Mumbai,
WestMaharashtraPune
VidarbhaNagpur
MarathwadaAurangabad and
North Maharashtra Nasik

3.6 Objectives of the study

1. To study the impact of the variables from the academic processes (1. Admissions 2.
Exams and 3. Placements) and its effect on the quality in professional higher education
institutions
2. To establish a framework between Admission, Exam and Placement processes in terms of
Quality.
3. To understand the implementation and the relationship of Total Quality Management
(TQM) with the processes in professional higher education institutions

3.7 Identification of Variables:

Based on the literature review and the pilot study which was conducted at 4 institutes in
Mumbai, the following variables were identified
Group 1: Independent Variables
Factors of Quality from the Activities in the 3
Processes
1. Variables in the ADMISSION Process such as Schedule
of the exam, Time taken for results declaration, Errors in
marksheet, error in data entry etc.

2. Variables in the EXAMINATION Process such as

schedule of admission, website correctness and
availability, application forms data entry

3. Variables in the PLACEMENT Process such as

availability of placement brochure

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Group 2: Dependent Variables

Factors of Quality of the Institution

1. Quality in terms of TQM implementation and
Leadership
2. Quality in terms of Organizational Behavior and
Employee/Staff Interaction
3. Quality in terms of Institute Productivity
4. Quality in terms of Control and Measurement of
the 3 Processes in the Institute.

3.8 Hypothesis Formulation

I. Impact of the Admission Process on Quality
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
Staff Interaction (SI)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the Staff
Interaction (SI)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
Quality Control (QC)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Admission Process on the
Quality Control (QC)

II. Impact of the Examination Process on Quality

There is no significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Staff Interaction (SI)

Page | 168
 There is a significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Staff Interaction (SI)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Quality Control (QC)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Examination Process on the
Quality Control (QC)

III. Impact of the Placement Process on Quality

There is no significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
TQM implementation and Leadership
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
Staff Interaction (SI)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the Staff
Interaction (SI)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
Institute Productivity (IP)
There is no significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
Quality Control (QC)
There is a significant impact of the variables from the Placement Process on the
Quality Control (QC)

IV. Framework between Admission, Exam and Placement Processes

There is no significant relationship between the Admission Process and the Exam
Process

Page | 169
 There is a significant relationship between the Admission Process and the Exam
Process
There is no significant relationship between the Admission Process and the Placement
Process.

There is a significant relationship between the Admission Process and the Placement
Process.

There is no significant relationship between the Exam Process and the Placement
Process.
There is a significant relationship between the Exam Process and the Placement
Process.

V. Relation between Quality as measured by Institute Productivity and the 3 Processes

There is no significant relation between the Exam Process and the Institute Productivity
(IP).

There is a significant relation between the Exam Process and the Institute Productivity
(IP).

There is no significant relation between the Admissions Process and the Institute
Productivity (IP).

There is a significant relation between the Admissions Process and the Institute
Productivity (IP).

There is no significant relation between the Placement Process and the Institute
Productivity (IP).

There is a significant relation between the Placements Process and the Institute
Productivity (IP).

VI. Relation between Quality as measured by Staff Interaction and the 3 Processes
There is no significant relation between the Exam Process and the Staff Interaction.

There is a significant relation between the Exam Process and the Staff Interaction.

There is no significant relation between the Admissions Process and the Staff
Interaction.

There is a significant relation between the Admissions Process and the Staff
Interaction.

There is no significant relation between the Placement Process and the Staff
Interaction.

There is a significant relation between the Placements Process and the Staff
Interaction.

Page | 170
VII. Relation between Quality Control and Measurement aspects of the Institute and
the 3 Processes
There is no significant relation between the Exam Process and the Quality Control
aspects of the Institute.

There is a significant relation between the Exam Process and the Quality Control
aspects of the Institute.

There is no significant relation between the Admissions Process and the Quality
Control aspects of the Institute..

There is a significant relation between the Exam Process and the Quality Control
aspects of the Institute.

.There is no significant relation between the Placements Process and the Quality
Control aspects of the Institute.

There is a significant relation between the Placements Process and the Quality Control
aspects of the Institute.

VIII. Relation between Quality as measured by TQM Implementation and Leadership

and the 3 Processes
There is no significant relation between the Exam Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

There is a significant relation between the Exam Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

There is no significant relation between the Admissions Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

There is a significant relation between the Admissions Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

There is no significant relation between the Placement Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

There is a significant relation between the Placements Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership of the Institute

3.9 Questionnaire Design:

The stakeholder expectations from the activities of the process and Quality were converted
into relevant scales. The transactions occurring in the 3 processes were considered in
developing the scales. Also scales were referred from the following published sources.

Page | 171
1. Ph.d Thesis of Baldwin, L.M. (2002). Total Quality Management in Higher Education
The Implications Of Internal And External Stakeholder Perception. Retrieved from
ProQuest Information and Learning Company (UMI Microform 3053637 Copyright 2002).
2. Jain, R., Sinha, G. & Sahney, S. (2011). Conceptualizing Service Quality in Higher
Education. Asian Journal on Quality, 12(3), 296 – 314. DOI 10.1108/15982681111187128

Questionnaire development was conducted in the following way.

 Based on the literature review and dissertations referred, the scales were adapted to build
the questions for the questionnaire.
 Expert opinion and discussion with 2 expert faculty in reputed National Institutes.
 Pilot run at 4 institutes in Mumbai
 Minimum Personal/Demographic data/information was collected.

