Analyzing educational quality of universities in the north of vietnam

Analyzing Educational Quality of Universities
in the North of Vietnam

Huong Thi Thanh Bui (
Dr. Chih-Hung Hsieh (

0

)
)


Analyzing Educational Quality of Universities in the North of Vietnam

Student : Huong Thi Thanh Bui
Advisor : Dr. Chih-Hung Hsieh

A Thesis
Submitted to Master of Business Administration Program
College of Management
Yuan Ze University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Business Administration
(Major in Management and Service Science)
December 2015
Chungli, Taiwan, Republic of China.

0

(

)

2015

vi


Analyzing Educational Quality of Universities in the North of Vietnam
Student Huong Thi Thanh Bui

Advisor

Dr. Chih-Hung Hsieh

Submitted to Master of Business Administration Program
College of Management
Yuan Ze University
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to find the solutions of quality improvement for selected leading
universites in the North of Vietnam. A survey was conducted in early 2015. The author
collected hundred more data from the respondents who are major stakeholders of education in
the five departments from the selected five universities in the North of Vietnam, which train
one same major that is Business administration or Management. The respondents who have
the experience in education are mainly students and teachers. Besides, the author also
collected data from parents, staffs, government officer, industrial experts, etc. This study used
Likert scale of five. The results finally served the purpose of this research. I found that nine
supported hypotheses, the rest were rejected. From the results of hypotheses, the author found
the relationships among variables. Based on that point of view, the author proposed general

recommendations for university and leaders and the suggestion for each stakeholder in
education. In terms of important findings, finding dimensions and analyzing their
relationships contribute to the evaluation of educational quality in Northen Vietnam.
Keyword: Total quality management, total quality education, education quality, statistical
analysis.

vii


Acknowledgements
First of all, I am grateful to Dr. Chih-Hung Hsieh for his extraordinary support and guidance
in this thesis process. My studying and researching would have been impossible without Yuan
Ze University’s the scholarship for this two – year MBA program. I also express my sincere
thanks to Dr. Yu-Kai Wang and Dr. Chorng-Guang Wu for their precious openions and to
Ph.D. student YC Wu who gave me some useful suggestion for designing the questionnaire.
In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Pham Viet Duc for his response in the
expert interview that helped me much in creating the framework of the thesis. Furthermore, I
want to give my sincere thanks to the respondents who helped me to answer the questionnaire
of this survey are the teachers, the parents and the students from the five universities in the
North of Vietnam: Department of Business Administration at Thai Nguyen University of
Economics & Business Administration (TUEBA); Department of Business Administration at
Post & Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT); Department of Economics &
Business Administration at Hung Vuong University (HVU); Department of Human Resource
Management at Vietnam Commercial University (VCU); Department of Industrial Economy
(including majors in management) at Thai Nguyen University of Technology (TNUT).
Finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends who supported and encouraged me so
much for me to finish my MBA program.

Huong Thi Thanh Bui

viii


Tables of Contents
Title page.................................................................................................................................... i
Validation Paper ........................................................................................................................ ii
Authorization Paper ................................................................................................................. iii
Abstract - Chinese ..................................................................................................................... vi
Abstract - English ....................................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ viii
Tables of Contents..................................................................................................................... ix
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. xi
List of Figures ..........................................................................................................................xii
Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Research background and motivation .......................................................................... 1
1.2 The research question .................................................................................................. 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study ................................................................................................ 4
1.4 Research scope ............................................................................................................. 4
Chapter 2 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 9
2.1 Related Literature......................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Related Studies........................................................................................................... 12
2.3 Definition of Terms .................................................................................................... 14
2.3.1 The gaps in total quality management ............................................................ 14
2.3.2 Total quality management in education .......................................................... 14
2.3.3 Customers in education ................................................................................... 15
2.4 Key variables found from literature review ............................................................... 16
2.5 Expert visit ................................................................................................................. 23
2.6 The key variables for framework ............................................................................... 26
Chapter 3: Research Methodology........................................................................................... 28
3.1 Research framework .................................................................................................. 28

3.2 Research design ......................................................................................................... 29
3.3 Respondent of the study ............................................................................................. 30
3.3.1 Sampling Design ............................................................................................. 30
3.3.2 Technique ........................................................................................................ 31
3.4 Data Gathering Tools ................................................................................................. 31
3.5 Analysis method ......................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 4: Data analysis and Results ....................................................................................... 35
4.1 Description of samples............................................................................................... 35
4.2 Reliability test ............................................................................................................ 36
4.3. KMO and Bartlett's Test............................................................................................ 44
ix


