Quality management implementation technique in education: the case of lithuania QUALITY MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUE IN EDUCATION: THE CASE OF LITHUANIA

The relevance of the study: The education system seeks to adapt to market requirements and increase its competitiveness. In order to rise and prosper, educational organizations must use the latest management concepts based on the world's best practices. The philosophy and methods of progress and continuous improvement are presented in the theory of total quality management [20]. Quality management systems in ISO normative documentsprovides possible practical recommendations and requirements for the management of organizations. Thus, the question arises as to how the most appropriate implementation of this standard in educational organizations is whether the ISO quality management system is necessary and applicable to higher education institutions in order to standardize the teaching process and administration. The problem of the research the ISO 9000 quality management system was first developed for the manufacturing industry, later developed in the service sector, and is now used in education as well. ISO 9000 in a general sense is a set of principles of good governance, but it is difficult to apply these principles in the process of educational services. Is the quality management system ISO 9000 applicable in the educational organization? The object of the research- operating quality management system ISO 9001: 2000. The aim of the research to theoretically substantiate the possibilities of the quality management system ISO, to learn the attitude of higher education administration and teachers to quality management, to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the quality management system ISO system ISO 9001 for the activities of the organization were mostly indicated by the respondents as the significantly improved improvement of the study process, as the respondents significantly assessed the creation of the quality team. The most dominant factor highlighting the shortcomings of the quality management system highlighted in this work is the cost of working time. Assessing the shortcomings of the quality management system, respondents expressed the opinion that there is insufficient information about the implementation of ISO in the organization.


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system ISO 9001 for the activities of the organization were mostly indicated by the respondents as the significantly improved improvement of the study process, as the respondents significantly assessed the creation of the quality team. The most dominant factor highlighting the shortcomings of the quality management system highlighted in this work is the cost of working time. Assessing the shortcomings of the quality management system, respondents expressed the opinion that there is insufficient information about the implementation of ISO in the organization.
Key words: quality, higher institutions, ISO.

Quality management systems in higher education
A quality management system is a mechanism that coordinates and supports the activities required to ensure that the characteristics of products, processes or services meet certain requirements. Quality management is a part of quality management focused on meeting quality requirements [14]; [15]; [16].
'ISO-9000 is a method based on documentation and quality assessment based on consumer satisfaction' [17], [18]. In other words, products and services are developed according to set standards that meet the needs and requirements of consumers. It is important to emphasize that total quality management is not yet a successful implementation of the ISO 9000 series quality assurance standard. Total quality management is a concentrate of human experience in improving the methods of organizing scientific work [22].
According to Omer F. Ozbek [16]: 'The processes of higher education institutions (HEIs) can be evaluated under two major categories: academic and administrative. The functions such as education, training, research, and development are mostly conducted by academicians, whereasfunctions such as student services, resource management, maintenance, and operations are conducted by administrative staff. For academic programs, there are regional and global accreditation agencies that set the standards and regulations to ensure quality. Administrative functions, on the other hand, are generally evaluated as business functions of a HEI. While there is a great accumulation of knowledge on academic quality such as curriculum development and research procedures, administrative processes are often overlooked. This chapter provides an overview of quality management in administrative processes of universities and similar higher education institutions, and examines them as service organizations. HEIs have regular business processes such as accounting, finance, and facility management, as well as specific processes such as student enrollment, library, and housing services.' Examination of the documents governing management systems has shown that all management systems are based on the principle of continuous improvement. The implementation of a quality management system allows the organization to improve further, to strive for continuous improvement, i. implement total quality management [1]; [3]; [4]. Educational quality management is a change management process formed on the basis of quality management. In the initial-quality system development and implementation-phase, change management prevails. In the nextstage of quality improvement-in the operation of the quality system-total quality management [23].
Quality has become an important object in global educational organizations.
The international quality management standard ISO 9001: 2000 defines quality in general as follows: 'Quality is the degree of compliance of the set of available characteristics with the requirements'[14]; [15]; [16].
By definition, requirements are requirements of all stakeholders (not just the consumer), so this definition can be applied to any type of requirement: technical or nontechnical, such as health, safety, environmental protection, etc., including education. The definition also applies to the results of any process or activity -products, solutions, information, etc. [12] Thus, quality is a term that describes the state of an organization's business results. Everything an organization does directly or indirectly affects the state of business results, so it can be said, and all business goals are related to quality goals. The customer plays a key role in setting requirements, so quality is linked to meeting consumer needs [21].