3.10 Sampling Method

Sample size:
Quota sampling was used to select the engineering and management colleges and the
Respondents.
Sample size: 20 Institutes, 12 Engineering and 08 Management (Business) schools from 5
cities in Maharashtra. In the above institutes, the survey was given to a total of about 900
respondents, out of which 780 forms were received back.. The response rate was 86.6%.
After cleaning the data and removing the improperly filled up forms a data set of 725
respondents was prepared for analysis. The respondents included the 3 process owners, some
faculty members, some support staff and students. Heads of the Institutes Director/Principal)
were also surveyed wherever possible.

3.11 Pilot Study

Before conducting the main survey, a pilot study was conducted to validate the
questionnaire. It was conducted in 2 Engineering colleges and 2 Management Institutes in
Mumbai city. Data was collected from about 150 respondents to understand the perception
of respondents regarding the quality and processes. Based on the initial factor analysis, some
modifications were made. Some wordings of the questions were altered and few questions
not loading in the factor analysis were dropped. Thus, the revised final questionnaire for
Data collection was made. Regression and Correlation was run on the pilot data to get an
idea of the test results.

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3.12 Data Collection
a) Secondary data
Secondary Data was collected from various published/non published sources. This includes
Research papers from academic journals, Text Books on TQM, relevant newspaper articles,
websites of statutory bodies such as AICTE and UGC, websites of the Ministry of Human
Resources, Government of India, website of the Higher education department, Government
of Maharashtra, website of the Directorate of Technical education (DTE), Govt of
Maharashtra, articles on higher education Higher education from consulting organisations
such as Ernst & Young. Majority of the Research papers studied for the Literature review
were of the last 15 years.
b) Primary
Primary Data was collected from the Process owners of the 3 processes wherever possible
and the stakeholders such as Faculty, Support staff and Students. The revised final
questionnaire was used for the data collection. Primary data was collected from private (non
aided) engineering and management institutes in major cities in Maharashtra. Data was
collected from students, faculty and non-teaching staff at these institutes. Among the
stakeholders (target audience), the available respondents were selected to answer the
questionnaire.

3.13 Techniques for Data Analysis:

Essentially processing involved editing, coding, classification and tabulation of the data.
Analysis refers to the computation of measures and searching for patterns of the relationship
that exists among the data groups.
In our research once we got the data from the questionnaire we first entered the same in the
SPSS software. The missing vales were identified. Incomplete forms were discarded. Forms
filled with obvious patterns were also discarded. From the total questionnaires about 40 were
rejected. The data was checked to ensure that it is accurate and consistent, and that there
were no omissions. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. First Factor analysis was
done to group the scales (questions) and identify the Independent and Dependent variables.
Correlation and regression was performed on the variables to arrive at the relation and
impact between variables and the cost of quality
Statistical techniques such as Descriptive Statistics was used. Descriptive technique of

Page | 173
Frequency distribution was used. Correlation and Regression were used to find the relation
between the process variables and quality and the impact of the variables in the three
processes under study on the Quality.

3.14 Limitations of the Study

There are number of academic processes that are involved in academic institution. For the
study purpose and to evolve the model we have restricted to Admissions, Examination and
Placement processes only. The study does not delve into Teaching Learning or other
academic processes. It also does not aim to explore the various rankings. The role of
regulatory and statutory bodies that is applicable to the 3 processes under study has been
covered. The study does not purport to be a comparison between private and government
institutions.
We are restricting the study to the urban educational hubs in the 5 administrative regions of
Maharashtra i.e. Mumbai, Pune Nagpur Aurangabad and Nasik as there are large number of
colleges/institutions in these cities and the issues that they face in the processes are similar.
Also Engineering (Technology) and Management (Business) institutions form a large chunk
of professional higher education, so the study covers these institutions.
The study is restricted to Private (un-aided) colleges and institutes affiliated to state
universities in the state of Maharashtra. The study is not done in Government/Aided
institutions, University Departments, Private Universities, Deemed Universities, Central
Universities, and National Institutes.
Some variables in the above processes which cannot be easily and directly measured are not
being considered. Qualitative study of such variables can be considered as future scope. Due
to data disclosure issues the costs and financial data are not being considered. Some of
stakeholders such as students‘ parents and recruiters are difficult to be tracked and reached
and hence are not considered.
Some institutions that we approached were reluctant to fill the survey and did not permit us
to collect the data from their staff/students. To cite the statistics about Higher Education in
the literature, the best available reports and data was used as the latest data was not
available.

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3.15 Chapterization Plan

Ch 1 Introduction. This section is about the background and

the purpose of the study.
Ch 2 Literature Review. Covers the existing literature on
Higher Education, Total Quality Management, TQM in
Services and TQM in Higher Education.
Ch 3 Research Methodology. This covers mainly the
approach of the research work, Scope of the study,
Objectives, Hypothesis, Questionnaire Design, Sample,
Data and Limitation of the study.
Ch 4 Data Analysis. The factor analysis and the tests run with
the data is outlined in this chapter. The interpretation of
the test results and the summary of the hypothesis is also
mentioned.
Ch 5 Discussion of Results and Conclusion. This section
summarises the results of the tests in view of the
literature review and the objectives of the study.

Page | 175
 Proposed Theoretical Model

Independent Variables-
TQM based stakeholder
expectations in Exam
Process

Effect of admissions
on the exams and
placement and Effect of issues in
hence Quality Exam exam process on the
placement and
hence Quality
Decrease Increase

Dependent
Variable
"Quality"

Admissi Place
Independent ons ment Independent
Variables- TQM Variables- TQM
based stakeholde based
expectations in stakeholder
Admission Proce expectations in
Placement
Process
Effect of issues in
placement process
on the admissions
and hence Quality

Page | 176
 Chapter 4
Data Analysis
RELIABILITY:

Variable Variable Indicates Cronbach's scales(number

Alpha of items)
Dependent TQM implementation and 0.887 11
Variable 1 Leadership

Dependent Staff Interaction 0.878 7

Variable 2

Dependent Institute Productivity 0.846 8

Variable 3

Dependent Control of Processes of the 0.843 6

Variable 4 institution

Independent Admission Process 0.765 8

Variable 1

Independent Examination Process 0.547 6

Variable 2

Independent Placement Process 0.56 7

Variable 3

All overall Reliability All the scales 0.924 53

Variables taken together

FACTOR ANALYSIS
Independent Variables of Admission, Exam and Placement
All 3 IVs together

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .889

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 2.818E3

df 210

Sig. .000

The Bartlet Test of Sphericity is used to examine the hypothesis that the variables are uncorrelated in
the population.