4.4. Rotated Component Matrix....................................................................................... 44
4.5. Regression analysis ................................................................................................... 50
4.6. Findings..................................................................................................................... 55
Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation ........................................................ 61
5.1 Summary .................................................................................................................... 61
5.2 Discussion and suggestions ....................................................................................... 61
5.3 Limitation................................................................................................................... 64
References ................................................................................................................................ 66
Appendix 1: Questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 68
Appendix 2: The transcript of the Interview (Vietnamese)...................................................... 77
Appendix 3: The transcript of the Interview (English) ............................................................ 91

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List of Tables
Table 1.1: The selected five universities in Northen Vietnam ................................... 7

Table 2.1: The history of educational development of Universities in the North of
Vietnam .............................................................................................................. 9
Table 2.2: Opinions on education quality of Universities in the North of Vietnam
through periods ................................................................................................ 11
Table 2.3: Related studies or researches on higher education ................................. 13
Table 2.4: Key variables found from literature review of customer voice .............. 17
Table 2.5: Key variables found from literature review for Total design
characteristics Quality Education .................................................................... 18
Table 2.6: Key variables of quality criteria for Total Quality Education ................. 19
Table 2.7: Main contents of the Interview ............................................................... 25
Table 2.8: Key variables for framework .................................................................. 27
Table 3.1: places of data collection .......................................................................... 31
Table 3.2: Scaling system of evaluation of customer voice…………………........ 32
Table 3.3: Scaling system of evaluation of quality status………………………....32
Table 4.1: Description of samples ............................................................................ 36
Table 4.2: Reliability Test ........................................................................................ 37
Table 4.3: KMO and Bartlett's Test .......................................................................... 44
Table 4.4: Rotated Component Matrixes ................................................................. 45
Table 4.5: The result of hypotheses ......................................................................... 51

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List of Figures
Figure 1.1: A map to show the places in which five Universities are located ........... 5
Figure 1.2: The research process of this study ........................................................... 8
Figure 2.1: Stakeholders of educational system ...................................................... 16
Figure 3.1: The proposed research framework ........................................................ 28
Figure 4.1: The results of the framework models after using SPSS ........................ 51

xii


Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research background and motivation
Background
Although education system was established houndred of years ago, a number of countries
have not transformed the ways they look at educational outcomes, teaching contents and
approaches to one that encompasses the quality of the competencies that students ultimately
acquire. Consequently the quality of education system, in particular - Graducation School,
has not, without doubt, developed significantly. As learners, students wish to enrich their
knowledge and necessary skills before entering the labour market; as to parents, they seek the
best possible opportunities for their children to develop comprehensively; as to teachers, they
desire to have a sound working environment where they can contribute and achieve career
success.
Total quality management (TQM) is considered as total assurance about sociality,
organization and operation to manage the enterprise’s resources to get the best performance
on every part (Tapiero, 1996). In the World, total quality management (TQM) is well-known
as the management solution to improve the satisfaction of the customers and the performance
of the organizations (Asif et al., 2013). Although there are many studies on quality
management, very few of them focus on the best solution in higher education’s quality
measure (Becket & Brooke, 2006). For instance, de Guzman & Torres (2004) considered
TQM as the method to achieve competitive advantage and organizational performance.
Evidently, in an increasingly global economy, in which the benchmark for educational
success is the best performing education systems; the success of students depends to a great
extent on the school’s capacity. Therefore, increasing the capacity of a school is very
important to its competitiveness, which in turn has an impact on the student attraction and

1

faculty recruitment. Additionally, the quality improvements and stronger connections
between the educational organizations and their stakeholders are necessary for schools to
foster their strengths and competencies so that they can find the evaluation tools and program
design methods (Saunders & Saunders, 2004). Besides, the programs in universities face up
with a number of challenges, such as failing to connect with the industry, thus President
Obama proposed that there is a need to find the solution or improvement for current
curriculum, such as capstone design courses. The challenges that these universities are facing
are mainly due to their lack of student value, clear course objectives, efficient teaching tools,
sufficient sponsorship & funding resources, and good teaching approach and contents.
Motivation
Years ago, Vietnam issued its own standards to evaluate the quality of education, especially in
the high education as well as university education. However, the complications in applying
multiple standards required for all majors and different kinds of universities led to a situation
where customers in this industry do not know how to compare the quality among universities
exactly. Moreover, Vietnam also does not have offcial university ranking that is accepted
throughout the country. Although there are some ranking tables from foreign Websites in the
World, they are not available in Vietnam because the standards chosen to evaluate are not
appropiriate and sufficient. Therefore, realizing the key variables that contribute to the
development of Vietnam education system is of utmost significance.
As a developing country, Vietnamese government invests a large number of resources in
upgrading and renovating its education system. Most of the universities in Vietnam are public
schools which has been dominating their educational market for decades. In the past, the
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organized the university entrance exam in
different groups such as A, B, C, D and other groups (A1, D1). In fact, group A involves
Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry; Group B: Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology;
2


