Measuring academic quality: a three-dimensional approach for internal audit using DMAIC

While institutes of higher education are progressively working to match their competencies with student priorities, market forces and academic concerns it becomes imperative for the institute/university to be able to link the three and comprehend the holistic impact of these dimensions on its quality index. Through this study the authors design and implement a three-dimensional model for measuring the perceived quality for institutes of higher education mapping its quality parameters with the stakeholder-expectations and based on the operating levels - this using the DMAIC roadmap in partial. The tool that is conceptualised in this study is an outcome of a pre-design survey (Define) following which the tool was developed and tested (Measure). The findings are based on the observations from two institutions of higher education (Analyse); this presented to the respective managements for their perusal and action (Pre-Improve) while confirming (or negating) their prior notions of Quality at the institute.