Quality Management - Research Paper Example

As the head of the Academic Board, I am responsible for the level of quality in the teaching and learning at the UWS. I therefore find it necessary to engage in research to determine a Quality Management Strategy for an improved system of Teaching and Learning in University of West Sydney. The main focus of this paper is the establishment of strategic plan for the implementation of a quality management approach in the UWS. This paper also focuses on implementation of the plan and change management.

Among the major recommendations of this paper is promotion of an indiscriminately student-based, quality oriented and feedback based management plan for the teaching and learning program of the UWS. The paper intensely reviews literature and uses critical analysis of facts for clear judgment and accurate recommendations. Introduction Background The University of Western Sydney (UWS) was established 26 years ago. It has a clear mission statement which corresponds with the status which led to its establishment.

The mission is “To be a university of international standing and outlook, achieving excellence through scholarship, teaching, learning, research and service to its regional, national and international communities, beginning with the people of Greater Western Sydney”. According to the Australian Universities Quality Agency Report (2011), the universities vision was adjusted in the 210-2015 strategic plan. The new vision is aimed at stream-lining the objectives of various departments of the university towards a common vision of “Bringing knowledge to life in Greater Western Sydney through community and business engagement with our learning and our research” To achieve this, the university needs to establish a Quality Management Strategy for an improved system of Teaching and Learning.

Being the head of the Academic Board, I am commissioned to study the current system of Teaching and Learning and establish an efficient and effective Quality Management Strategy designed to boost the existing system of teaching and learning. Statement of the Problem The university has a total of 28,396 students. 11.5% of these students are international students. To cater for the need of this students are a total or 885 Academic staff and 1,278 non-academic staff. As clearly seen for this figures, the university should have clear quality management and assessment mechanisms to manage this great responsibility.

Even with the huge number of employees, without an efficient quality assessment technic, they quality of output of efforts of the university is bound to be minimal (Australian Universities Quality Agency, 2011). Australia has made significant efforts in maintaining quality of its high education. these efforts include performance of national audits by a Committee for Quality Assurance in the early 90’s by the national. In the late 1990s, Australia developed a National Quality Benchmarking Manual.

The most recent effort towards assuring quality