Group C: Literature, History, and Geography; Group D: Mathematics, Literature and foreign

language. For example, if you want to become a doctor, you will take the exam of group B.
Another loves becoming a journalist, he or she can take the group C. Examinations take this
general-purpose input for universities and colleges in Vietnam. An examination by the
Ministry of Education and Training isheld every year, right after High School Graduaton
Examination for about a month. According to the plans, the two exams lumped together in
2010. However, until now, in 2015, the MOET has decided tomerge two exams, in which
students would take at least four subjects for exam and one sub-subject. Scores from these
subjects would be used to assess whether the students pass high school graduation exam and
are eligible to apply for their desired college with three chosen from the four given
subjects.This means that students have more opportunities in their decision to the universites
thay consider. Nevertheless, competition amongst universities is increasing. Therefore, many
Vietnamese universities have bcome up with solutions to attract more students. Yet, very few
of them have discussed how to improve their competitiveness and student attraction based on
analyzing their core resources and voice of stakeholders.
1.2 The research question
At the first time, I propose 2 research questions in this research:
1. What are the stakeholders’ (in particularly, student’s) needs for Vietnam education
system? Are they satisfied with current educational system in term of management
system, technology system, and social system?
2. How can the Vietnam Universities improve their education quality by analyzing their
core resources?
However, the research question is quite broad. Thus, I narrow my research question in one
specific University based on the two questions above.
How can Thai Nguyen University of Economic and Business (TUEBA)
3


Administration improve their quality education of Business administration faculty by
comparing the core resources with other competitors?
1.3 Objectives of the Study

This thesis has three following objectives:
Firstly, this research aims to realize the factors that contribute to the customer voices and
design characteristics in educational quality of Vietnamese universities in general and
universities in the North of Vietnam in particular. From that point of view, the author finds
the dimensions in the framework predicted.
Secondly, the author will identify the relationship of the dimensions of customer voices and
the design characteristics, so that the author can understand exactly what and how they
interact and influence each other. Above all, I measure their satisfaction on these expectations.
Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study can offer some useful suggestions to
decision makers in the educational system.
1.4 Research scope
In this research, we pay attention to the educational quality in university. To collect the data
for analysis, five departments in which the major is Business Administration are chosen from
five universities in the North of Vietnam: Department of Business Administration at Thai
Nguyen University of Economics & Business Administration (TUEBA); Department of
Business Administration at Post & Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT);
Department of Economics & Business Administration at Hung Vuong University (HVU);
Department of Human Resource Management at Vietnam Commercial University (VCU);
Department of Industrial Economy (including majors in management) at Thai Nguyen
University of Technology (TNUT).
There are three reasons for selecting these five univeristies. Firstly, in terms of students’
choice when applying for Economics & Business Administration in University, the first
4


choice is always National Economics University (NEU) that is well known in Vietnam, the
second choice is for universities such as VCU or TUEBA. The five departments picked up
from five universities have the similar majors and standards. For instance, students can take
group A or D to apply in these universities. Secondly, in terms of the location, five
universities are located in the places that are the center of the North as Hanoi, Thai Nguyen,

and Phu Tho. The distance among cities is not too far. Thirdly, in our research, we selected
the department of Business Administration in TUEBA as the main sample, the four
departments in similar major from other universities picked up as the competitors of TUEBA.
The map following shows the locations of the cities in which five universities are located.
The purpose is to demonstrate the locations clearly for the audiences to compare and contrast.
Figure 1.1: A map to show the places in which five Universities are located

Source: The map of the cities in the North of Vietnam
As you can see, the universities are in the cities which are the main center of the North. Hanoi
is known as the capital that is the second largest one in Vietnam. In terms of higher education,
Hanoi is the largest centre of Vietnam in which many famous universities are located. The
development of this city is growing very fast. However, the stipend is much higher than the

