Education Sector of Oman - Research Paper Example

Strategic Quality Management A Report on the Academic Accreditation of Graduate Certificates from International Schools, Colleges and Universities bythe Ministry of Higher Education of Oman The increasing competition in the global education sector places a lot pressure on every country to improve on its educational standards. Growing competition particularly in higher education translates to a need for the continual improvement of qualification standards in every country for the local institutions to remain globally competitive (Agus, 2004). Quality has an important role in the educational system of every country. To be more effective and efficient in the educational market, improvement of higher degree accreditation procedures is needed so as to improve the job market value of qualifications and attract high quality graduates to a country’s job market. Over time, the definition of quality has transformed with changing perceptions among customers. Presently, in many organizations quality is defined as understanding, meeting, and surpassing customer needs and expectations (Besterfield, 2009). According to Montgomery (2005), quality is now one of the most important factors in selection of goods and services. Statistical tools are very important in quality management, they allow measurement and evaluation of performance in an organization and they are therefore regularly applied in decision support (Karuppusami and Gandhinathan, 2006). Total Quality Management tools and techniques are categorized into quantitative and non-quantitative, the quantitative tools generally consist of what is called statistical process control (SPC). SPC comprises of a number of statistical tools, usually seven, including Histograms, Pareto Charts, Process Flow Diagrams, Control Charts, Scatter Diagrams, Check Sheets and Effect Diagrams (Karuppusami and Gandhinathan, 2006). This report applies basic statistical tools of quality control in assessing the benefits of academic accreditation of graduate certificates from international schools, colleges and universities by the ministry of higher education in the Sultanate of Oman. Four main SPC tools are utilized including histograms, Pareto diagrams, scatter diagrams, and control charts. The main objective of the report is to utilize SPC tools in assessing the efficiency of the accreditation process with the aim of improving it to meet or exceed customer needs. Histograms are special bar charts that are used to measure the frequency of occurrences (Goestch, 2005). The only difference between a bar chart and histogram is that the X-axis in a bar chart lists categories while in a Histogram it consists of a measurement scale with no gaps between the adjacent bars. Pareto diagrams are very useful for separation of important information from trivial information in a process. Pareto diagrams simply refer to frequency distributions or histograms with data arranged in terms of category (Montgomery, 2006). Even though the scatter diagram is one of the simplest of SPC tools, it is also one of the most useful. Usually, a scatter diagram is applied in the determination of correlation between two variables in a study (Devor et al., 2007). The scatter diagram can be able to indicate the type of relationship that exists between the variables e.g. direct or indirect, and positive or negative. Finally, a control chart is applied in the study of a process when the characteristics of the process involve measurement e.g. time, cost, highest, lowest, total count etc (Devor et al., 2007). Control variable charts are useful in provision of more information than attribute data The ministry of higher education in the Sultanate of Oman does not apply any statistical process control methods in monitoring or controlling the number of higher education certificates it carries out on a monthly or annual basis; the performance indicator report is prepared from the accreditation log prepared on a monthly basis using excel spreadsheets (Appendix 1). This is accomplished by entering the data of accreditations onto an excel sheet on the basis of region of origin of the international university i.e. Europe, USA, UK, Asia, and Africa. The number of accreditations is added up to give monthly totals. The information provided by the ministry on its website indicates that on the basis of its mission and values, the ministry of higher education is quality oriented. For any department or organization to achieve quality in its processes and results it is important for a culture of continuous improvement to be entrenched in the system. In any organization that conforms to quality management, the outcomes of processes need to be measured through a number of tools and techniques; particularly SPC tools (Dale et al., 2011). Statistical process control tools are applied in monitoring and controlling processes with the objective of reducing variations as an important requirement towards quality improvement (Talbot, 2003). The data examined from the ministry of higher education of the Sultanate of Oman mainly comprised the number of academic accreditations of graduate certificates from international universities per month over a period of one year in 2012 (Appendix 1). Data for one year was used to as to show the annual trend of accreditation and reveal any variations over the twelve months that can be attributed to specific organizational or external factors. The data indicated that there were a total of 230 certifications over a 12 month period in 2010 and that the largest number of certifications totaling 44 occurred in the month of December (Appendix 1). The range between the highest and the lowest certifications was as high as 40 with the month of June recording the smallest number of certifications totaling to 4 (Appendix 1). The statistics was analyzed using the