Page | 177
The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of Sampling adequacy is an index used to examine the
appropriateness of the factor Analysis Higher values ( 0.5 to 1.0) indicate that the factor analysis is
appropriate. Values below 0.5 may indicate that the factor analysis may not be appropriate.
(Malhotra, N.K, Dash, S. 2010).

As per the above Table , the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is 0.889 hence the
factor analysis is appropriate.

The Total Variance Explained is 51.417 % cumulative

The Factors and Scales

Rotated Component Matrix

1 2 3
The admission procedure is fair 0.68
Whenever there is a change in the activities, then 0.57
these are documented and implemented by the
concerned person.
Whenever there is change in the authority proper 0.607 0.403
hand over of tasks is taken care of.
The admission process is smooth and streamlined 0.785
Reliable course information is available. 0.766
There is proper access to admissions on the 0.718
internet.
Course information and other details are published 0.424
on the website on time
Course counseling is available for the students 0.69
The exam procedure is fair. 0.632
There are instances where the institute has 0.748
prepared or issued incorrect marksheets or result
statements that has affected the students and
other stakeholders
Exam time table is prepared well in advance and is 0.593
displayed on time
Unethical practices such as making of fake 0.783
documents, passing sub-standard students, leak
of exam papers is prevalent in the institute.
At times, changes to the schedule/venue in 0.748
examinations is not informed to the students.
Delay in the declaration of exam results affects the 0.475
placement.
Quality Management implementation leads to 0.594
better placements.
The Institute provides placement services that 0.681
match your interests (Placements).
Unethical practices are prevalent in the institute. 0.678
The Institute uses relevant “Information and 0.727
Communication Technology” for process
improvements.
At times, changes to the schedule/venue in 0.665
placements is not informed to the students
Whenever there is a change in the activities, then 0.776

Page | 178
these are documented and implemented by the
concerned person.
Whenever there is change in the authority proper 0.726
hand over of tasks is taken care of.
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.

From the above table, we get the scales for the 3 processes grouped into 3 factors
(independent variables).

Admissions Process Variable (IV1)

Factor Analysis of Admissions Process Variable (IV1) is given below. Factor analysis for
other DVs will be applied and presented in detail in the Thesis.

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .881

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 1.562E3

df 28

Sig. .000

As per the above table , the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is 0.881
hence the factor analysis is appropriate.
The Total Variance Explained is 50.516 % cumulative

a
Component Matrix

Component

The admission procedure is

.682
fair

Page | 179
Whenever there is a change
in the activities, then these
are documented and .702
implemented by the
concerned person.

Whenever there is change in

the authority proper hand
.731
over of tasks is taken care
of.

The admission process is

.798
smooth and streamlined

Reliable course information

.799
is available.

There is proper access to

.759
admissions on the internet.

Course information and other

details are published on the .396
website on time

Course counseling is
.736
available for the students

Extraction Method: Principal Component

Analysis.

a. 1 components extracted.

Dependent Variables
All DVs together

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .957

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 6.996E3

df 496

Sig. .000

As per the above Table , the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is 0.957 hence the
factor analysis is appropriate
The Total Variance Explained is 58.06 % cumulative
The Factors and Scales
Component

Page | 180
 1 2 3 4 5
Continuous quality improvement is an important goal 0.632
of the institute.
The educational services delivered at the institute are 0.567 0.43
excellent in meeting customer's expectations
The institute is improving its efforts to be more 0.644
customer focused.
The institute is improving its efforts to 0.683
Understand/listen to the customers.
Appropriate procedures and policies are in place to 0.484
assure that customer complaints are responded to
promptly.
Quality Management implementation leads to better 0.541
process design and enhanced performance
The institute has an Internal institutional quality 0.504
assurance plan/program in place.
The institute equally focuses on the non-academic 0.579
aspects of learning.
The institute is being led by a qualified administration. 0.525
Top management follows up suggestions for 0.539 0.416
improvement.
Top management allocates adequate resources to the 0.529 0.406
activities.
Institute staff/personnel are helpful, friendly and polite 0.632
Members of this organization show concern for the 0.546
need for quality.
Members can make suggestions to management for 0.548
ways of improving how we do our work
My department/institute collects data on the amount 0.687
of time it takes to get the job done
All rules/regulations/policies and the concerned 0.608
revisions are communicated well in time.
The institute has visually appealing physical facilities 0.73
and appropriate infrastructure for conducting
admissions, placements and exams.
Administrative process like registrations, application 0.723
for examination, etc. are hassle free.
The interaction with staff is good and supportive 0.748
The Institute staff is available for guidance and advice 0.775
whenever required
The Institute staff is competent to do their jobs. 0.682
The Institute staff is ethical and courteous in their 0.646
behavior.
The staff in the institute exhibit enthusiasm, expertise 0.424 0.52
and excellence and are empowered to do the activities
that impact the customer.
Productivity improvement approaches such as (cost 0.604
reduction, process analysis, incentives in salary) are
used frequently in your institute
The activities within the Admissions, Placements and 0.406 0.465

