In recent decades, globalization has embraced all spheres of human life. The field of education was no exception: it is widely known that the competence is one of the main strategic resources ensuring the consolidation of the authority and increasing the competitiveness of the state in the international market in modern society. On this basis, the requirements for the quality of education are constantly increasing, which affects the approaches to the training of specialists, the methods and means of conducting the educational process, the diagnosis of knowledge and skills.
As international experience shows in the organization of educational institutions, the most effective means of ensuring the quality of education is the introduction of a quality management system (QMS) in educational institutions. The functioning of the QMS is necessary to eliminate all sorts of discrepancies, bureaucratic delays, as well as to minimize risks for the educational process, improve the level of training, education and personal development of students.
The ISO 9000 standards that govern the basic provisions of the design and operation of the QMS are the most widely used in the field of quality at the present time. It is known that these standards are based on the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM), the ideology of which is focused on continuous improvement of products / services and increasing the customer satisfaction. In the field of education, the basic standard is the international standard IWA 2 "Quality management systems. Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 in education".
The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area are regulatory legal acts that regulates the quality of higher education in the EU.
The analysis of the listed standards allowed to identify their main principles:
- the need for standardization of all processes of providing educational services;
- use of various forms and methods that promote the introduction of a culture of quality assurance in higher education institutions;
- constant monitoring of educational management processes;
- compliance with generally accepted international requirements in the field of education, ensuring the protection of public interests in matters of competence;
- quality assurance of the educational services provided, a high level of training for both the teaching staff and the educational contingent;
- application of the process approach, orientation of the educational institution to the customer;
- the need to document all important processes of the QMS of a higher education institution, the availability of appropriate standards and control procedures.
Thus, as international experience shows, the QMS should be implemented and constantly functioned to provide competitive educational services in higher education institutions, built on modern principles of quality management and business excellence TQM. This implies a significant reform of the existing management system of the educational institution, which is associated with certain difficulties and problems. However, only with the help of such reforms we can achieve stable success in today's competitive environment.
References
- 1. ISO/IWA 2 «Quality management systems. Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001: 2007 in education».
- 2. Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). (2015).