Compliance QFD - how compliance contributes to quality in higher education

The study aims to present a framework, a so-called Quality Function Deployment (QFD) house, to enhance the service quality of higher education institutions (HEIs), supporting the institutional compliance management issues and processes. To develop the compliance QFD, questionnaires and focus group interviews were conducted to determine the service quality attributes, while the compliance management functions originated from a comprehensive literature review. This research describes and correlates ten service quality attributes at the institution level of HEIs and nine compliance management functions. The QFD results present the priority ranking of the examined compliance functions proposing improvement criteria based on higher education institutions' general compliance and service quality management areas. These insights will be helpful to educational leaders to align compliance activities for student-perceived quality and also to leaders and policymakers in deriving a strategic plan on compliance management to improve the service quality offered to the stakeholders, primarily students.