5


one in other cities. The area is 3,324.5km2and its population is about seven million (data in
2014). So, the density is so high, which makes some limitations. VCU and PTIT are on the
second top of universities in Hanoi. People who graduate from VCU & PTIT have to face up
with the intense competition.Thai Nguyen is a province which is the economical, cultural and
political center in the Northeast region of Vietnam. The stipend is lower than the one in Hanoi.
Thai Nguyen is well-known as an ancent beauty and safe environment. The area is 3.562,82
km² and its population is over 1.2 million people (data in 2014). The people are from eight
ethnic groups such as Kinh, Tay, Nung, San Diu, Hmong, San Diu, H’mong and Dao.
Additionally, Thai Nguyen is known as the third largest center for training human resources.
TNUT and TUEBA are the famous univiersities in Thai Nguyen, which attract a lot of
attentions from people in Thai Nguyen and other places in the North. Phu Tho is famous for
its history which is linked to the origin of Vietnam. The area is 3,528.1 km² and its population
is over 1.3 million people (data in 2013). The stipend is cheaper than this in Hanoi. The
system of education is well established in Phu Tho. Hung Vuong University (HVU) is on the

first rank in Phu Tho’s higher education, which plays an important role in the educational
standards of this province. HVU also attracts the students from other cities, which suppulies
the well-trained and skilled human resourses.
To understand more about the selected universities, table 1.1 describes the basic information
of five departments from five universities chosen. It is clear to see that we can compare the
detailed information among departments.

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The
selected
University
TUEBA

PTIT

HVU

VCU
TNUT

Table 1.1: The selected five universities in Northen Vietnam
The selected
Number of Number of The majors in
department
students in lecturers in
department
department department
Business

855
30
- Commercial
Administration
Management
- Administration
of industrial
enterprises
- General
Business
Administration
Business
850
over 20
- Marketing
Administration
Management
- Enterprise
Administration
- Ecommerce
922
43
- Business
Economics &
Administration
Business
- Enterprise
Administration
Administration
- Accounting

- Economics
- Financial
banking
Human
1638
21
- Human
Resource
resource
Management
management
Industrial
500
25
- Industrial
Economy
Economy
- Administration
of industrial
enterprises
- Industrial
Management
- Enterprise
Accounting

The
groups to
apply
A, A1, D1

A, D1

A, B, D1

A, D1
A, A1, D1

Note: A1: Mathematics, Physics, English; D1: Mathematics, Literature and English
In the table, although the name of some departments is quite different, they are the same
major in management. The number of students in VCU is highest (1638). However, the
department of Human Resource Management at VCU has only one main major. The people
who want to become students of this department have the only choice. Department of
Industrial Economy at TNUT has only 500 students because the advantage of TNUT is
7


technology, not management. Other Universities are quite similar. Among schools, HVU has
Economics &Business Administration department whose major is quite big. The groups to
apply in five departments are mainly A and D1 while some universities among them have A1,
D1. HVU has B, which is a question mark. The reason is that the group is not used for only
this department, but also others.
1.5 Research process
In this study, the process is conducted as bellowed
Figure 1.2: The research process of this study
I

Literature
review
Research

Collect
variables

question
II

Expert
visit

Build up model

Questionnaire

Survey

Build up
hypotheses

Confirm

Confirm factor

Analyze data

analysis
Managed insight

Conclusion & suggestion

First of all, from the research question, the authors conduct the literature review and the

expert visit to collect the variables and build up the hypotheses. Therefore, the model or the
framework will be created. After that, the questionnaire is based on the framework, and then
the online survey is conducted. After getting the data, SPSS version 22 is used to analyze the
data by confirming factor analysis (CFA) in order that the author can confirm the model to
know which hypothesis is supported and which hypothesis is rejected. In the next step, the
managed insight is found from the result so as to find the meaningful and important points.
The final step is to make conclusion and give some suggestion.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Related Literature
In the first place, it is important to understand the history of higher education in the North of
Vietnam in different periods, which is demonstrated in Table 2.1. It is the fact that Vietnam
has nearly five thousand years of a meaningful and colorful history. Therefore, the education
of Vietnam in general and the education in the North of Vietnam in particular have witnessed
gradual development.
Table 2.1: The history of educational development of Universities in the North of Vietnam
Main types of education
Development of University
Feudal period

Confucius, Buddhism, Taoism

1076 : Establishing the QuocTuGiam
University, the first University in

(1076 – 1885)

Vietnam
French

New educational model applied 1906: Establishing the Dong Duong

colonial period Technology
(1885 – 1945)

and

Science University, the first university of

achievement of Western (France)

Vietnam to apply the modern model of
France

From 1945 –
1985

The

North:

Union

model

Applying
in

Soviet 1945:

Establishing

the

Vietnam

educational National University, the first university
of Vietnam to apply the model of

system.

