Quality & Productivity in The University System

Abstract

Quality and Productivity Management context for an organization will remain relevant for all the time to come. Considerable debate is going on in Australia under the banner of "Higher Education at the Crossroads" and one central theme appears to be why none of the Australian Universities appear in the list of the top 100 universities in the world (Ref: Ministerial discussion paper- Higher Education at the Crossroads (Nelson, 2002). A high level committee set up by the Minister for Education, Science and Training examined various issues including diversity,  specialisation and regional engagement with regard to higher education in Australia. This paper proposes an Operations Management view as to how universities in Australia can aim to be rated amongst top 100 in the world and be truly classed as world class. This paper examines the deficiencies in the Australian Universities generally and proposes as to how a holistic view of Quality can assist individual institutions to lift their game in enhancing their quality in learning, teaching and scholarship in the current climate of entrepreneurial approach to education and achieve sustained growth in the volatile and fast changing national and international political scene.