Top management commitment and overall engineering education excellence

Abstract

Purpose There has been an exponential proliferation of higher engineering educational institutions in India. The purpose of this paper is to seek to investigate students' perceptions of the level of Commitment of Top Management and Leadership (CTML) and Education Service Design and Delivery (ESDD) in Government Run Engineering Colleges (GREC), Privately Funded Engineering Colleges (PFEC) and Privately Funded Deemed Universities (PFDU) in India. The paper also strives to find out the significant predictors of Overall Engineering Education Excellence (OEEE). Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model has been developed linking Total Quality Management (TQM) elements and OEEE. The data were obtained from a survey of 992 students of higher engineering institutions in South India and analyzed using SPSS. Findings Significant differences among GREC, PFEC and PFDU were noticed in several TQM dimensions under study, and also in OEEE. The findings show correlation between the seven TQM variables and OEEE. CTML made a significant contribution toward attaining OEEE. Campus Facilities and Congenial Learning Environment also contributed greatly to OEEE. Research limitations/implications The sample is limited to engineering institutions in a particular geographical area of India. Related study with a global perspective can be taken up in the future. Practical implications The comparative analysis of higher engineering institutions as well as the results of the investigative study of the impact of TQM on overall engineering educational excellence will prove useful to academic leadership. Originality/value The research framework presented in this paper is valuable to the top managements of higher engineering institutions.