mean, the range, and the standards deviation; the results indicated that in terms of region of origin, over the 12 months, the USA had the greatest range, mean, and standard deviation of all the five regions in terms of certificate accreditations issued (Appendix 2). It is also evident from the results that Asia and Africa accounted for the lowest range, mean, and standard deviation of all the five regions in terms of certificate accreditations (Appendix 2). In terms of month of accreditation for the five different regions considered, December had the largest range, mean, and standard deviation of number of certificates accredited in comparison with all the other months (Appendix 3). June and July had the smallest ranges and standard deviations of number of certificates accredited, although June had the lowest mean while July had the lowest standard deviation (Appendix 3). The Pareto diagrams (Figure 1 and Figure 2) illustrate in descending order the highest to the lowest number of accreditations category with clear visual representation of number and percentage of accreditations both in terms of the month of accreditation and the region of origin of certificates. Figure 1: Pareto diagram indicating month of accreditation and total number of certificates accredited The Pareto diagram in figure 1 shows that December had the highest total number of accreditations followed by October, April and January also had high numbers of total certificates accredited. On the other hand, in terms of origin of university, figure 2 indicates that the USA had the largest number of accreditations followed by the UK, Europe and Asia in that Order. Africa had the smallest number of certificate accreditations over the twelve month period. The Pareto diagram also reveals that with over 30% of total accreditations each, the USA and UK had significantly larger proportions of accreditation over the year 2012 than the rest of the regions, none of which surpassed 10% of the total number of accreditations. Figure 2: Pareto diagram indicating origin of international university and total number of certificates accredited The numbers of graduate certificate accreditations are commonly expressed in terms of counts for a given period of time. However, after establishment of a trend line, the number of accreditations may be tracked and trended for each month or each region of certificate origin. This would enable preventive and corrective actions to be taken whenever these numbers exceed the trend line to ensure that the accreditation remain within acceptable quality limits. This approach would capture both gradual changes and sudden changes through consistent track-and-trending (Al-Marri et al., 2007). The Pareto diagram (Appendices 4) being applied for analysis in this report highlights the need for research and identification of the reason why some months, particularly May to September experience low number of accreditation from the ministry. It is evident from the findings in Appendix 4a and 4b that the months at the middle third of the year are characterized with lower numbers of accreditations. Total quality management practices are of great importance to government institution competencies that are vital towards efficiency of service provision and customer satisfaction (Arumugan et al., 2008). According to Fryer et al. (2007), application of control charts in government institutions was effective because of the high number of services provided and the provision of these services by smaller specific offices within the institutions. This implied that data from these smaller offices could fit into process control charts well to ensure provision of quality services to clients. The approach has the potential of being extended to service improvement stages of the institutions especially with data in those stages being readily available from client feedback. The application of control charts during the whole process of accreditation throughout the year would enable the ministry to understand the main factors influencing particular trends in requests for accreditation and the accreditation process itself. Use of control charts can enable accreditations to be recorded in terms of monthly upper limits and lower limits therefore providing some control in the process of accreditation depending on the bulk of requests for accreditation. Appendix 8 illustrates the control chart for the total number of accreditations to be made by the Omani Ministry of Higher Education in a month. According to the results, an average of 19 accreditations should be mad monthly with the upper limit being 32 certificates and the lower limit being 6 certificates. This implies that at an average of 19 graduate certificate accreditations in a month, the ministry would be able to maintain a high quality or standard of accreditation within the prevailing circumstances. A histogram (Appendix 6), that indicates the frequencies accreditations at given numbers of graduate certificate accredited determined y Sturgess rule indicates that the probability of having a normal distribution within the number of accreditations data obtained for this study is low. The histogram (Appendix 6) indicates a skew towards the left. This finding is a bit interesting as it a normal distribution would be expected owing to the fact that an average number of certificates would be offered by a ministry on a more frequent basis than either a higher number or a lower number. It however presents an interesting scenario that would aid towards planning for quality improvement. Statistical process control has been indicated as significantly useful particularly through provision of methodology for the measurement of efficiency (Tabot, 2003). Analysis of data for quality improvement benefits significantly from identification of key associations. The application of scatter diagrams is