Stakeholders' Satisfaction as an introduction to total quality management (TQM) in universities: Egypt University for Science and Technology as a model

This study addresses an important prerequisite of the application of total quality management requirements, that is to satisfy the needs of customers (students and providers of educational services). The premise is that the total quality aims to satisfy all the recipient interacting parties of the service (or product) whether they were the service providers or the recipients of it. The study focuses on the administrative aspects of educational services which include the provision of basic services for students, such as registration and admission services, information services, academic counseling services, student activities, and accommodation services. These services in total are not less important than knowledge and skills that are the target of educational process. The descriptive analytical method was adopted, surveying related literature through which the researcher could draw total quality standards in education and use them to develop the questionnaire, the tool of the study. The questionnaire was directed to two random samples of administrative staff students. One sample included 927 male and female students of applied and theoretical faculties at the University of Egypt for Science and Technology, and the second sample included 837 administrative staff in the main departments of student service provision. Results reveal low level of satisfaction among students and administrative staff below the acceptable level determined by the researcher in the study which is 3.33. The average of students' responses was 2.98 out of 5, while the average response of the administrative staff was 2.87. The researcher concludes that there is a positive correlation between the level of satisfaction of students and the level of the administrative staff satisfaction. The researcher offers a number of recommendations to address deficiencies in student services and upgrading the performance of the administrative staff that will improve satisfaction levels among both students and staff. Key words: total quality ...