ABSTRACT
Issues of Quality of Education, rather than mass production, have had to move to the forefront of the educational agenda of policy makers at higher education level. Considering the huge public and private investment in university education, evaluation of how effectively the investment is being utilized by examining the quality of the educational infrastructure, the cadre of qualified tutors and other resources in place, and the quality of teaching and learning has become critical. The main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of Quality Management Practices on the performance of ISO Certified Public Universities in Kenya. The study also covered: top management commitment, stakeholder involvement, and customer orientation and employee empowerment. The approach of the study was descriptive research design. The target population of the study was 4017 respondents comprising of staff of the selected Public Institutions of higher learning. A sample of 10% was drawn from the population using stratified random sampling and will form the respondents for the study. The study collected both primary and secondary data. This was the use of questionnaires administered using drop and pick later method. The findings were presented using charts and graphs, frequencies, percentages, means and other central tendencies. The study found out that majority of the respondents felt that performance of their universities had improved as a result of putting in place ISO certification; ISO Systems approach has led to stronger resource generating capabilities; the top management of the selected university institutions is committed towards the principles laid out by the ISO QMS Standards; stakeholder analysis, identification and management is a central point of orientations of the universities in Kenya; proactive customer orientation contributes towards performance of the university institutions; learning institutions provide the most important things that make employees give high quality services. The study concludes that top management commitment significantly affects performance of ISO Certified Public Universities in Kenya; The top management of the selected university institutions is committed towards the principles laid out by the ISO QMS Standards; Stakeholder involvement has insignificant effect on performance of ISO Certified public universities in Kenya; Customer orientation has significant effect on performance of ISO Certified Public Universities in Kenya; Employee empowerment significantly affects performance of ISO Certified public universities in Kenya. The study recommends that the top management of all Universities that are ISO Certified in Kenya should remain committed towards the principles indicated in the ISO QMS Standards; All stakeholders of ISO Certified universities in Kenya should ensure that actively be involved throughout the quality processes in the organization; The ministry of higher education and other donors should sponsor customer surveys among public universities on regular basis; public ISO Certified universities in Kenya ought to put in place sound employee empowerment strategies for example training of staff on quality.
