TQM:Quality for Higher Education

Globalization of higher educational services has become an area of key focus for many countries in post WTO scenario. In order to fuel the socio-economic development of the country, higher education is playing a more active role in our country and this requires a paradigm shift in terms of governance and service delivery. Higher education institutions must become more innovative leading to quality institutions of knowledge production and dissemination. Realizing the importance of higher education, a lot of innovative experiments are being done to improve the performance of this sector. The Application of Total Quality Management (TQM) concepts is one of such measures, which will go a long way in revolutionizing the higher education system. Total Quality Management is recognized as an important management philosophy widely used in US industry. It has been used very successfully in the development and acquisition of systems such as satellites and aircraft to preparing officer performance reports. Over the last few years, TQM has been applied in the education industry. The Air Force Academy has been a leader in this application of TQM. The principles of TQM are described with an emphasis on the importance of identifying the customer and analyzing the processes. The 14 Points of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, which form a framework for the implementation of the TQM, are individually applied to the academic environment based on the experience gained at the Air Force Academy. The indomitable spirit of higher education paves the way for the growth of a nation in the political, economic, social, intellectual and spiritual dimensions. Teacher education is one of the areas in higher education which trains student-teachers in pedagogy, which in turn helps them to train the young minds of educational institutions. The "Fate of the nation is decided in the classroom," is a remark made by the Education Commission of India. Such classrooms are created by committed and dedicated teachers.