Impact of Quality Management System on Student Satisfaction: Towards a Sustainable Quality Management Framework for Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEI) are striving to do more to maintain quality management and keep pace with the fast-paced nature of change that comes with Education 4.0. The growth of online technologies, artificial intelligence and automation is changing the academic systems and is forcing universities to rethink the traditional approaches to quality assurance. It is not a new concept that Total Quality Management (TQM) can improve performance and educational experience of institutions as it has long been considered as an essential strategy in the development of higher education, but its role and contribution to sustainability in quality practices have not yet been fully deployed.

This paper is aimed at examining the effects of TQM practices on student satisfaction and how the research outcomes might be used to create a Sustainable Quality Management Framework (SQMF) that would be applied in the universities operating in the Education 4.0 environment. The research problem of the proposed study is the investigation of engineering university in Pakistan with the idea of examining the relationship between specific TQM dimensions and student satisfaction. dependabilityonnaire was distributed among 500 students and results were analyzed through the dependability and regression analyses.

The results show that TQM practices have enormous positive effect in student satisfaction. Continuous Improvement proved to be the most predictive factor (β = 0.25) then Strategic Planning and Process Approach. The results of this study suggest that college administration must be under permanent improvement and active policies that will improve their quality systems. The research provides practical suggestions on how institutional effectiveness can be improved and is useful in developing Digital and Sustainability-Oriented Quality Frameworks (DQMS/SQMF) and integrating them into the higher education policy and management practices in Pakistan.