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Examinations processes are done right the first time
and every time (Right service).
Processes for Admissions, Exams and Placement are 0.435
institutionalized (i.e they are not people or time
dependent).
Records and documents are properly maintained in the 0.605
institute and records traceability is effective
The institute offers relevant training to the staff 0.614 0.402
whenever there is any change in the departmental
procedures.
As far as the Admissions, Placement and Exam 0.703
processes are concerned, proper evaluation and control
mechanisms are in place in the institute
Measurement system for the Admissions, Placement 0.696
and Examination processes (activities) are in place in
the institute
The institute focuses on costs (or control costs) that 0.627
help in achieving quality.
Quality audits are done periodically as defined in the 0.548 0.501
quality policy
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

4 factors are extracted, which define the Dependent Variables. Thus our Main dependent
Variable ―Quality‖ is expressed (manifested) by the 4 variables. We have classified them as:
DV 1: Quality and Leadership
DV 2: Employee/Staff Interaction
DV 3: Institute Productivity
DV 4: Quality Control of Processes

1st DV only: TQM implementation and Leadership

Factor Analysis of DV1 is given below. Factor analysis for other DVs will be applied and
presented in detail in the Thesis.

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .922

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 2.501E3

df 55

Sig. .000

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As per the above Table , the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is 0.922 hence the
factor analysis is appropriate. (Malhotra, N.K. and Dash, S., 2010)
This factor accounted for 47.3 % of Variance
a
Component Matrix

Component

Continuous quality improvement is an important goal of the institute. .582

The educational services delivered at the institute are excellent in meeting customer's
.704
expectations

The institute is improving its efforts to be more customer focused. .717

The institute is improving its efforts to Understand/listen to the customers. .754

Appropriate procedures and policies are in place to assure that customer complaints are
.694
responded to promptly.

Quality Management implementation leads to better process design and enhanced performance .574

The institute has an Internal institutional quality assurance plan/program in place. .722

The institute equally focuses on the non-academic aspects of learning. .671

The institute is being led by a qualified administration. .677

Top management follows up suggestions for improvement. .724

Top management allocates adequate resources to the activities. .723

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

a. 1 components extracted.

Result:
1. There are 3 Independent variables and 4 Dependent variables in this study. The constructs are be
statistically significant ( sig= 0) and their validity cannot be negated.

2. The KMO is above 0.6, indicating sampling adequacy.

3. The Reliability score is above 0.6 indicating that the scale is reliable.

4. The sample size (725) is more than 5 times the number of questions, hence sample size is

adequate and Regression can be carried out.

5. For the Independent variables, The Total Variance Explained is 51.417 %

For the Dependent variables, The Total Variance Explained is 58.06 %

6. The Bartlet test of Sphericity is significant.

7. For factor loading to be considered, the cut off point was 0.40 (Teeroovengadum, V.,
Kamalanabhan, T.J. & Seebaluck, A.K., 2016).

8. BOX PLOTS: The plots were made from SPSS for the DVs and IVs and the outlier values were
cleaned or deleted

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

Page | 183
Dependent Variables
N Range Minimu Maximu Mean Std. Varianc Kurtosi
m m Deviatio e s
n
Statisti Statisti Statistic Statistic Statisti Statistic Statistic Statisti Std.
c c c c Erro
r
DV2 staff 635 4 1 5 4.1514 0.59412 0.353 1.116 0.19
Interactio 4
n
Valid N 635
(listwise)
Descriptive Statistics of DV2 is given above. For other DVs the same will be applied and
presented in detail in the Thesis.

Independent Variables
N Range Minimu Maximu Mean Std. Varianc Kurtosi
m m Deviatio e s
n
Statisti Statisti Statistic Statistic Statisti Statistic Statistic Statisti Std.
c c c c Erro
r
Admissio 0.4341 0.21
515 4 1 5 4.0199 0.65888 1.305
n Process 2 5
Exam 469 4 1 5 3.2278 0.64875 0.421 0.307 0.22
Process 5
Placeme 463 0.22
nt 4 1 5 3.598 0.551 0.303 1.923 6
Process
Valid N 344
(listwise)

CORRELATION and REGRESSION

Based on our objectives and Hypothesis following are the Constructs

Page | 184
 Admission
Process

QUALITY
1.Quality in terms of TQM implementation
and Institute Leadership

2.Quality in terms of Organizational

Behavior and Staff Interaction

3.Quality in terms of Institute Productivity

4. Quality in terms of Control of processes

Exam Process Placement

Process

Schematic Representation of the Constructs for Correlation and Regression

CORRELATION:
All are on interval scale so Correlation and Regression can be applied.
H0: the correlation is statistically insignificant
H1: the correlation is statistically significant
Correlation
Objective: To identify the relation between TQM implementation & Leadership (DV) and
Admissions (A), Exams (E), Placements (P) (IVs)

Corelation of DV1 with the 3 Processes is given above. Corelation for other DVs will be
applied and presented in detail in the Thesis.

Descriptive Statistics

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 Mean Std. Deviation N

Admission Process 4.0318 .72619 515

Exam Process 3.2278 .64875 469

Placement Process 3.6069 .57522 463

DV1-Leadership 4.0281 .58559 586

Correlations

Admission Exam Placement DV1-

Process Process Process Leadership
** ** **
Admission Process Pearson Correlation 1 .212 .377 .608

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000

N 515 401 393 438

** ** **
Exam Process Pearson Correlation .212 1 .450 .172

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .001

N 401 469 390 398

** ** **
Placement Process Pearson Correlation .377 .450 1 .429

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000

N 393 390 463 398

** ** **
DV1-Leadership Pearson Correlation .608 .172 .429 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .001 .000

N 438 398 398 586

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Analysis:
1) The relation between, TQML and Admission the Correlation coefficient is 0.608 so strong
relations. The p sig value is 0.000 so less than alpha hence Reject Ho which means that the
correlation is statistically significant. (Malhotra, N.K. and Dash, S., 2010).
2) The relation between, TQML and Exam the Correlation coefficient is 0.172 so weak
relation. The p sig value is 0.001 so less than alpha (0.025) hence Reject Ho which means
that the correlation is statistically significant.

