The challenge of ISO 9000 certification in higher education
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889810220456 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Pages | 152-161 |
| Author | Paul M.E. Shutler,Lachlan E.D. Crawford |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Introduction
The ISO 9000 series is the international
standard for quality assurance systems
(British Standards Institution, 1987). Since
its original publication in 1979 by the British
Standards Institution under the code BS
5750, more than 70,000 companies world-
wide have registered to the standard (BSI
Quality Assurance, 1994). Although original-
ly intended for manufacturing industry, ISO
9000 has attracted interest in service indus-
tries, including education. To date, a small
number of educational institutions have
registered to the standard (Lundquist, 1997),
including Sandwell College (MacRobert,
1994) and the University of Wolverhampton
(Doherty, 1995).
The literature on applying ISO 9000 to
education is remarkably small, the only sys-
tematic accounts being those provided by
Freeman (1993) and Ellis (1993a). Although
all authors agree that identifying the product
of education is crucial, there is no consensus
on what it should be. Freeman (1993, p. 78)
and Ellis (1993a, p. 20) take the product of
education to mean the provision of learning
opportunities and this was the definition
adopted by the University of Wolverhampton
(Storey, 1993, p. 47; 1994, p. 185). Sandwell
College, on the other hand, defined the
product of education to be the actual learning
achieved by the students (MacRobert, 1994,
p. 260) and this was subsequently adopted by
the BSI in their Guidance Notes on the Applica-
tion of BS EN ISO 9001 for Quality Manage-
ment Systems in Education and Training (BSI
Quality Assurance, 1995).
The aim of this article is to fill the obvious
gap in the literature, namely to provide a
systematic account of the application of ISO
9000 to education when the BSI definition of
the product of education is followed.
Although everything we shall say applies to
education in general, we shall, for the sake of
definiteness and because most of the existing
literature is in this area, take higher education
as our model. What we shall find is that the
challenges encountered by any institution of
higher education attempting to apply ISO
9000 according to the BSI definition are
among the key issues currently being debated,
most notably as a result of the Dearing Report
(1997).
The remaining sections of this paper are
organised as follows. First we review the basic
152
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 6 · Number 3 · 1998 · pp. 152–161
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0968-4883
The challenge of
ISO 9000 certification in
higher education
Paul M.E. Shutler and
Lachlan E.D. Crawford
The authors
Paul M.E. Shutleris a lecturer in the Division of Mathe-
matics, School of Science, National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Lachlan E.D. Crawfordis a senior lecturer in the Division
of Policy and Management Studies, School of Education,
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore.
Abstract
Addresses the question of how ISO 9000, the international
standard for quality management systems, may best be
applied to higher education. Begins with a concise but
systematic description of the requirements of ISO 9000 for
industry in terms of a simplified model of a factory. Argues
that the product of higher education must be the actual
learning of the students and not merely the provision of
learning opportunities. Hence shows how the require-
ments of ISO 9000 for higher education may be interpreted
in terms of a simplified model of a university. Highlights
the key educational management issues raised and
reviews how they are currently being addressed in
practice.
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