A Follow-On Study of University Efforts to Provide Students with the Ability to Comprehend and Apply Total-Quality Principles in Their Fields of Stu

This follow-on research investigated the educational processes employed by universities to enable their students to comprehend and apply Total Quality principles. The results of this research are intended to be used by Department of Defense institutions of higher education as a current guide to help them adopt practices which will enable their students to comprehend and apply Total Quality in their future assignments. Using a source list of schools from Quality Progress (Sept. 1995), contact individuals were interviewed at several civilian and military universities across the United States. Investigative questions were developed and asked concerning the specific educational processes of curriculum development, course construction and delivery, and the use of various feedback techniques. The results of the interviews were consolidated, compared, and contrasted to produce a guide of activities that have been attempted by universities trying to impart the principles of Total Quality to their students. By using processes similar to those of the prior research, an overview of changes in the teaching of total quality principles in the past three years was also developed.