ISO Quality Standards

ISO QUALITY STANDARDS:

INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Nikolay Peykov

Concord University

Athens, WV 24712-1000, U.S.A.

(304) 887 0763

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews ISO 9000 Quality Standard in general. The International Standards Organization is responsible for the ISO 9000 as well as other international quality standards. This paper outlines the procedures that need to take place for ISO 9000 certification, as well as the process development under ISO. A student’s class registration process is evaluated and redesigned to comply with ISO. The international standard is also compared to the optional accreditation administered by the Higher Learning Committee.

Keywords: ISO, quality standard, process approach, quality management, educational institution.

INTRODUCTION

In today’s world of competitive international markets education is more and more considered to be a business, with all its elements: financing, accounting, management, and marketing. Increasing communication technologies and development of infrastructure allow students to comfortably attend schools that are far away from their home, in their country, and more so in the world. Educational institutions must promote and sell their services in broader and more competitive markets around the world.

The process of making a school attractive to as many students as possible involves meeting many criteria. The geographic location of an educational institution is no longer a major issue in deciding where to go. Today, the cost of education, the opportunities that the school offers concerning every aspect of student life, and the quality of the education that is offered by that institution are the major deciding factors.

All criteria influencing student’s decisions, except for the quality of the education, are measurable in monetary or somewhat objective terms. However, the quality of education -- which is hard to evaluate -- can be brought to a certain level and thus may be acknowledged through the ISO 9000 certification.

ISO quality standards are generally used to evaluate and certify production processes as well as to verify the quality of services. Keeping in mind that educational institutions are indeed businesses, such a certification will provide any institution with a ticket to the global market. ISO can be used as a tool to increase productivity and efficiency of all departments of a school, which will ultimately decrease cost for students. In regards to quality of education, ISO can bring schools up to a level at which it will comply with all international standards for academic institutions. This process will make the school comparable to all other schools that are ISO certified. What is beyond the ISO standard review, will be determined by the other factors. These include the administration and support staff efficiency, the value of cervices offered on campus, such as the food courts, library and others, as well as the tuition.

WHAT ISO STANDARDS ARE ADEQUATE FOR SUCH A CERTIFICATION?

The International Organization for Standardization is the world’s biggest quality control organization. More than 150 countries are currently members of the organization. They all contribute to the development and implementation of new standards and procedures. ISO’s goal is simple -- to facilitate effective international relations by providing a set of standards that are recognized internationally, by all its members. The most widespread ISO standard is the 9000 series -- a framework around which an effective quality management system can be easily established (ISO).

ISO 9000 is suitable for organizations of any kind and size, including educational institutions. Generally mistaken, ISO 9000 is not a product quality standard; it is a process standard that provides guidelines for increasing efficiency and productivity through set procedures and practices. This unique configuration guaranties the customer that the registered organization has an effective quality management system in place and its main goal is to continuously improve in order to meet and exceed customers’ needs, requirements, and expectations. The latest revision of the standard was made in the year 2000, therefore ISO 9000:2000. ISO 9002:1994 and ISO 9003:1994 were dropped and all the requirements for quality management system were incorporated in ISO 9001:2000. Accompanying the requirements are both the ISO 9000:2000 and ISO 9004:2000 guidelines for implementation of Quality Management Systems, or QMS (ISO).

To make the application of ISO 9000 in an educational institution easier to understand, students can be considered either customers or products of a particular institution. As customers, students are the ones that are purchasing the service of educating. In other words, they are buying the expertise of the school to acquire knowledge and then receive some sort of certification or diploma for being knowledgeable. On the other hand, students can be viewed as products of the educational institution. They are customers that directly “purchase” the product, or they could be the companies that employ graduates in the form of highly educated and skilled workforce. These employers would have certain requirements and expectations for the product in particular -- that is the quality of education.

Educational institutions provide service to students as well as product to employers -- as any other firms in the market. To be competitive and successful in the market some basic principles need to be applied. More specifically, educational institutions must understand and accommodate students’ needs, meet employers’ requirements, and exceed both their expectations. Those conditions constitute the first of the eight ISO 9000 Quality Management Principles (Appendix A). The best way to apply all the principles is to implement an ISO 9000 quality standard (Praxiom).

WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTING ISO 9000?

The process of establishing a QMS is the same for all types of institutions. First, the organization decides that such a system has to be implemented to improve overall performance of the organization, to decrease costs associated with inefficiencies in it or to make it more competitive on the market and add more value to it. In the course of establishing a QMS that meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2000, ISO 9000:2000 and ISO 9004:2000 guidelines may be consulted to make the process easier. It is important, however, to construct the system in compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2000, not with the previous guidelines (Rabbitt).

A plan for development is used in the course of establishment of a QMS. These plans are based on the ISO requirement for process approach management strategy. The strategy itself is designed around the assumption that the operations of any organization are products of many interacting processes. A good quality management system defines and examines all the processes that are used in a company, as well as the interaction between the different processes, and makes them as efficient as possible. After the processes are defined the following steps are performed: design of the process; documentation of the process; implementation of the process; supporting the process; monitoring the process; controlling the process; and improvement of the process (Appendix B). The process approach is highly effective tool for quick and cost-effective establishment of a total quality management (TQM) system because it allows different process development plans to be assigned to different departments (BSI).

For example, teaching itself is one of the processes in an educational institution. This process includes the way teachers hold their lectures and the way they test students to meet certain level of comprehension. Another example for a process in an educational institution is the production processes for the maintenance department, where the purchasing process is buying supplies and materials needed, and the production process is the daily operation of the maintenance department such as responding to all work-orders in a timely manner and performing at high quality.

Even though already in use, existing processes can be inefficient and may need to be re-designed to meet ISO 9000 requirements. If redesign of a process is necessary, the new process is documented and implemented. Monitoring, controlling, and improving the already established process follow. All these actions can be assigned to the corresponding department in order to achieve a fast and effective establishment of QMS that will comply with ISO 9001:2000 requirements.

After all processes are recognized and examined in detail, an internal audit is held to determine if the quality management system is effective and whether it is in accordance with ISO requirements. The next step is contacting a certified registrar for external audit and certification. After achieving certification, organizations must maintain and improve the level of performance of their processes to maintain it. The organization is audited by the agency it registered with on a set schedule or sporadically to continue the certification. The audits are usually every two to five years (Rabbitt).

HOW WOULD ISO 9000 CERTIFICATION BENEFIT THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION?

The obvious and material benefit of implementation of ISO 9000 for the school or any other institution is the lowered cost of operation through increased productivity and efficiency. This would automatically increase profits or provide more funds to be allocated for activities other than operational costs. In public funded schools, implementing an effective QMS can be a key factor in increasing the number of students enrolled or the opportunities afforded without requesting additional state funding or raising tuition and fees. From the academic side of the advantages, ISO certification will ensure consistency of academic inputs from instructors, and maximize outputs from students. Recognizing and controlling the educational process will equalize requirements from different lecturers throughout the school and make sure all attain the widely accepted norms. The benefits from lower cost and high academic performance will indeed make the school more attractive on the domestic market, as well as for attracting foreign students.

In the long run, the institution will acquire the knowledge to design, control, and improve processes effectively. This is a valuable asset that allows for quick, cheap, and effective changes in the organization, should they be necessary.

An example for improvement of a process is the improvement of a class registration process. Illustrating the efficiency of ISO compliant processes, the existing class registration process at Concord University is flowcharted in Appendix C1. These flowcharts are simplified and include only selected segments of the entire process. The purpose of a flowchart is to present a process in a two-dimensional perspective and to make the evaluation of the entire process easier. In Concord University’s case, the registration process is outlined as follows:

• The student schedules an appointment with the academic adviser.
• If the student has not decided what classes he or she will take the following semester, he or she discusses the possibilities with the adviser.
• From all possible classes the student picks the ones he or she wants to take.
• The student fills out his or her selection on the Add slip provided by the adviser.
• The adviser approves and signs the Add slip.
• The student takes the Add slip to the Registrar’s office to register for classes.
• If a class or classes on the Add slip are closed (meaning the maximum number of students registered for the particular class has been reached) then the student returns to the adviser to select and alternative class.
• The adviser approves the alternative class.
• The student fills in a new Add slip with the new class.
• The adviser signs the Add slip.
• The student takes the slip to the Registrar’s office to register for classes.
• If all classes on the Add slip are still opened (meaning not all seat in the class are taken) the student is registered for all classes.
• The registrar stamps the Add slip.
• The student returns the Add slip to the adviser.
• The adviser files the Add slip in the student file.

