Dissertation prepared in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Magister Technologiae (Quality)
CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF
TECHNOLOGY
2008 / The aim of this research is to identify criteria for the evaluation of support systems applicable to
public higher education institutions from a limited international and national perspective. The
objectives of the research are to identify the criteria available from existing and related fields
through a literature review and to validate the evaluation criteria using an empirical study.
The existing literature describes the relevant academic processes, but very little has been written on
criteria for evaluating support systems. The research for this study attempts to address this
deficiency. The criteria from the Coetzee Model were used as a basis for this research and other
models in the existing literature were also referred to, including the Baldrige National Quality
Program for Education Criteria, ISO 9001:2000, European Foundation Quality Model and the
South African Excellence Model. This research also draws on information deemed important by the
Higher Education Quality Committee and the South African Qualifications Authority.
Both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used in the investigation. The
research instruments used included questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed
to all public universities, universities of technology, and one technikon in South Africa. The results
of the study revealed that most respondents agreed with the generic criteria against which units
should be evaluated; namely “leadership”, “strategic goals and performance indicators”, “resourcing
and funding”, “policies and procedures” and “self-evaluation guidelines”. Statistical analysis was
done on the criteria.
The two main findings of the research showed that the first five generic criteria were valid and
reliable and that there was good internal consistency among the items in each of these criteria,
which confirms that the results were valid.
It is recommended that for future research, the study should be expanded to support units in higher
education not included in this study. The suitability of generic criteria and the development of
further specific criteria should be determined. Quality-related arrangements for community
engagement, where appropriate, should be adequately resourced and monitored for each unit.
Once evaluations and surveys have been conducted on support units using the criteria, the process
of benchmarking should be used for preventing potential problems and improving results.
KEYWORDS
Administration, audit, core processes, criteria, customer, evaluation, higher education, key
performance indicators, principles, quality, support processes, systems
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1207 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Weideman, Renee |
| Publisher | Cape Peninsula University of Technology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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