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Received: 19.09.2022 Accepted: 10.06.2023 Published: 01.01.2024 DOI: 10.47750/QAS/25.199.01
Abstract
The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (SAAHE) issued new standards and criteria for universities quality management systems in 2020 (SAAHES-IS 2020). Requirements and criteria determined in the SAAHES-IS 2020 are based on the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). However, some Slovak universities implemented and maintained their quality management system (QMS) according to the ISO 9001 standard in the past. The object of the research presented in our paper is a Slovak university certified according to the ISO 9001. The subject of the research is employee's awareness about selected requirements of both standards, ISO 9001 and SAAHES-IS 2020. The main objectives of the research are: (1) to identify common requirements of both standards, (2) to explore employees awareness related to the identified common requirements and (3) to create decision assumptions how processes should be assured, either in accordance with ISO 9001 or SAAHES-IS 2020. This paper has also a methodological benefit. It allows to compare any standardized management systems that have common requirements. Employees awareness of the selected quality requirements has three elementary pillars in our research. They are the knowledge about requirement definition, how the given requirement is assured in the management practice and how employee contributes in the given requirement assurance.
Keywords: quality, higher education, employees, awareness, standards
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1. Introduction
Matej Bel University had a certified quality management system according to the ISO 9001 from 2010 to 2019. ISO 9001 defines quality requirements which shall be implemented, maintained and improved. Even the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica provides a higher education, ISO 9001 was a very clear and logical standard for quality assurance. Environment in higher education in the Slovak Republic has been changed. Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education issued a set of new quality standards. The most important is standard for internal quality system. Matej Bel University faced to crucial decision, either to recertificate quality management system or to transform it in accordance with SAAHE-IS 2020. This decision comes from the Slovak laws. Each Slovak university has to implement the SAAHE-IS 2020. However, there are many common requirements between ISO 9001 and SAAHE-IS 2020 which do not...