3) The relation between, TQML and Placement the Correlation coefficient is 0.429 so
medium relation. The p sig value is 0.000 so less than alpha hence Reject Ho which means
that the correlation is statistically significant

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Result: the Correlation coefficient is highest for Admissions (0.608) hence this factor
affects the TQML of the institution the most.

Correlation
Objective: To identify the relation between Admissions Process and Exam Process

Correlation between Admission and Exam is given below. Correlation between other
processes will be applied and presented in detail in the Thesis.
Descriptive Statistics

Mean Std. Deviation N

Admission Process 4.0318 .72619 515

Exam Process 3.2278 .64875 469

Correlations

Admission
Process Exam Process
**
Admission Process Pearson Correlation 1 .212

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 515 401
**
Exam Process Pearson Correlation .212 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 401 469

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Analysis:
The relation between, Admission and Exam the Correlation coefficient is 0.212 so
medium relation. The p sig value is 0.0 so less than alpha hence Reject Ho which means that
the correlation is statistically significant

Result: The highest correlation is between Placements and Exam, followed by

Admissions and Placements Processes

REGRESSION
The impact of 3 processes Admission, Exam and Placement on the DV1 (Quality as
measured by TQM & Leadership (TQML) is given below. Regression for the other
dependent variables will be applied and presented in detail in the Thesis.

Page | 187
1. Dependent Variable is TQM Implementation & Leadership (TQML)
Independent Variables are Admissions Process (AD), Examinations Process (EX) and
Placements Process (PL)

The strength of the association is measured by the coefficient of determination R2. It

signifies the proportion of the variation in Dependent Variable DV that is accounted by the
variation in Independent variable IV (Malhotra, N.K. and Dash, S., 2010)

Model Summary

Adjusted R Std. Error of the

Model R R Square Square Estimate
a
1 .623 .389 .382 .46042

a. Predictors: (Constant), Placement Process, Exam Process,

Admission Process

b
ANOVA

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

a
1 Regression 40.290 3 13.430 63.354 .000

Residual 63.383 299 .212

Total 103.673 302

a. Predictors: (Constant), Placement Process, Exam Process, Admission Process

b. Dependent Variable: DV1-Leadership

The estimated parameter “B” in the table below is the Un-standardized Regression Coefficient.

a
Coefficients

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients

Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.

1 (Constant) 1.815 .198 9.173 .000

Admission Process .403 .037 .539 10.997 .000

Exam Process -.039 .044 -.043 -.882 .379

Placement Process .190 .052 .189 3.671 .000

a. Dependent Variable: DV1-Leadership

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Step 1 is find the R2 value. In this R2 = 0.389 which means that which indicates that 38.9 %
of the variation in the TQML are explained by independent variables such as AD, EX and
PL
Further to check if this value is statistically significant we will refer the table ANAOVA
from the ANOVA table, P value is 0.00 so p value is < than 0.025 (alpha)

So reject Ho and accept H1 so we can say that r2 value is statistically significant

Ho: R2 value is statistically insignificant
H1: R2 value is statistically significant

The estimated multiple regression model is

TQML = 1.815 + 0.402 (AD) + -0.039 (EX) + 0.190 (PL)

Interpretation:
1. If A is improved by 1% then the Quality (as indicated by TQML) will increase by
40.2%%
2. If the errors in the Exam process are reduced by 1% then the Quality (as indicated by
TQML) will improve by 3.9%
3. If the Placements process is improved by 1% then the Quality (as indicated by TQML)
will increase by 19%

Then check whether the coefficients of all the independent variables are statistically
significant we will use T test From the table we observe that the P values are: 0.000 for the
independent variables AD and PL. Thus for the independent variables the P value is less
than alpha so we reject the Ho and accept H1: the coefficients are statistically significant.

For EX, the p = 0.379 which is more than alpha, hence we accept the H0 that the
Coefficients are statistically Insignificant.

Thus Admissions and Placement are significant variables in determining the Quality
(as indicated by TQM implementation and Leadership). Exam process is not significant
in impacting the quality as indicated by TQM implementation and Leadership.

Page | 189
Further the relative importance of the independent variables in influencing the Quality (as
indicated by TQML) is determined by the standardized coefficients. Higher the value of the
std coefficient greater is the importance of that variable in influencing the dependent
(Quality (as indicated by TQML)
From the table we see that Admission is more important variable followed by Placements in
influencing the Quality (as indicated by TQML) of the institute.

Summary of Hypothesis
The hypothesis for Independent Variable (Admissions process) and Dependent Variable 1
(TQM & Leadership) are summarized below. The summary for other hypothesis will be
presented in the Thesis.

Sr. Hypothesis P value Decision Interpretation

No
1 There is a significant 0.000 Reject Admissions process is
impact of the variables accept significant variable in
from the Admission determining the Quality
Process on the TQM (as indicated by TQM
implementation and implementation and
Leadership Leadership)

2 There is no 0.379 Accept Exam process is not

significant impact of the significant variable in
variables from the impacting the quality as
Examination Process on indicated by TQM
the TQM implementation implementation and
and Leadership Leadership.

