An Application of a Basic Quality Management Approach in a Higher Education Environment

ABSTRACT The Grand Valley State University Engineering Cooperative Education Program (ECEP) was able to utilize simple quality principles and tools for improving the program process. The main goal was to utilize a basic quality management approach to improve the efficiency of the engineering cooperative education program placement and evaluation process. After two years of redesign and implementation the efficiency of the program was considerably improved. All students participating in the program received competent training before the first cooperative experience and all were placed in cooperative positions on time. Furthermore, proactive measures were instituted as a continuous improvement measure to insure the efficiency of the process with the expected growth of the Grand Valley State University Padnos School of Engineering program.