Teaching and Research on Quality Management: Quo vadis?

In order to find initial answers, we were commissioned by the Swiss Foundation for Research and Education "Quality" (SFAQ) - which, among other things, awards the Seghezzi Prize for outstanding theses - to investigate the status of QM at Swiss universities. Within the framework of a qualitative study, the areas of education, research and trends were examined.

QM contents in the training

Courses on QM are offered in most natural science, economics, medical and technical degree courses, both in Bachelor's degree courses and in consecutive Master's degree courses. Accordingly, the contents of the courses range from operational to strategic to philosophical issues. Mostly the basics of QM, Q standards and quality indicators are taught. In the case of QM systems, the focus is usually on ISO, EFQM and TQM.

Disciplinary focus

Depending on the discipline, specific QM systems or models are also dealt with, for example GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) in pharmacy or the Quality Health Outcomes Model in the healthcare sector. In industrial engineering courses, the focus is on lean management and process optimisation. In pharmacy and food and environmental sciences, regulatory frameworks and risk analysis and assessment are taking up more space. In health care, quality measurement and development have a high priority and in IT, software testing plays an important role.

Integrated communication of QM contents

It is noticeable that only a few courses are offered that explicitly deal with QM. In most cases, QM content and issues are integrated as lessons or modules in courses and lectures, each with a different weighting and emphasis. Even if QM is part of many curricula, QM is usually not the focus of a course, but is rather treated as a cross-sectional function. Accordingly, there are no QM-specific degrees or specialisations in the consecutive study programmes.

Theses This is also reflected in the topics of the theses. In most cases, QM issues are integrated into a Bachelor's or consecutive Master's thesis or are examined in the background. Examples of this are work on product development in the food industry, motivating employees to implement lean principles, error management to increase innovative capacity or the analysis of patient complaints in nursing. According to the experts, the interest of students and companies in QM topics has remained constant over the last few years.

QM-related learning objectives

The learning objectives stated by the experts focus in the training not only on conveying a basic understanding of QM with its systems and their significance, but also on their concrete application, improvement and further development. This also includes that students develop a mind set for QM and internalise the striving for quality as a value. A further learning objective is to awaken an understanding of the responsibility of management as a role model for the success of QM systems. The experts interviewed agree that practical relevance is an essential prerequisite for understanding QM.

QM-specific qualifications only through further training

This is where continuing education programs come in. In addition to private educational organisations, these are also offered by universities - and in particular by universities of applied sciences - mostly as structured CAS, DAS and MAS programmes. The focus is on application-oriented knowledge and the consolidation of QM content with reference to practical experience and operational problems. In addition to subject-specific courses, there is a further focus on leadership and management in connection with quality issues. QM-specific specializations and degrees are thus usually only acquired in the context of further education.

Research

Research in research databases and websites shows that research on quality and QM is distributed differently depending on the discipline. A large proportion of externally funded research projects on QM are currently in the healthcare sector. The latter is financially supported by both the SNSF and Innosuisse. Other research activities can be found in the fields of Production & Operation Management, Food and Agricultural Science, and Economics. In addition, there is a wide range of different research projects, from Q-Blockchain and theatre-specific QM to flight network simulation, global QM and EFQM and corporate culture. Contract research on QM is conducted for the pharmaceutical industry, among others. Research on QM as a focus or as an integral part of other research topics is also conducted in the context of doctoral studies, for example in the nursing sciences or in (business) engineering.

Trends

Simplification of Q systems is a major trend topic in QM. The experts interviewed agree that the complexity of the systems should be reduced and the proliferation of norms and standards should be limited. In addition, it is considered increasingly important that QM systems must be able to adapt to dynamic change processes and be compatible with agile organizational forms. A need for optimisation is seen here, particularly in the ISO standards, which are still too little geared to agile structures and processes. In addition, compliance and risk management as well as the topic of cyber security are given high priority. In healthcare, "Value Based Health Care" and in IT "Build Quality in" were also named as trends. In Lean Management, the focus is increasingly on the behavioral psychological perspective and the role of the actors. In production technology, machine learning is one of the trend topics in QM.

Conclusion

QM is established in many disciplines at Swiss universities. However, finding chairs and competence clusters that are committed to QM has proven to be detective work. Spread over a large number of disciplines, the activities are often not apparent at first glance. This is due in particular to the fact that QM is not a core subject in many disciplines, but is integrated into courses and theses as one topic among others. In addition, QM-specific degrees or specialisations are lacking in education, and are usually only acquired in the course of further education. This limits visibility and makes it difficult to get an overview of ongoing QM activities in teaching and research at Swiss universities. It is therefore not surprising that the experts interviewed are interested in increased networking, also across the different disciplines. The establishment of such a network of teachers and researchers on QM topics at Swiss universities could be supported by setting up a platform on current theses, research projects, study programmes, courses and conferences with opportunities for networking and exchange. Finally, this could also benefit business practice, which can obtain information about current trends in research and teaching.