Abstract
This chapter focuses on developing and implementing an integrated and inclusive quality management framework in Management Education considering possible future changes. The chapter reviews existing global management education, major global quality standards and practices of management education such as AACSB, AMBA, EFMD, etc., and several existing quality management frameworks and models in management education proposed by research scholars from different parts of the world. The study found the gaps that exist through analyses of different leading accreditation standards such as AACSB, AMBA, EFMD, etc. and provides an all-inclusive quality framework for management education bridging the gaps found and considering the future requirements. The new framework would enable higher education institutions offering management education to achieve internal excellence and enable them to work on accreditation for any global standards which they choose to use.
TopReview Of Quality In Management Education System
Quality Management in higher education system has gained lot of importance in the recent past globally (Cornuel, 2007). Many regions of the world have taken lot of initiatives towards standardizing criteria related to Quality Management and Quality Assurance. Globalization and liberalization also have necessitated the focus towards increased quality standards in management education (Reddy, 2008). To get endorsed for the maintenance of quality standards and quality assurance, most of the management institutes focus on getting accredited by reputed national and global agencies. In the last two decades, there has been a rapid increase in the number of business schools seeking accreditation (Wilson and Thomas, 2012; Elliott and Goh, 2013).
Accreditation has been defined as ‘a status granted to an institution or a program within an institution that has been evaluated and found to meet or exceed stated criteria of education quality’ (Young et al., 1983). According to McFarlane (2010), the concept of Quality has become synonymous with accreditation. Accreditation serves many purposes for business schools, including quality assurance for schools and stakeholders, the ability to benchmark and network with their peers, marketing advantages. That is why international accrediting bodies have recently grown and became popular as a marker of distinction by business schools worldwide (Nelson, 2011).
Clark (1983) combines three important stakeholder groups (academic community, the market and state) with three approaches to quality in higher education (intrinsic quality, extrinsic quality, and politically correct quality). Harvey and Green (1993) identified five concepts of quality evident in higher education: exceptionality, perfection, fitness for purposes, value for money, and / or empowerment of students developing their knowledge. Academic Quality is also emphasized by Fuinlong (2000) in term of input criteria, output criteria, value-added criteria, process-oriented criteria.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Quality: Totality of features of characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs
Quality Management Standards: Standards developed for an organization to manage its processes and activities to improve efficiency, setting benchmark to successfully meet customer needs.
Academic Quality: The combination of input, output, value-added, and process-oriented criteria of an academic institution
Management Education: An academic discipline of imparting or acquiring knowledge to develop the members of the executive or administration of an organization or business, managers or employers collectively, or train in the techniques, practice, or science of managing, controlling or dealing, in the skillful or resourceful use of materials, time, etc.
Quality Management in Education: Achievement of quality through management processes of an institution, recognition of students as both a customer and workers in the educational system, and the instructional processes and student learning
Stakeholder Connect: The degree of linkages and maintenance of a professional relationship of a management institution with all its stakeholder groups, i.e. Students, Faculty, Academic Community, Industry, Society, and Regulatory Authorities like Government.
Management Institution: An institution which offers management education at undergraduate and graduate levels
Accreditation: Status granted to an institution or a program within an institution that has been evaluated and found to meet or exceed stated criteria of education quality
Quality Management: An act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level of excellence. This includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and implementing quality planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement.
Quality Assurance: The strategic initiative of an institution to meet and create expectations in the mind of stakeholders
Accreditation Agencies: In this case, the accrediting agency is a professional organization that evaluates the effectiveness of a program in terms of how well it prepares students to meet certain professional standards.