Development of quality management systems for support services in the South African public higher education institutions

Abstract

The adoption and implementation of quality management systems has increasingly become an important feature of higher education institutions’ attainment of goals and objectives, as exhibited in the development of relevant policies, structures and systems at national and institutional levels. This study contributes to work in conceptualising quality management in higher education support services. Most studies focusing on quality management have been from an industry standpoint with little examination of higher education quality management systems, and even less on service quality systems in higher education. This study investigated the extent to which quality management systems have been adopted South African public higher education institutions’ support services. This is done by evaluating the quality management mechanisms in use and by examining the current practices of implementation. Although this study was mainly qualitative, it did not preclude quantitative dimensions thus allowing not only for triangulation of data, but also for a multi-dimensional analysis of some of the phenomena investigated. Data was gathered from a range of participants that included senior HEI managers, quality directors/ managers, support service sector unit heads, as well as senior academics from six purposefully selected South African public higher education institutions. These participants were the key informants of the semi-structured interviews conducted. The semi-structured interviews formed the main evidence base, alongside the content of institutional documents. A sequential collection and analysis of data approach was used. Different data sources were compared and paralleled; and later merged to form a set of qualitative data, which provided a comprehensive image of the status quo and achieved a unified interpretation of results for presenting findings. Although the study found structured quality management processes at public higher education institutions, these were developed and implemented particularly for their academic enterprise practices. Findings from the study highlight the variance in the HEIs’ development implementation of internal quality management systems while it noted an absence of systematic approaches to the quality management of the support services sector. The study contributes to the understanding of the application of the systems thinking approach on the development and implementation in the support services sector quality management systems. The thesis argues for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of quality management systems in the support services sector within South African public higher education institutions. The recommendations that emanate from the study include the need to: build an institution-wide culture of quality and continuous improvement; develop a systematic approach to quality management that is grounded on well-designed systems-thinking-based support sector service quality models, policies and procedure guidelines; mobilise resources and develop tools and processes for assessing quality of support services, feedback mechanisms and self-assessment systems.