Transformative Quality in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Conceptualisation, scale development and validation

Abstract

With the increasing post-massification of higher education institutions (HEIs), access-providing business schools (vs elite educational institutions) continue to rank at the bottom in terms of quality. This study defines and develops a measure of quality in the context of access-providing business schools in a developing country. Access-providing private business schools face competing challenges of balancing inclusiveness and access with excellence and quality. Pursuing inclusiveness and access alongside excellence and quality seems a utopian ideal. However, this study propounds transformative quality as key for addressing these conflicting issues, which have long impacted post-massification and continue to have a grave effect post-pandemic. We propose a five-factor, 27-item scale of transformative quality (TRFQ). We validated the proposed scale through three studies exploring the perspectives of front-line faculty members representing 25 business schools from 10 major cities in India. The study results indicate that TRFQ comprises five dimensions such as critical confidence, problem-solving skills for approach-avoidance, overall awareness, overcoming prejudices and skillfulness. The role of TRFQ in future research has implications and recommendations for institutional management in business schools and for policymakers.