There is a significant 0.000 Reject Placement process is

3 impact of the variables accept significant variable in
from the Placement determining the Quality
Process on TQM (as indicated by TQM
implementation and implementation and
Leadership Leadership)

There is a significant 0.000 Reject The correlation is

4 accept statistically significant
relationship between the
Admission Process and the
Exam Process

5 There is a significant 0.001 Reject correlation is statistically

relation between the Exam accept significant

Page | 190
 Process and the TQM
implementation/Leadership
of the Institute

6 There is a significant 0.000 Reject and correlation is statistically

relation between the accept significant
Admissions Process and
the TQM
implementation/Leadership
of the Institute
7 There is a significant 0.000 Reject correlation is statistically
relation between the accept significant
Placements Process and
the TQM
implementation/Leadership
of the Institute

Page | 191
 Chapter 5
Discussion of Results and Conclusion
5.1 Discussion of Findings:
The study brings out the variables and factors that impact the quality with respect to the
three administrative processes of the higher education institutions considered for the study.
This research has come out with a framework for linking the stakeholder expectation with
the Quality when the service delivery takes place. The management can take proactive steps
to improve the quality of education services.
This study will help the HE institutions to target factors that affect the quality of its
deliverables in the 3 Administrative processes (which is based on the stakeholder
expectations). The factor analysis grouped the quality (measured by Q1 to Q32 in the survey
questionnaire) in 4 broad groups. These Groups are: -
1) TQM and Leadership;
2) Quality based on Employee/Staff Interaction;
3) Productivity initiatives by the Institute for the 3 administrative processes and
4) Quality Control and Measurement practices of the Institute.

The results of Correlation showed that the relation between the processes studied is
statistically significant meaning that improvement in one process leads to improvement in
Quality and in other processes as well.
From the results of the Regression tests, Admission process is the most important variable in
influencing the Quality of the institute (as measured by the 4 DVs). This has been found to
be consistent for all the 4 DVs in the study that measure Quality (taken individually as well
in combination). This is followed by Placements.
If the Admissions and Placement processes are of high Quality, it is more likely to have
better outcomes in selecting better students and also have better outcomes in the placement.
Exam process was NOT a significant variable in the Quality of the institute as found in this
study. The activities in an exam process are mostly Hygiene factors and are necessary but
not sufficient conditions hence not predicting quality
The Quality in this study is measured mainly in terms of Leadership and Staff interaction
and has significant impacts as far as Admissions and Placement processes are concerned
because these processes are more based on the human interface and leadership which is

Page | 192
captured in the respective DVs. Exam process has more of ―evaluation‖ component and is
not significant.
However when Quality is measured as Quality Control and Measurement (DV4), all the 3
processes were found to be significant as all processes have elements related to capturing,
maintaining and auditing the process records. Thus the Regression result was significant for
this DV.
This study brings out some aspects of an education system and its quality. The actual
conduct of processes such as admissions, placement and evaluation, are related to the
‗quality of conformance‘. The scales in this study brings out the ‗quality by design‘ and
‗quality of conformance‘ as mentioned in the literature.
Some scales in this study captures the ―Customer Complaints‖ aspect in higher education as
brought out by Dolinsky (1994). Our study measures the perception of the customer through
the questionnaire. An understanding of how customer perceive quality can provide valuable
information to design and improve the service delivery.
Our study tries to delve into the Educational Transformation model by Sahney, S. (2012).
That model explains the Input-Process-Output ―Transformation‖. It considers the
―Management‖, Technical and Social constructs of the process(es) and the assessment of the
dimensions across the 4 categories (i.e. Administrative Staff, Students, Faculty and Industry)
of the customers. The study by Sahney, S. (2012) does not specifically study the
Administrative Processes, which we have done as per our study . There are some similar
questions in the questionnaire in terms of their constructs: management, Technical, Social
and our Dependent Variables: Quality & Leadership, Staff Interaction and Institute
Productivity.
A study which established relationships between the customer requirements with design
characteristics was done by (Sahney, S., Banwet, D.K., Karunes, S., 2010). However, their
model is generic and not only for specific administrative process. The dependent variables in
our study are similar to the ones used by them.
Teeroovengadum, V., Kamalanabhan, T.J. & Seebaluck, A.K. (2016) have given a model for
measuring service quality. They have used Corelation and Exploratory Factor Analysis to
arrive at the factors. The factors Administrative Quality and Administrative processes are
matching 2 of our dependent variables. However our study delves more into the 3 specific
Administrative processes, which they have not covered. Their variables span across the
processes.

Page | 193
Some of the scales we have used are adopted from the study ‗Conceptualizing service
quality in higher education ‗by Jain, R., Sinha, G. & Sahney, S. (2011). They have covered
Non-academic processes, staff Interaction and Input Quality. The focus of their study was to
study the dimensions and come up with scale. Our study builds upon some of those scales to
come up with quality based on the three specific processes under study. Their study was for
management, engineering and other technical courses like pharmacy/computer-application
etc., where as we have conducted the study in Private (un-aided) colleges and institutes in
five administrative regions of Maharashtra.

The Data analysis presented in Chap 4 tries to meet the stated objectives of the study as
mentioned in section 3.6 of chapter 3 (i.e. Research Methodology).
1) The Correlation between the 3 processes and the Correlation between the 4 DVs and 3
processes. The analyis of only DV1 is presented in this synopsis. The Correlation for other 3
DVs will be detailed in the Thesis
2) Impact of the 3 processes on each DV measuring the aspects of Quality. The analyis of
only DV1 is presented in this synopsis. The Regression/Impact for other 3 DVs will be
detailed in the Thesis.

