Improving the quality of science education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The policies of government in Saudi Arabia recently shifted the focus on improving the quality of education due to deteriorating quality in higher education sector. In this context, this study holds a critical significance in providing a workable framework for improving the educational quality in the higher education with emphasis on the engineering education. Teachers, administrative personnel, physical facilities and assessment procedures constitute the input of the education system, whilst the outcomes of assessments, stakeholders’ satisfaction (students, employers) form the output of the educational system. Total quality management (TQM) is considered a cornerstone of, not only improving the quality, but also gaining competitive advantage over the rivals such as overseas educational institutions and local education providers in private sector in the education industry. Businesses which failed to implement the TQM philosophy at the organizational level experienced the loss of the competitiveness in the modern global economies. Education institutions emerged since 1990 as the hub of economic activities, and students are treated as customers, a scenario that is obvious from the global recruitment campaigns of international students and graduates by the educational institutions. Similarly, employers target graduates for employment produced by educational institutions known for their quality education and instructional facilities. In Saudi Arabia, educational institutions faced severe internal and external competition to provide quality education for engineering graduates. Consequently, the employers showed more inclination to recruit engineers graduated from the foreign universities. Therefore, this thesis aims to present findings from the TQM framework consisting of critical success factors for Saudi Engineering Schools to improve the educational quality for meeting quality standards of the local job market. A quantitative and qualitative research designs were applied to collect and analyse the data. A Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect the data from academics and leadership of the Engineering Schools in Saudi Arabia and descriptive statistics, involving the use of a multiple linear regression model, was applied to determine the strength of the relationship between dependent and independent variables. It was found that the data-based decision-making was significantly associated with the TQM. Similarly, continuous improvement and leadership motivation were also significantly associated with TQM. In addition, significant association was found between performance-based rewards and TQM. Also, it was found that teacher training, curricula evaluation and use of the statistical tools held significant links with TQM. A synergistic relationship between stakeholders and satisfaction of customers was significantly associated with the TQM. TThe significant association was found between TQM and teamwork/cooperation at higher education institutions. Hence, based on the findings of this study, a TQM framework has been developed consisting of 11 critical success factors which are important for the improvement of educational quality in the context of Saudi higher education institutions. It is recommended that the application of the proposed TQM framework in Engineering Schools in particular, and in all disciplines in general, we recommended for the improvement of educational quality in Saudi higher education sector. The future work should consider the practical applications of the proposed TQM model in Saudi schools and educational institutions to improve the quality of other science subjects such as medical education.