Soviet
The reform era

Graduate and post-graduate

1980s and behind: More and more

(from 1986 to

graduate & post-graduate schools have

now)

been established and developed in
universities.

Source: this study modified from the book: “Giáo d c Vi t Nam:

i m i và phát tri n Hi n

đ i hóa” (Vietnam education: Renovation and Development)
In feudal period, Confucius played the most important role in education system. Besides,
Buddhism and Taoism were also trained in this period. Notably, in 1076, the first University

9


named Quoc Tu Giam was established. At first, this University was only aimed for training
the royals. It was not until 1253 did Quoc Tu Giam University change its name to Quoc Tu
Vien University in which excellent people in both urban and rural areas were chosen to train.
In French colonial period, because of historical condition, Vietnam education was influenced
by Western models. In 1906, France established Dong Duong University (The first University
of Vietnam applied the modern model of France) and used French as the main means of
teaching and learning. Although the purpose of France was to dominate in many areas, the
new model in University was a vital step in education of Vietnam.
The period from 1945 to 1985 was unforgettable for each Vietnamese asit witnessed the
process of fighting for freedom within the whole country. In 1945, after the North of Vietnam
gained independence and established Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the temporary
Universities were reopened and Vietnam National University was founded. In the North, the
Government applied Soviet Union model in many educational institutions such as Synthetic
University, Univesity of Technology, and University of Education. In the South, the model of
American academy in educational system was used in Saigon University, Hue University, and
Can Tho University. After the Southern liberation and national reunification in 1975, the
Government implemented many educational reforms.
In the reform era (from 1986 to now), the educational system in University has seen massive
improvements. The Government invested more and more in education, especially in tertiary

level. Especially, the postgraduate education has attracted significant attention from people in
this field.
Interestingly, there have been relatively different opinions on the quality of higher education,
which is based on historical factors of each period. Thus, Table 2.2 demonstrates a general
overview of education quality over time.

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Table 2.2: Opinions on education quality of Universities in the North of Vietnam
through periods
Before 1986
From 1986 to 2003
From 2004 to now
Opinions

Quality

=

rigorous Quality

selection
Achievement -

adequate Quality = Meet the

resources

standard

Improving the supply -

Having

capacity

standards

of

resource for society

evaluating

in

“nothing wrong” in -

Increasing

general

education system

number of students -

Having

and Universities

assurance offices in

Finding

talented -

people
-

=

Making

sure

of

human
the

the

adequate

quality

Ministry

and

universities
Limitation

-

-

Too much focus on -

Not pay attention to -

Quality

seeking solutions to

the

system belongs to

the

leadership

problems

mechanism,

assurance

the Government.

capacity

administration -

Not base on the

instead of finding

and

the ways to improve

system

actual needs.

Fail to meet actual -

Lack of the standards -

Lack of the ranking

requirements

to evaluate the quality

or stratification.

efficiently

-

Lack

of

quality

standard to evaluate
the

quality

different

of

training

programs.
Source: this study modified from website in the research of Ph.D Vu Thi
Phuong Anh of Education Quality Training and Support Center (EQTS) and the Association
of Universities and Colleges, 2014
As shown in the table, quality caught attention from early time in Vietnam. According to Vu
Thi Phuong Anh (2014), opinions on quality have varied through three main periods. Before
1986, the opinion on quality was rigorous selection. In this period, the education quality in
11

University was not mentioned. Indeed, it was excellent students and exams that played an
important role in education system. During this time, thanks to rigorous selection, the
Government found many excellent people who served the benefit of society. Therefore, it was
made sure “nothing wrong”. However, the educationists did not care about improving quality
that met the requirements.
From 1986 to 2003, the purpose in education was to attract more and more students. More
Universities were established and extended. However, in this period, quality meant adequate
resources, including tuition and investment. Other important resources such as human
resource, leadership capacity and administration system were ignored. They did not have
proper standards to evaluate quality efficiently.
From 2004 to now, although quality assurance has been created and cared, quality assurance
system belongs to the Government. Therefore, it lacks objectivity. Moreover, the Government
has not provided any ranking of Universities in Vietnam and different training programs do
not have different standards.
2.2 Related Studies
In order to review previous studies on the issue, the researcher has collected key papers in
Web of science based on such key words as “total education quality” “higher education”,
“total quality management”. More than one thounsand papers were extracted. In addition, the
researcher also found references about education quality in higher education of Vietnam.
Based on the citation, key related studies were reviewed.

