SQA Forum
Sustainability: the new total quality management
What is Quality Assurance?
Quality is a slippery concept, which implies different
things to different people. It is that which best
satisfies and exceeds customer’s needs and wants.
Quality can be said to lie in the eyes of the beholder.
This is because the consumers, who make the judgment on
quality, do these by reference to the best comparable
performance.
Quality refers to the standard of a phenomenon when it
is compared to other things like it: how good or bad
something is, that is, to be of good/poor/top quality or
of a high standard. In this context, it is associated
with the „monitoring and evaluation component of
education‟ to see whether the outcome is good and of the
intended standard.
Quality assurance on the other hand, is about
consistently meeting product specification or getting
things right first time, every time. For example Quality
assurance in the university system implies the ability
of the institutions to meet the expectations of the
users of manpower in relation to quality of skills
acquired by their outputs. Equally, it can be said to be
the ability of the universities to meet certain criteria
relating to academic matters, staff-students ratio,
staff mix by rank, staff development, physical
facilities, funding and adequate library facilities.
Adequacy of various inputs in the university system, in
terms of quality and quantity, exercises tremendous
influence on quality assurance in the university system.
Quality assurance is a key component of successful
internationalization, mechanism for building
institutional reputation in a competitive local and
global arena and necessary foundation for consumer
protection quality is the ability or degree with which a
product, service, or phenomenon conforms, to an
established standard, and which make it to be relatively
superior to other. With respect to education, this
implies the ability or degree with which an educational
system conforms to the established standard and
appropriateness, of the inputs available for the
delivery of the system.
What is Sustainable Quality Assurance?
Environment, energy efficiency, and quality are just a
few essential elements of sustainability. The
Sustainable Quality Assurance (SQA) ties together these
elements with the principles and practices of social
responsibility, quality management systems and
environmental issues into this new concept. Sustainable Quality Assurance focuses in the areas of
Social responsibility (general), Applying sustainable
quality tools, Sustainable environmental and energy
initiative, Sustainability in organizational excellence,
Strategic social responsibility and Skills and
competencies needed by business leaders.
On the sustainability side, we often forget the intense
evolutionary curve that the quality movement raced up in
the 1980s as new standards and expectations triggered
immense changes in business. So the fact that Quality
Management Systems (QMS) does not yet fully embrace
sustainability today does not rule out a powerful
convergence in the future.
Looking back at the quality revolution, there is strong
parallels with where we find ourselves today. Early on,
a few businesses decided to view "Sustainable Quality
Concept” as an opportunity toward their ultimate goal,
which is business sustainability.
Mission: We transform lives through the power of education. Our
Quality Sustainability Strategy seeks to support our
mission by building on our research expertise in
sustainability and delivering a more resource efficient
institution, where staff and customers are aware of
their role and the actions they can take in making a
positive impact on the local, national and international
quality perception.
Vision: The aim is to shape an organization that will excel and
be recognized for environmental and sustainability
achievements in local, national and international
arenas. This will be achieved through the skills and
knowledge that our costumers learn and put into practice
(as future leaders and global citizens); our research
and exchange of knowledge through business and community
engagement; and through our own strategies and
operations.
Values:
Through education and research we are aware of the
ecological limits of the planet And promote the careful use of resources through the UN
Millennium Goals.
Priority: Education for sustainability underpins all of the
strategic aims and is fundamental to delivering cultural
change, across the community, and subsequent
improvements in quality management performance.
Education for sustainability is therefore the priority
strategic aim within this strategy.
Our Aims: Aim 1: To provide all People with access to education
for and about sustainability in quality areas. Aim 2: To reduce the environmental impact of our
operational activities and make a positive contribution
to the local environment, through the management of our
estate. Aim 3: To raise awareness and communicate research which
is related to sustainable quality assurance and to
ensure that our operations are informed by this research
where possible.
AND THE MOST IMPORTANT AIM IS:
To ensure that the aims, objectives and targets
contained within this strategy are delivered to the
highest standards and in a transparent and verifiable
manner.
To achieve this aim our objectives are:
-
to ensure that we comply with environmental
legislation;
-
to regularly review quality enhancement and
sustainable quality assurance indicators for education
for Sustainability;
-
to achieve a critical mass of competent staff to
deliver our vision and targets;
-
to provide effective communications to ensure that all
staff are aware of internal and external drivers for
quality sustainability practice in relation to their
role, and that they are aware of their own personal
responsibilities. How will we do this?
- We will have dialogue with managers to develop an
appropriate framework to include awareness and skills
for quality sustainability in job descriptions as
appropriate and relevant to specific roles.
- We will ensure all new staffs receive information
about sustainability and that practice for
sustainability is integrated into staff induction
programmes.
- Quality Sustainability training will be made available
to all staff.
- We will produce an annual sustainability report
outlining current performance and achievements.
- We will monitor performance in sustainability-related
external league tables.
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