satisfaction. ISO certification demonstrates the capability of an organization to control
the processes that determine the acceptability of the service/product.
There are two main differences between TQM and the ISO 9000 series. First, the ISO
9000 certification focuses on one aspect of quality, consistency in the production of a
product or service, and does not address the nature of quality which is customer-driven. Second, going for ISO 9000 certification is a good way of measuring a firm’s
progress, but it really should be considered as the beginning of a continuous process
rather than a goal to achieve.
In case of educational institutes of Nepal, there is a great pressure to the educators due
to the changing global environment and trade liberalization as they have to meet the
needs of industry and other stakeholders with a better skilled and quality workforce.
The educational institutions would like to get certified by ISO 9001:2008 certification
or/and quality assurance and accreditation through University Grant Commission
(UGC) Nepal because of the reasons like facing competition, acquiring public
acceptability, receiving a stamp of quality and such others.
Though ISO certification was intended for manufacturing organization, is now being
adopted in service organization like educational institutions. There is still controversy
in terms of suitability and applicability of ISO in teaching learning process. Currently,
the latest developments on ISO 9000 in education are happening at ISO. It is supporting
the development of guidelines for the implementation of the ISO 9000 standards in
education and service organizations. Only few institutions have registered for ISO
Certification and people from the educational institutions wonder that adopting ISO
9001:2008 certification improve the total quality of the Institution?
Since there is no study yet been observed related with effectiveness of ISO certification
in educational institution in Nepal, the study discusses the current practices of ISO
9001:2008 certification in Nepal and its motives with effectiveness.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of ISO 9001:2008
certification in Nepalese educational service sector. The specific objectives are:
1. To investigate the motives for ISO 9001:2008 certification
2. To examine the extent of current practices of ISO 9001:2008 certification
3. To study the effectiveness of ISO 9001:2008 on quality performance
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Sample
Two ISO 9001:2008 certified educational organizations are selected for the study. In this
sample companies Management committee members, Top management and
Department head of each department and some teaching and not teaching staff were
randomly selected to administer questionnaire to conduct interviews