ISO 9001 and the Field of Higher Education: Proposal for an Update of the IWA 2 Guidelines

Abstract: Quality Approaches in Higher Education Vol. 4, No. 2 (Dec 2013) article by Laila El Abbadi (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Morocco), Aboubakr Bouayad (ENSAM School of Engineering of Meknès), and Mohamed Lamrini (USMBA-Fez University). This paper analyzes IWA 2 guidelines, compares them with the guidance of the ISO 9001 handbook for educational organizations, points out some gaps in these guidelines, and proposes an update to the IWA 2 guidelines to bridge these gaps. The proposed update aims to make ISO 9001 closer to a specific quality standard in the field of higher education. The proposed update is made first by suggesting an amendment to the IWA 2 structure (by adding a reminder about the ISO 9001 requirements, and the consolidation of all definitions into one section) as well as the definitions of product and customer given by these guidelines. Second, it proposes the addition of new requirements specific to the field of higher education, namely, “program withdrawal,” “ethics and corporate social responsibility,” and “financial resources.”

Keywords: Quality Approaches in Higher Education - Best Practices - Social Responsibility