important in enabling documentation of clear correlations. In Appendix 7, the scatter diagram presented highlights the months of the year and the total number of graduate certificate accreditations. The diagram reveals a higher number of accreditations in the first four months of the year and an even higher number of accreditations in the last three months of the year. The middle of the year generally experiences low numbers of accreditations according to the findings on the scatter diagram. Most importantly the scatter diagram reveals that there is no direct relationship between the month of the year and the number of accreditations although an indirect relationship may exist. This study indicates that all of the SPC tools discussed in this study, i.e. histograms, Pareto diagrams, scatter plots, and process control charts are useful in quality management processes in certificate accreditations in the Omani ministry of higher education. However, the methods have different strengths and appropriateness for different aspects of quality control. It is therefore recommended that the tools be used in combination so as to complement each other in quality control. It is also evident from the study that SPSS can be successfully applied by the ministry as a tool for analysis together with all the examined SPC tools. References Agus, A. (2004). TQM as a focus for improving overall service performance and customer satisfaction: an empirical study on a public service sector in Malaysia. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 15(5), 615-628 Al-Marri, K., Ahmed, A.M.M.B., & Zairi, M. (2007). Excellence in service: an empirical study of the UAE banking sector. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 24(2), 164-176. Arumugam, V., Ooi, K.-B., &Fong, T.-C. (2008). TQM practices and quality management performance- an investigation of their relationship using data from ISO 9001:2000 firms in Malaysia. The TQM Magazine, 20(6), 636-650 Besterfield, D. H. (2009). Quality Control, 8th Edition. New York: Pearson-Prentice Hall. Dale, B.G. (2011). Managing Quality, 5th edition. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. Devor, R. E, Chang, T., & Sutherland, J. W. (2007). Statistical quality design and control: Contemporary concepts and methods, 2nd Edition. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. Fryer, K.J., Antony, J. & Douglas, A. (2007). Critical success factors of continuous improvement in the public sector: a literature review and some key findings. The TQM Magazine, 19(5), 497-517. Goetsch, D. L., & Davis S. B. (2006). Quality Management: Introduction to Total Quality Management for Production, Processes, and Services, 5th Edition. New York: Pearson Education. Karuppusami,G. & Gandhinathan, R. (2006). Pareto analysis of critical success factors of total quality management. The TQM Magazine, 18(4), 372-385. Montgomery, D. (2005). Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 5th Edition. New York: John Wiley. Talbot, N. (2003). The use of automated optical testing (AOT) in statistical process control (SPC) for printed circuit board (PCB) production. Circuit World, 29(4), 19-22. Appendices Appendix 1: Table of accreditation statistics for graduate certificates by the Omani ministry of higher education Year Int Uni (Europe) Int Uni (USA) Int Uni (UK) Int Uni (Asia) Int Uni (Africa) Total 1/2012 2 9 7 4 0 22 certificates 2/2012 0 7 5 2 1 15 certificates 3/2012 3 7 8 0 1 19 certificates 4/2012 1 10 11 3 0 25 certificates 5/2012 0 6 4 0 0 10 certificates 6/2012 0 0 4 0 0 4 certificates 7/2012 1 5 4 3 4 17 certificates 8/2012 0 6 2 0 0 8 certificates 9/2012 3 6 4 1 1 15 certificates 10/2012 4 13 11 2 1 31 certificates 11/2012 2 9 7 1 1 20 certificates 12/2012 8 16 13 3 4 44 certificates Total 24 94 80 19 13 230 certificates Appendix 2: Descriptive statistics of certificate accreditations in terms of region of origin Region of origin N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation International University (Europe) 12 8 0 8 2.00 2.335 International University (USA) 12 16 0 16 7.83 4.064 International University (UK) 12 11 2 13 6.67 3.473 International University (Asia) 12 4 0 4 1.58 1.443 International University (Africa) 12 4 0 4 1.08 1.443 Valid N (listwise) 12 Appendix 3: Descriptive statistics of certificate accreditations in terms of month of accreditation Month of Accreditation N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Jan 5 9 0 9 4.40 3.647 Feb 5 7 0 7 3.00 2.915 Mar 5 8 0 8 3.80 3.564 Apr 5 11 0 11 5.00 5.148 May 5 6 0 6 2.00 2.828 Jun 5 4 0 4 .80 1.789 Jul 5 4 1 5 3.40 1.517 Aug 5 6 0 6 1.60 2.608 Sep 5 5 1 6 3.00 2.121 Oct 5 12 1 13 6.20 5.450 Nov 5 8 1 9 4.00 3.742 Dec 5 13 3 16 8.80 5.630 Valid N (listwise) 5 Appendix 4a: Table of Pareto diagram results expressed as percentages. Sum of Accreditations Percentage Month Jan 22 9.6 Feb 15 6.5 Mar 19 8.3 Apr 25 10.9 May 10 4.3 Jun 4 1.7 Jul 17 7.4 Aug 8 3.5 Sep 15 6.5 Oct 31 13.5 Nov 20 8.7 Dec 44 19.1 Total 230 100 Appendix 4b: Pareto diagram indicating percentage of accreditations against accreditation months Appendix 5a: Table of Pareto diagram results in terms of origin of university certificate expressed as percentages. Sum Percentage Region of Origin of University certificate International University (Europe) 24 10.4 International University (USA) 94 40.9 International University (UK) 80 34.8 International University (Asia) 19 8.3 International University (Africa) 13 5.7 Total 230 100 Appendix 5b: Pareto diagram indicating percentage of accreditations against origin of graduate certificates Appendix 6: Histogram to show number of certificate accreditations Total Number of certificates accredited N Valid 12 Missing 0 Mean 19.17 Std. Deviation 10.777 Range 40 Minimum 4 Maximum 44 Sum 230 Appendix 7: Appendix 8: Control chart for total number of certificates approved Read More