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Quality Methodologies and Benchmarking

Some institutions have adopted the use of quality methodologies, in some cases directly involving their governing bodies. The most widely used are:

Investors in People (IiP Standard): This is a national quality standard which sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation's performance through its people. The standard was developed during 1990 by the National Training Task Force in partnership with leading national business, personnel, professional and employee organisations. The Employment Department supported the work. The Investors in People Standard is based on four key principles: commitment, planning, action and evaluation. These principles are broken down into 12 indicators, against which organisations are assessed.
The Business Excellence Model: The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced in 1992 as the framework for assessing applications for the European Quality Award. It is the most widely used organisational framework in Europe and has become the basis for the majority of national and regional quality awards.
Benchmarking: Governing bodies increasingly use comparative data to make comparisons between the performance of aspects of their own institution and others. Although potentially very valuable, care needs to taken in making such comparisons so as to draw valid conclusions, and for this reason some institutions measure their performance against selected peer group comparators.HESA has published a detailed study of benchmarking in higher education.