12


Year
2014

2014

Table 2.3: Related studies or researches on higher education
The author
Title
Bornman,

Un enfoque de marketing de relaciones a la educación

Elirea; Pauw,

como un servicio: aplicación a la Universidad de

J C;

Valencia1

Potgieter,

A relationship marketing approach to education as a

Petrus H

service: an application to the University of Valencia

Tr nTh Lan

Ch t l

ng lao đ ng c a đ i ng trí th c giáo d c đ i

Language

Spanish

Vietnamese

h c Vi t Nam hi n nay
(Labor quality of the intelligentsia in Vietnamhigher
education today)
2013

Kim, Gyesoo

Effects of Difference Education Quality on Student

Korean

Satisfaction and Student Loyalty

2010

Nguyen Thi
Thu Hang

T ch c ho t đ ng d y h c theo h

ng phát huy n ng

l c t duy sáng t o cho sinh viên c a các tr

Vietnamese

ng cao

đ ng, đ i h c kh i Nông – Lâm – Ng khi d y
(Organization of teaching activities towards promoting
creative thinking ability for Agriculture - Forestry Fishing majors at colleges and universities)
2005

H Coates

The value of student engagement for higher education

English

quality assurance
Source: this study
In general, these studies tend to focus on teaching quality and student engagement. Since
many of them are from Asia, it is clear that Asian countries have paid attention to further
improve education quality. The research studies in Vietnam also look for the solutions to
labour quality as well as teaching and learning activities.

13


2.3 Definition of Terms
2.3.1 The gaps in total quality management
In order to assure the quality of the organization, traditionally, it is important to clarify the
problems or the gaps existed in the system.
Parasuraman et al. (1985) stated that there are the differences between expectation and
performance in the service quality. Thus, they implemented the gap model to analyze them.
The gaps in the model involve (Seth &Deshmaukh, 2005):

 Gap 1: There is a gap between the customer’s expectations and the perceptions of
management.
 Gap 2: There is a gap between the perceptions of the management and the consumer’s
expectations and service quality specifications.
 Gap 3: There is a gap between service quality specifications and actual delivered
service
 Gap 4: There is a gapbetween the service delivery and the communications to
consumers about service delivery.
 Gap 5: There is a gap between the expectation of the customers and perceived service.
This gap depends on the four gaps above.
2.3.2 Total quality management in education
“Total quality management in education is multi-faceted. It includes within
its ambit the quality of use inputs in the form of students, faculty, support
staff and infrastructure; the quality of processes in the form of the learning
and teaching activity; and the quality of outputs in the form of the
enlightened students that move out of the system.” (Sahney, 2002)
Based on Sahney definition, the writer proposed at least three kinds of quality indices,
namely input, process, and output. As a result, a set of measurement for quality system is
14


proposed as follows:
 Inputs involve students, faculty, support staff and infrastructure;
 Process contains learning and teaching activities;
 Outputs are enlightened students that move out of the system.
2.3.3 Customers in education
It is necessary to take customers in education in consideration. There are different ways to
define the customer, but they are divided into some groups. Edward (2005) discovered that it
is useful to make distinguish between following customers:
 The primary customers: The people as students who receive the service in the direct

way
 The secondary customers: They are the people who have the stake in education or
parents, governors, sponsors.
 The tertiary customers: They are the people who are important to education, but not
have a less direct, namely future employers, government and society.
 The internal customers: They are the staffs of the organization and who play an
important role in the organization’s success.
Base on the literature review, the stakeholders of educational system with the members are
found.

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Figure 2.3: Stakeholders of educational system
Source: (Sahney, 2002; Edward, 2005)
Figure 2.1 describes the factors or stakeholders of educational system. It is clear that the main
members are students and teachers. Next, the faculty also plays an important role in system.
Parents also have influences on the education, followed by industrial employer and
governmental officer.
2.4 Key variables found from literature review
Customer requirement or customer voice mentions the customers’ expectations in the
educational system. The design characteristics mention the design elements (Sahney, Banwet
& Karunes, 2004).

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