The direct and main beneficiaries of an educational institution are students. However, they are in many roles at once: they are considered to be a product of the institution after graduation; they are clients of the training process; they are co-participants in the teaching and learning process [19].
'The solution to the problem is further complicated by the fact that students are not the only customers of the high school. Students' parents, firms, prospective employers, teachers and employees, public authorities and politicians in the broadest sense are interested in quality education for society as a whole' [24].
'Educational institutions face enormous tensions in exploiting and adapting market-based quality systems such as ISO 9001. This is driven by an ever-changing environment, globalization, dwindling resources; it is increasingly important for educational institutions to identify the needs of industry, as this requires a more competent workforce' [2].
'Implementing the principles of quality management in a higher education setting is useful and even necessary. The introduction of a quality system would provide an opportunity to streamline the processes taking place in higher education institutions, identify lowquality manifestations, correct and prevent them and systematically improve quality, perform internal quality audits and apply various statistical quality improvement methods. Implementing a quality system in higher education would improve the confidence of students, their prospective employers, research, sponsors, government and other stakeholders that their quality requirements are met' [10].
According to Bevanz-Gonzales [6]: 'Educational organizations around the world start implementing ISO most often when faced with growing external pressures for accountability to funders. Although the implementation of this system is successful in the field of production and services, its applicability in the field of education is completely new and therefore poses many problems'.
What determines the successful implementation of ISO 9000 standards? Successfully implemented by those higher education institutions whose managers look favorably on the members of the educational organization, they carry out the implementation of the system themselves and the members of the institution understand the internal processes taking place in the organization [7]; [8] ISO 9000 standards are not being successfully implemented by those institutions that refuse to implement this system due to frequent system audits due to costs and possible changes in management.
A for the quality management system, management responsibility, resource management, product implementation, measurement, evaluation analysis and improvement [9].
Reseach of iso 9001 research on the attitude of higher education institutions to the quality management system This study also sought to find out what positive effects of the implemented ISO 9001 quality management system and what shortcomings are observed by the respondents. For the respondents, each statement made about the importance of quality management seemed more or less important. The majority of respondents mostly chose the rating "important" (see table 1). Such an approach to the importance of quality management in higher education. Statements as not very important for quality management in ranking were also quite often noted. The aspects of the impact of the quality management system ISO 9001 presented in the questionnaire had to be ranked in the following order: 5significantly improved, 4 significantly improved, 3 -partially improved, 2 -did not improve, 1 -do not know.The highest percentage of respondents (83.02%) cited external evaluation of the institution as an important area of quality management. It is clear that for the external evaluator, when assessing the quality assurance, the respondents consider the implemented quality management standard to be an important factor. Their attitude to the importance of accreditation of study programs can be assessed similarly (73.58%). Thus, it can be concluded that external evaluation is an important element of quality management.
Summarizing the obtained results, it became clear that the most dominant positive aspect of the ISO 9001 system is the impact on the improvement of the study process (see figure 1). 100 His rating is 16.98%. As many as 41.51% of the subjects mentioned it as a partially improved effect, as 24.53% as a significant improvement. Only 7.55% of respondents marked it as unimproved. All the respondents expressed their opinion, so I do not know who answered the answers. Thus, meeting consumer needs is the foundation that influences the improvement of the learning process. of the organization as a significant improvement, but a large part assessed it as a significant improvement (11.32 %). Thus, the performance of the quality team, which consists of the audit and internal team, has a significant impact on the quality management system, as its activities are based on the implementation and control of the quality management system according to ISO 9001. The answers of the respondents to the question about the study process (see figure 3) were distributed as follows: significantly improved -7.55%, greatly improved -32.08%, partially improved -43.40%, did not improve -7.55%. Analyzing the answers of the respondents to this question, it can be concluded that the impact of the quality management system on this activity of the organization is not assessed as positive, as a large part of the respondents answered that it has only partially improved. Consequently, the study process is quite complex due to its inertia and is not preferred by the respondents.