5.2 Implications
This research has come out with a framework for linking the stakeholder expectation with
the Quality of selected processes when the service delivery takes place. The management
can thus take proactive steps to control the activities in the processes and improve the
quality of HE services.
The factor analysis has given 4 factors (as mentioned above) that constitute ―Quality‖ in the
context of this study. Administrators of Higher education must ensure continuous
improvement of the 4 factors (indicated as dependent variables in this study) as far as the
three processes are concerned. All the 3 processes are significant in determining the Quality
as indicated by TQM implementation & Leadership. Any sub performance or negligence in
the deliverables will decrease the ―Quality‖ of the processes.
Activities in Admissions and Placement process must be monitored carefully as these are
most likely to affect Quality as indicated by TQM implementation & Leadership.
From the Regression analysis, Admission and Placement processes are significant in
impacting the Quality as described by the variable DV1( TQML). Thus the HE institutes‘
management must monitor and control these processes so as to improve quality. Exam

Page | 194
process is not significant in impacting the quality as indicated by TQM implementation and
Leadership. This is due to the nature of activities in the Exam process are more of evaluation
components. The Regression analysis and implications for the other 3 DVs will be covered
in the Thesis.
Most institutions including higher education are going for some Quality program like ISO
certifications, NAAC, NBA accreditation because quality of processes is becoming
important in today‘s competitive context. Additionally, the study is important in the current
times when collaborations with foreign universities and setting up of foreign institute
campuses and programs are growing in India. The steps taken towards the monitoring and
control of quality will contribute to waste elimination. This fact is an important managerial
implication especially w.r.t. private HEIs. Improvement of processes will help in the
improvement in the Quality of the Institutions and in turn may help in better Admissions and
Placements, thus giving competitive edge.

5.3 Future Scope of the Research

In future, this study will be useful for other professional higher education such as medicine,
law etc. This model can be used for institutions in Private Universities, Deemed Universities,
Government Institutions, Central Universities etc. as well.

The study will thus, help institutions to understand where slippages can happen, such as
failure to meet delivery schedule and costs due to increase in throughput time. The model
can be extrapolated/modified to study other processes or quality concepts (such as costs of
quality and Voice of Customer) to understand the relation between the processes and quality
of the service.

Page | 195
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Appendix A FINAL Questionnaire
Total Quality Management in Selected Processes of Professional Higher
Education Institutions
Dear Faculty/Administrative Members.
I solicit your cooperation and frank responses to the survey questions that follow. Data is being
collected for the dissertation purpose only. The responses and the subsequent analysis will be used
for academic purpose and the data will be kept confidential.

The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete.

Respondent Name (optional): Age (optional):

*Location (City): *Gender: M / F

*Date:

Please fill the information above marked *

_____________________________________________________________________________

1). Please Mark your Role in the educational institution:

o Director /Principal Dean Admin Staff (exam)

o Administrative Staff Faculty Admin Staff (admission)

o Exam Controller Admin Staff (placement)

o Admissions Chairperson Placement Head Any Other

2). Is the Institute accredited Yes/No: ___________

If Yes, name the Accrediting body ___________ (NAAC, NBA, AMBA, EQUIS, SAQS, AACSB
etc)

3a). Your total full time Teaching/Academic/Administrative Work Experience including the current:
______ Years ______ Months as on today.

3b). Length of Time you are associated with the institute (please tick):

o Less Than 1 year 1 year to 5 years

o 6 to 10 years 11 to 15 years

o More than 15 years.

Please specify exact tenure: ______ Years ______ Months

3c). Tenure as in the role(s) mentioned above: ______ Years ______ Months
Please add if more than one role.

Page | 201
Total Quality Management in Selected Processes of Professional Higher
Education Institutions
Dear Students.
I solicit your cooperation and frank responses to the survey questions that follow. Data is being
collected for the dissertation purpose only. The responses and the subsequent analysis will be used
for academic purpose and the data will be kept confidential.

The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete.

Respondent Name (optional): Age (optional):

*Location (City): *Gender: M / F

*Date:

Please fill the information above marked *

________________________________________________________________________________

1a). Please Mark if you are/were involved in any institute related roles in this college.

o Student- admission committee Student- placement committee

o Any Other Role/committee. Please mention.___________________________

1b). Total Length of time you are involved in the role(s) mentioned above: ______ Months
Please give break up if you have taken part in more than 1 role

2). Is the Institute accredited Yes/No: ___________

If Yes, name the Accrediting body ___________ (NAAC, NBA, AMBA, EQUIS, SAQS, AACSB
etc)

3). Length of Time you are associated with the institute (please tick):

o Less Than 1 year 1 year to 2 years

o More than 2 years.

Please specify the exact tenure: ______ Months

4) Pls tick the level of the Program you are pursuing

o Undergraduate
o Post Graduate

Please tick the response which best describes your experience and understanding
After Question 32 (i.e from Q # 33 onwards), answer questions if you have handled/ are currently
handling any of the processes mentioned OR to your best knowledge of the process. You should tick
the last column if the question is not applicable to you/You Don’t know.

Page | 202
No. Question

applicable
Know/Not
Disagree

Disagree
Strongly

Strongly
Neutral
Agree

Agree

Don't
Your Views on Leadership and TQM
implementation at your Institute
1 Continuous quality improvement is an important
goal of the institute.

2 The educational services delivered at the

institute are excellent in meeting customer's
expectations.
3 The institute is improving its efforts to be more
customer focused.
4 The institute is improving its efforts to
Understand/listen to the customers.
5 Appropriate procedures and policies are in place
to assure that customer complaints are
responded to promptly.
6 Quality Management implementation leads to
better process design and enhanced
performance
7 The institute has an Internal institutional quality
assurance plan/program in place.
8 The institute equally focuses on the non
academic aspects of learning.
9 The institute is being led by a qualified
administration.
10 Top management follows up suggestions for
improvement.
11 Top management allocates adequate resources
to the activities.

