Quality/Perfectionist Mouvement in Higher Education: Towards a Comprehensive Model of Quality Management

The present aims to study the major paradigms in organizational quality management in an attempt to determine the amount of their compatibility to higher education institutes and their social, economical environments and consequently reach a comprehensive model. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on meta-analysis methodology (analysis of analysis) emphasizing on Habermas theory of “communication action” (1994-1996) and researches performed by Baket and Brocks (2005) and Brinbahm (1991) and modelssuch as academic autonomy, social and political models derived from industry and trade. Findings indicate that the meaning of “quality” has changed following dominance of trade model in higher education. Besides, existing models of quality based on industry has overlooked basic and primary values of higher education.