Achieving Egyptian higher education institutions' excellence through the application of the EFQM model: an investigative study

Abstract

Higher Education Quality (HEQ) has been a topic of interest for academicians and practitioners. It is evident from the published literature that this problem poses considerable challenges to higher education institutions worldwide in order for them to survive in the increasingly global market. Thus, to be competitive, the Egyptian Higher Education Institutions (EHEI) need to determine their current performance status constantly against a Business Excellence (BE) scale and identify their strengths and the areas where improvements can be made in different segments of the institutions to achieve sustainable excellence. A survey was carried out to identify the most significant enablers that trigger the EHEI to seek higher performance and facilitate the realisation of excellent results. The data was collected and analysed using AMOS 7.0, a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) software, which clearly revealed that the EHEI have core enablers that directly impact the results. Hence, the researcher asserts that improving these enablers will consequently improve the EHEI's overall excellence. The details of the study, the analysis and the results are presented in this paper.

EFQM model’s application in the context of higher education

“…In fact, the combination of several challenges related to an internal and external growing competition in the education context has been stressing the need for HEIs to raise academic standards, as recognized internationally. Indeed, research papers have widely discussed the significance of quality management as a critical issue in gaining competitive advantages, and have stressed the importance for organizations to gain competitive advantages by positioning themselves as “excellent” with a standout level of performance, through applying maturing models of TQM (Ahmed, 2009). In such a context, the EFQM excellence model stood out as an effective approach to achieve this goal.…”