Your Views on Quality with respect to

Employee/Staff at your Institute and the
Admissions, Examinations, Placement
Functions at your institute
12 Institute staff/personnel are helpful, friendly and
polite
13 Members of this organization show concern for
the need for quality.
14 Members can make suggestions to management
for ways of improving how we do our work.
15 My department/institute collects data on the
amount of time it takes to get the job done
16 All rules/regulations/policies and the concerned
revisions are communicated well in time.
17 The institute has visually appealing physical
infrastructure for conducting admissions,
placements and exams.
18 Administrative process like registrations,
application for examination, etc. are hassle free.
19 The interaction with staff is good and supportive.
20 The Institute staff is available for guidance and
advice whenever required.
21 The Institute staff is competent to do their jobs.

Page | 203
No. Question

Know/Not
applicabl
Disagree

Disagree
Strongly

Strongly
Neutral
Agree

Agree

Don't

e
22 The Institute staff is ethical and courteous in
their behavior.
23 The staff in the institute exhibit enthusiasm,
expertise and excellence and are empowered to
do the activities that impact the customer.
24 Productivity improvement
approaches such as (cost reduction, process
analysis, incentives in salary)
are used frequently in your institute.
25 The activities within the Admissions, Placements
and Examinations processes are done right the
first time and every time (Right service).
26 Processes for Admissions, Exams and
Placement are institutionalized (i.e they are not
people or time dependent).

Your Views on Measurement and Control of

the Admissions, Examinations and
Placement Processes at your institute
27 Records and documents are properly maintained
in the institute and records traceability is
effective.
28 The institute offers relevant training to the staff
whenever there is any change in the
departmental procedures.
29 As far as the Admissions, Placement and Exam
processes are concerned, proper evaluation and
control mechanisms are in place in the institute
30 Measurement system for the Admissions,
Placement and Examination processes
(activities) are in place in the institute
31 The institute focuses on costs (or control costs)
that help in achieving quality.
32 Quality audits are done periodically as defined in
the quality policy

Your Views on Quality/TQM implementation

Related to Admissions Process at your
Institute
33 The admission procedure is fair.

34 Whenever there is a change in the activities,

then these are documented and implemented by
the concerned person.
35 Whenever there is change in the authority proper
hand over of tasks is taken care of.
36 The admission process is smooth and
streamlined
37 Reliable course information is available.
38 There is proper access to admissions on the
internet.
39 Course information and other details are
published on the website on time.
40 Course counseling is available for the students

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No. Question

applicable
Know/Not
Disagree

Disagree
Strongly

Strongly
Neutral
Agree

Agree

Don't
Your Views on Quality/TQM implementation
Related to Examination Process at your
Institute
41 The exam procedure is fair.
42 There are instances where the institute has
prepared or issued incorrect marksheets or
result statements that has affected the students
and other stakeholders
43 Exam time table is prepared well in advance and
is displayed on time
44 Unethical practices such as making of fake
documents, passing sub standard students, leak
of exam papers is prevalent in the institute.
45 At times, changes to the schedule/venue in
examinations is not informed to the students.
46 Delay in the declaration of exam results affects
the placement.

Your Views on Quality/TQM implementation

Related to Placements Process at your
Institute
47 Quality Management implementation leads to
better placements.
48 The Institute provides placement services that
match your interests (Placements).
49 Unethical practices are prevalent in the institute.
50 The Institute uses relevant “Information and
Communication Technology” for process
improvements.
51 At times, changes to the schedule/venue in
placements is not informed to the students.
52 Whenever there is a change in the activities,
then these are documented and implemented by
the concerned person.
53 Whenever there is change in the authority proper
hand over of tasks is taken care of.
xxx End of Questionnaire Thank You xxx

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Appendix B Publications

A Study on Determinants Of Quality in Higher Education-

Co-Authored with Dr. Satish Ailawadi and Dr. Lakshmikanth Hari
Presented at the SIMSR Global Supply Chain Management Conference, Dec 2014.
Published in the Conference Proceeeding Book Titled ― DeRisking the Supply Chain in
Global Environment
Published by M2W Media, New Delhi ISBN Number: 978-93-81715-09-3

Significance Of Leadership/Governance as Total Quality Management Dimensions in

Higher Education – A Review
Co-Authored with Dr. Vandana Khanna
Presented during the national seminar at KJ Somaiya College of Comprehensive Education
and Research Mumbai, on 29th April 2015.
Published in the Conference Proceedings Book Titled ―Leadership in Educational
Institutions: Opportunities and Challenges- guiding the Way to 21st Century‖
Published by KJ Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Training and Research
Mumbai
ISBN Number: 978-81-7039-287-3

Application of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in Professional Higher Education- A

Review
Co-Authored with Dr. Vandana Khanna
Presented at the SIMSR Global Supply Chain Management Conference, Dec 2016.
Published in the Conference Proceedings Book Titled ― Supply Chain Management 2020‖
Published by M2W Media, New Delhi
ISBN Number: 978-93-81715-25-3

An Overview of some Total Quality Management Models applied in Higher Education

sector
Co-Authored with Dr. Vandana Khanna
Presented at the SIMSR Global Supply Chain Management Conference, Dec 2017.
Published in the Conference Proceedings Book Titled ― Manging The Supply Chain….
Driving into the future.
Published by M2W Media, New Delhi
ISBN Number: 978-93-81715-12-3

A Study on the Relationship between the Voice of Customer with the Cost of Quality in
Processes of Professional Higher Education Institutions
Co-Authored with Dr. Vandana Khanna
Published in the South Asian Journal of Management, AMDISA, Dec 2017.
Published by AMDISA, Vol 24, Issue No. 4, Oct-Dec 2017 Hyderabad
ISSN Number: 0971-5428

A study on the Relationship between selected Processes of Higher Education Institutions in

Mumbai
Co-Authored with Dr. Vandana Khanna
Published in IOSR Journal of Business Management, July 2018.
Published by IOSR, Vol 20 Issue 7 Ver II, July 2018 ISSN Number: 2319-7668 DOI:
10.9790/487X-2007023842

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