Is obvious that this registration process requires physical movement between two different bodies: the adviser and the Registrar’s office. This movement can be repeated numerous times if the student picks or the adviser approves classes that are closed. It is also possible to pick a class that is not closed at the time of approval, but it can become closed by the time a student reaches the Registrar’s office. In two-dimensional terms, the problem is that there are three steps (processes) to be repeated if there is even one closed class. A way to improve the process is to decrease the number of processes to be repeated in case there are classes closed. The necessary steps are approval by the adviser and registration by the registrar. Therefore, if the two processes are combined, that will eliminate repetition of any steps if a class is closed.

A possible solution is to set up an online system that allows advisers to register students from their offices, which will eliminate the necessity of students going back and forth form department to department if a class they have picked is no longer available. Following is a redesigned registration process outline:

• The student schedules an appointment with the academic adviser.
• The adviser accesses the database and pulls up all available classes at that point in time.
• If the student has not decided what classes he or she will take the following semester, he or she discusses the possibilities with the adviser.
• From all possible classes the student picks the ones he or she wants to take.
• The adviser approves and registers the student using the online registration system.
• The adviser prints two copies of the new schedule for the student. One to file in the student’s file and one for the student’s personal records.

The newly designed process of registration is flowcharted (Appendix C2). Two main goals are achieved with the new design of the process. The new process is more convenient for students, and is more cost effective. The number of activities that a student has to perform in order to register has been decreased substantially, allowing for easier and more rapid registration. It also eliminates a necessary second or even third appointment with the adviser, if any class in closed, which is much more expedient than the old procedure. The cost benefit comes from that the processes performed in the Registrar’s office have been eliminated. Less labor hours will be used in the Registrar’s office, thus less expense will be incurred. Add Slips will no longer be necessary, because advisers will register students directly, which will also reduce registration related expenses.

The implementation will not require the construction of a new information system. All instructors and professors already have personal computers connected to the network. The software that the Registrar’s office uses to register students can be used by advisers to do the same. The only cost associated with the implementation will be the cost of training advisers how to use the registration system. In the end, however, that cost is insignificant and negligible.

The same method of flowcharting, evaluating, and improving a process can be used for anything within a certain organization. In close relation to the quality of education is the educational process. For example, the process of teaching should be defined and all teachers should comply with the procedures set forth. All the assigned work should be similar, and consistent with the overall requirements for a certain discipline. That does not mean, however, that all teachers will present in the same way. It simply means that all teachers will include in their lectures the necessary procedures for “healthy” educational experience. For example one teacher may want to present visually by using PowerPoint presentation, other however, may chose to write everything down on the black board. Those two are different techniques, but are both compliant with the set procedure. The way teachers assess whether students have mastered the material is different. Some may test after a certain number of chapters. Others may test after each chapter. The important part of the entire process, however, is to return and present the material that was not mastered over again. That way testing will not only be used to acquire the proficiency level of students in certain area, but will help improve that level.

Different educational institutions may have different practices and may define healthy educational experience in a different way. The important thing, however, is to be consistent and to comply with the procedures and practices set by the institution. Please refer to the Appendix D, where the educational experience is flowcharted as a controlled process compliant with ISO 9000 standards.

WHAT IS THE COST OF IMPLEMENTATION?

The cost of implementation is difficult to determine because it depends mainly on the condition of the QMS of the institution (if existent) and the number of processes involved. Measured in time, the implementation process may take from a couple of months (for companies with well set quality management systems) to more than two years for companies with poor quality management and relatively big size. The money value of the cost depends on whether the organization performs the implementation using internal resources or hires consultants from outside to develop the quality management system. Most of the companies implementing ISO 9000 quality standard do not track the cost associated with the implementation keeping in mind the return they get on that investment. The cost is considered insignificant as long as it stays within the planned operating budget. In general, medium sized companies spend around $100,000 to 200,000 for consulting, internal and external audits, and the certification (Rabbitt).