Strategic Quality Plan

Strategic Quality Plan

With the support of ALTAIR Tempus project, MUBS developed in 2012 a strategic quality plan that aims at providing a framework for the university for building a management system that drives continuous quality improvement of all processes based on data from stakeholder groups.

M.U.B.S. strategic quality plan is aligned with MUBS strategic plan (2010 – 2014) which identified the following strategic objectives as being critical in transforming M.U.B.S:

• To prepare students for meaningful careers and instilling the value of lifelong learning.
• To offer innovative academic programs of excellent quality that will be internationally recognized.
• To increases the size and quality of faculty in strategically important academic areas.
• To promote the internationalization dimensions of the university.
• To maintain and strengthen the core infrastructures for research, scholarship, and creativity, including in particular libraries and research facilities.
• To promote community services and stronger collaborations and partnership between the university and stakeholders.

In summary, the above objectives suggest that the university should move on a significant number of fronts to keep abreast of competition, respond to a rapidly changing environment, and enhance academic strengths.

In thin respect, the university has formulated its strategic quality plan that is aligned with the realization of the strategic objectives and hence the vision and mission of M.U.B.S.

The drive for quality improvement is led by the President of the university whose efforts are supported by the quality assurance office (QAO) staff and a quality Advisory Board.

Each faculty at M.U.B.S. is expected to develop a quality plan that addresses the specific interests of the faculty's stakeholders and the strategic objectives formulated in the university strategic plan. MUBS faculties, academic department, and internal stakeholders utilize well established processes for strategic quality planning.

The work on quality carried out at MUBS until 2014 will be oriented towards:

• The systematic collection and analysis of data from many of its stakeholder groups, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents. This data will help in assessing the quality of education and in identifying more opportunities for continuous improvement and will feed the strategic quality planning process.
• The development of a balanced scorecard approach to provide performance feedback after defining key operational performance indicators.
• The continuous improvement in the quality of the study programs provided by the university at the undergraduate and graduate levels to ensure they are internationally competitive.
• The involvement of support organizations in quality improvement initiatives such as registrar , students affairs , business office …
• The provision of training and development initiatives to faculty , staff and students aiming at enhancing their understanding of quality improvement tools and methods, consensus based decision making , teambuilding , and planning skills which are expected ultimately to positively influence the quality of education .
• The creation of a university – wide quality culture that is dynamic , proactive , forward – looking , and that stresses democracy and debate, and values the voice of students and staff equally .
• The need for MUBS to know itself and its programs (the self-evaluation) and to internally monitor its quality as necessary steps in its development and strategic planning. The self-evaluation is an opportunity for the university to think about change in a positive and strategic manner.
• The need to prepare for institutional and programs accreditation in order to validate the quality of education and to affirm that MUBS meets standards of quality established by the higher education international community.
• The focus on 'benchmarking' which means conducting studies of peer institutions to assure that the university performance is similar to others. Benchmarking activities should aim at identifying best practices in teaching, administrative processes, curriculum review, improving graduation rates…

The quality orientations above are focused on the attainment of both internal and external "customer" satisfaction. This realization is indeed crucial in any quality planning initiative because satisfying "customers', both internal and external, is simply the bottom line of quality management. Although there is no consensus in defining customers in the context of higher education, nonetheless, internal customers in the context of M.U.B.S. could include both the employees and students and external customers refer to the employers and parents.

To ensure the success of this plan, M.U.B.S. should support it with the required financial and human resources which are also crucial strategic aspects that MUBS needs to address. In addition, effective change management and top management commitment are very important factors for ensuring that the strategic quality plan implementation initiatives be continuously pursued with all the associated risks and uncertainties.

M.U.B.S. journey towards sustaining and enhancing its quality provision will always be seen as a development and continuous process which does not have an endpoint.