Assuring Educational Quality in Taiwan's Universities of Technology

ABSTRACT Since the quality of education has a direct impact on the effects of education, the educational system is an important focus of social and political attention. In order to effectively control educational quality, university administrative departments undertake regular evaluations. However, quality criteria are interdependent and the formulation of weight values for them is complex. Moreover, the relevance of various criteria is also an issue when evaluating educational quality. This study uses a new approach to evaluate educational quality; the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) combined with the KANO model. The purpose of this new methodology is to determine the crucial educational quality factors for Taiwan’s universities of technology as well as identify critical items for improvement. Using this method, the causal relationships and the level of relevance between each criterion may be calculated and the relationships among the various criteria clarified. The two dimensions of quality can confirm the satisfaction/dissatisfaction of customers when preparing or not preparing the attributes of a given quality characteristic. Based on the research findings, suggestions are provided for the design of educational quality evaluations and for further research.

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