Total quality management and higher education: the employers' perspective

Efforts to adopt the total quality management (TQM) philosophy are spreading to institutions of higher learning. The fundamental purpose of TQM is to serve the customer better. One of the most important customers of a college or university are the firms that hire the school's graduates. This article explores the question of how business employers perceive the quality of today's college graduate. Sample survey data obtained from business organizations are presented. In general, a significant proportion of businesses do not perceive a difference in the quality of schools based on employee performance. A ranking of required skills is presented and the implications for colleges and universities are discussed.