Quality Assurance in Education

Purpose – The paper seeks to explore the effect of academic culture on the implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model in UK universities.

Design/methodology/approach – A literature review reveals several aspects, which collectively define the academic culture in UK universities. These aspects were explored in four case studies of the implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model in UK universities.

Findings – It was found that certain of these aspects had a good “cultural fit” with the EFQM Excellence Model and its underpinning concepts and others acted as cultural barriers to the implementation of the model.

Research limitations/implications – The research only covers four cases and is therefore only generalisable back to theory rather than to the population of UK university academic units. The paper identifies aspects of academic culture.

Practical implications – The paper proposes an ideal mix of cultural aspects to facilitate implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model. Strategies are recommended for dealing with situations where the assessed academic culture does not fit well with the use of the model. These strategies include both attempts to influence and change the academic culture to provide a better fit with model and also suggested amendments to the use of the model to provide a better fit with the academic culture.

Originality/value – This paper makes a contribution to the understanding of academic culture and its effect on the implementation of a quality improvement methodology. Academic managers in universities may find its recommendations useful if planning a similar implementation.