Measuring the Quality of Higher Education Using Linear Programming Applied Study in the Faculty of Management and Economics University of Mosul

Abstract

Total quality management in higher education institutions is one of the important issues at the global level in general and in the Arabic region and Iraq in particular. Where the higher education sector is the main source for creating and training human resources in all fields, it is the main hub for the development and support of societies. Therefore, attention should be paid to the quality of the performance of these institutions and their outcomes by employing one of the methods of operations research, which is the method of linear programming to maximize the quality of higher education. Such a quality has a fundamental role in providing the requirements and working methods of universities to reach advanced levels of outstanding performance, by stimulating and training their human resources and using advanced methods in scientific performance. There are many problems that delay the progress of students’ development in their college education, including the poor infrastructure of suitable classrooms, and an appropriate number of teaching staff fit with the huge number of students accepted into colleges. The second problem is the professional and educational lack in the organization of how to measure and evaluate the quality of education. The importance of the research lies in studying the topic of total quality management in higher education institutions and thus reaching recommendations for decision-makers in senior management of these institutions. The College of Administration and Economics, with its seven departments, was taken as a sample for this research, and its actual documented data from the records of the college departments were used within restrictions that have a direct impact on the quality of education depending on the infrastructure, teaching staff, employees, and success rates. The ready-made program QSB (Quantitive System For Business) was used to obtain the solution of the model and to measure the quality standards in the various departments. The results of the linear programming showed that the quality standard in the College of Administration and Economics was (38%) depending on the infrastructure, teachers, students, and employees, which is a good result compared to other variables that were not taken into account such (scientific research, community service, leadership, and organizing...).