The education quality model: Saudi and British perspectives on pillars of quality in education

Abstract

Research Purpose: This study aims to build a new model of quality for education based on a Saudi-British consensus regarding the major factors contributing to education quality and after considering other models (such as EFQM) and other authors’ perspectives. Research Methodology: The research relies on realism philosophy and as a multiple case study with 15 cases, it utilises a mainly qualitative research design that employs semi-structured interview as its research instruments. This study has adopted an ‘Inductive’ approach to build a new model. Primary data in this study was collected by interviewing 33 Saudi and 30 British academics and higher education authorities from six Saudi and nine British universities. Content Analysis was used for analysis. Research Findings: While the degree of agreement with each of the 11 propositions was varied (a range from totally agree to totally disagree), all of the Saudi and British participants believe that eleven pillars/criteria of quality education are: Leadership and Strategic Management; Students, Academics and Staff Recruitment; Syllabus/ Curriculum; Research/Teaching; Pedagogy; Learning & research support; Knowledge management; Academics’ achievements; Students’ progress, success & satisfaction; Universities/Schools’ achievements; and Innovation and Change Management. Recommendations: Decision makers in education sector are recommended to consider all eleven identified factors and their connection to each other while developing policies for quality of education. Universities and other educational institutes should plan and allocate required budgets for implementation and maintenance of all aspects of quality in education. Research Contributions: The main contribution of this research is developing the 'Education Quality Model’. Although there has been some research regarding the quality of education, seemingly they have not led to the development of a research-based customised model such as the Education Quality Model. Another contribution is preparing a new and broad ‘Taxonomy of Quality’. In previous taxonomies, either the only focus is on education or in contrast, education is missing in these taxonomies. Furthermore, possibly for the first time, perspectives of Saudi academics are presented alongside their British counterparts regarding quality of education.