Summarizing the aspects of the positive impact of the implemented quality management system ISO 9001, it can be stated that the advantages of this system are assessed by the respondents in most cases positively. In Lithuania, the ISO 9001 quality management system has been implemented in several higher education institutions, so it is assumed that the staff of these schools evaluate the positive impact differently depending on the time of operation, but on average, the most pronounced positive impact is more appropriate distribution of activities and quality team efficiency. assessing the positive impact of the ISO 9001 quality management system.
Summarizing the obtained results, it became clear that the most dominant factor determining the lack of the quality management system ISO 9001 is the cost of working time. 18.87% of the respondents mentioned it as the most important factor, as much as 49.06% partially agreed with it. 26.42% of respondents disagreed. Thus, respondents rated the increased "paper" time spent as one of the biggest shortcomings of the ISO quality management system.
Analyzing the respondents 'answers to the question of the application of the quality management system ISO 9001 terminology to education, the respondents' answers were distributed as follows: 37.74% answered that they do not agree, 28.30% -partially agree, 13.21%agree, but a large percentage of respondents 16 , 98% -did not have an opinion. Therefore, it can be said that the complexity of the terms of the quality management system ISO 9001 is one of the most important shortcomings in higher education institutions. Respondents were very positive about the possibilities of adapting the quality management system to the teaching process, where as many as 60.38% of respondents disagreed with the statement that this system is not suitable for organizing the teaching process, although 20.75% partially agreed and 9.43% agreed. 7.55% of respondents did not express an opinion. Thus, it can be stated that the quality management system is adaptable to the study process and functions properly in it.
Lecturers and administrative staff assessed the impact of the quality management system differently. On average, administrative staff see the least impact on the improvement of the teaching process (average 2.51) and the study process (average 2.88), while teachers assess the positive impact as distinguishing between the improvement of the teaching process and identified user needs and expectations 2.59).
Thus, the results of an empirical study showed that: • The most important area of influence for quality management was the external evaluation of the institution, the appropriate distribution of activities and the improvement of the training process.
• The area of the second most important quality management system is the organizational culture and the improvement of the training process and the appropriate distribution of activities.
• Other quality management areas were identified by respondents as most important or not very important, such as standardization of educational content.
• Respondents rarely chose the quality management area for initiative employee behavior.
Conclusions and recommendations 1) ISO systems have been developed for industry so its applicability to an educational institution is a rather complicated and relatively new phenomenon.
2) The quality management system leads the organization to the perspective of continuous improvement, the purpose of the quality management system is to encourage the development of standards around the world, thus proving the efficiency and productivity of processes. An organization that has been certified may indicate that their system is a documented quality system that is accessible to all and consistently and consistently implemented. One of the disadvantages of the system is the cost of certification and the maintenance of this system. Another important drawback is the need for staff, which is the balance between official work and additional work.
3) ISO standards can be implemented in higher education according to the following criteria: user needs, competitive, market needs, procedures ensure quality result, results are measured and developed, discrepancies are eliminated or corrected, effective communication is ensured, further implementation is sought. evidence.
4) The ISO 9000 system is intended for systems and procedures rather than qualitative and academic solutions. The introduction of the ISO standard at the administrative level would make management more understandable, managers would use documents more, and the academic environment, as it is very uneven, as the teaching and learning process itself changes greatly and it is difficult to set requirements and standards. However, quality management standards also have significant advantages, such as increased competition in the labor market, a better distribution of activities, meeting consumer needs and expectations, and effective impact at the management level. 5) ISO / IWA2 is a quality management standard that can be directly applied to educational organizations, and its application needs to be considered. ISO / IWA2 is not translated into Lithuanian, so this standard, which is suitable for educational organizations, is little known.
6) The results of an empirical study showed that: The most important area of influence for quality management was the external evaluation of the institution, the appropriate distribution of activities and the improvement of the training process. The area of the second most important quality management system is the organizational culture and the improvement of the training process and the appropriate distribution of activities. Other quality management areas were identified by respondents as most important or not very important, such as standardization of educational content. Respondents rarely chose the quality management area for initiative employee behavior.
7) The advantages of the implemented quality management system ISO 9001 for the activities of the organization were mainly indicated by the respondents as the significantly improved improvement of the study process, as the respondents significantly assessed the creation of the quality team. He pointed out the study process as partially improved.
8) The most dominant factor highlighting the shortcomings of the quality management system highlighted in this work is the cost of working time.