Total quality management in Turkish higher education institutions

Every Nation's economy almost relies on the education or in other words the education is the main pillar of the country's economy. Especially Higher education plays a vital role to build a strong and prosperous country and it develops the good nation. It is a single tool that can entirely change the way of thinking and way of living of the nations. Many years back, people used to think that there should be a tool that can improve the quality of education according to the necessities of today's era. Education is a sector that effects overall on the quality of life. To improve the quality of HEIs (Higher education institutions), the government officials and constitutional departments are also involved in developing the quality of higher education system, just being alone they can't achieve the required goal. Also, the HEIs need to take necessary measures. HEIs should take proactive actions in improving the quality of the higher education system as much as possible. For that purpose, a TQM (Total quality management) tools and processes that brought positive significant changes in different industries and organizations. Now, these tools are generally being used in HEIs. These tools are mostly focused on continuous improvement (CI) system which is never ended process. Although TQM has many different elements that mostly apply for the betterment of organizations, industries and for different businesses. TQM has such tools and factors that help organizations to enhance their organizational performance by focusing on customer interest and customer focus. Furthermore, it makes sure the involvement of top management, building teamwork, involvement of staff or employee, provide enough training to their employees, having effective control on the process, system and especially on quality by using TQM tools, Moreover, build trust and loyalty between employee and organization. As we know the TQM is being used in several different organization and businesses but the education sector is a sector where our generation gets an education and after completion of their degree program they step in their practical life and use all those skills, knowledge and information that they have learned from their HEIs. Due to that reason, HEIs has more significance than other organizations. The education sector and its performance directly effect on society. In worldwide, those countries who have a strong economy and developed countries. They pay a lot of attention to education. They allocate a massive budget for education. Some well-known universities have a huge budget for education that is more than the budget of a small or undeveloped country. If we do research on the history, the nations who had a good education system they ruled and lead the world. The governance and management should come up with the ideas that how they can provide quality education by spreading awareness on the benefits of TQM in HEIs. In all over the world, there are thousands of public and private universities that have different quality structures levels. That's why to know the condition of TQM in Turkish higher education institutions was my goal and objective of this thesis was to examine the recent TQM conditions in Turkish HEIs, also intended to know the difference between Public and Private Universities in terms of implementation and development of TQM principles and its factors. Also, was wondered to see the relationship between such factors and variables that are being used by TQM in HEIs. To know the performance of TQM in Turkish HEIs, a survey was conducted within Turkey, that survey was taken from the International Institute for Educational Planning had collaborated with UNESCO. They conducted a survey all over the world to examine the Quality Management in Higher education institutions. The survey was generally focused on the developments and drivers of TQM in HEIs. That survey was an International survey. The same questionnaire has been used to monitor the recent situation of TQM in Turkish HEIs.