Quality culture, academic practices and mechanisms : a case study of vocational education in Hong Kong

In line with current trends in education both locally and abroad, the Institute of Vocational of Education (IVE) has embarked on a Total Quality Improvement programme. The IVE (Tsing Yi) campus was one of the first to embrace this as it already had an established infrastructure for quality assurance which pre-dated this programme. The purpose of this research is to study the academic quality culture in the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), and to determine factors that work for and against the implementation of Total Quality Improvement in a vocational education setting. The research was carried out through a triangulation process involving documentary analysis, questionnaire surveys, and interviews. To draw up an academic quality profile of the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), these areas were studied: staff values and beliefs in relation to TQM principles staff perception of the college's quality-related activities and mechanisms the structure and role, policies, practices and management of quality the extent to which the academic quality climate effectively helps to deliver quality courses and factors which can bring about a synergy between professionalism among staff and the current academic quality practices. Major strengths in the academic quality culture at IVE (Tsing Yi campus) include staffs professionalism and personal commitment to quality, as well as an existing infrastructure for quality assurance. Weaknesses include the existence of balkanisation in the campus, the absence of active leadership in quality issues, and a one-way communication pattern. To create a synergy between the quality culture, academic practices and mechanisms in the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), a TQM model has been proposed. Essentially, this involves creating a pre-condition for harnessing commitment and orchestrating changes, as well as allowing for better integration of staff.