ENROLLMENT SYSTEM POLICY OF CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY AS CERRTIFIED BY ISO 9001:2000: INPUTS FOR MANAGEMENT REVIEW AND ACTION

PLAN
VE LESLIE E. ATANOZA veleslie@yahoo.com 09173235427

BRIEF INTRODUCTION The International Organization for standardization (ISO) is a worldwide body composed of approximately one hundred and thirty (130) countries and still increasing, which aims to develop standards that could be accepted and adopted globally. According to their official website (www.iso.org), these developed standards or International Standards (IS) are very useful to industries and business, organization of all types, to governments and other regulatory bodies, to trade officials, to conformity assessment professionals, to suppliers and customers of products and services in both public and private sectors, and, ultimately, to people in general in their roles as customers and end users. It adds that ISO standards contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer, and cleaner. They make trade between countries easier and fairer. They provide governments with technical base for health, safety and environmental legislations. They aid in transferring technology to developing countries. ISO standards also serve to safeguard consumers and users in general, of products and services as well as to make their lives simpler. When things go well- for example, when systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, then often it is because they conform to standards. And the only organization responsible for many hundreds even thousands which benefit society worldwide today is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Cebu Technological University is one of the hundreds, maybe thousands of institutions, registered and certified by ISO, specifically ISO model 9001 series of 2000. As an ISO certified institution, it develops a Quality Manual. A Quality Manual is a document stating the quality policy and describing the various elements of the quality practices of an organization. Written in accordance with the organizations approved quality system, the Quality Manual outlines the infrastructure for the organizational quality system and defines policy, purpose, responsibilities, management review, and supportive documentation for the quality system essentials (www.nccls.org). The enrollment system of the university appears not to be a representative of the standards that ISO sets. During enrollment period, it is not surprising for anybody in the organization to notice a lot of students (sometimes together with their parents) asking how to go about the enrollment process. As an observation, there often a lot of would be enrollees together with their parents or guardians who would crowd along the corridors and in the offices where the enrollment process has to pass through; and a lot more would disorderly approach their way in the payment area. Those with longer arms, with stronger and quicker legs should have great chances to be served first while the weaker ones shall consequently suffer the long wait of paying. With these in sight, the enrollment process seems to be hurdle students would be experiencing every semester of the year while staying in the university. In a similar study conducted by Borja, she states that indeed, it is very inconvenient, exhausting, and considered very miserable on the part of the students.

Lining up early, getting enrollment forms, paying fees, verifying subjects would take a day or two to finish the enrollment process. Oftentimes students will encounter trouble between stations of the enrollment procedures for a quite a small problem. This scenario is unlikely to be seen in an institution that claims to be the first ISO certified academe of the nation. With the certification, the enrollment system is expected to be organized that could conversely meet the customers expectations. It should be convenient enough to be operated by both the internal customers (enrollment personnel) and taken by the external customers (students). The supposed to be standardized and customer focused enrollment system will undoubtedly give more positive impression beneficial for the university if implemented properly and, if necessary, shall eventually be made. The enrollment system is a vital process in the admittance of the students prior to his/her admission to the certain school/college. The college can take advantage with the process early enough for students to give initial positive impression if the services are delivered at least satisfactorily. Being very vital to both the students and to the whole university, the study that is related to its processes and technicalities that involve the present enrollment system should have been understood thoroughly enough to clearly address and discover out the problems encountered by the students. In understanding the whole process and the sub-processes involved in this system, problems such as bottlenecks, delays, and repeated steps can be easily traced and seen. The root causes of these commonly experienced problems in the enrollment system would conversely affect the service efficiency and thus will lead to dissatisfaction. The enrollment system may be very technical in nature but it has also its social effects. Perhaps it is designed to meet the organizations objectives and the decision that higher authorities have taken; likewise, these systems will have an impact on the culture of the people carrying out the process and the satisfaction of the clientele it intends to serve. The inquiry, therefore, is intended to have an in-depth understanding between the relationship of the technical components of the system and the structure and functions of the organization, as well as the clientele behavior (satisfaction) towards the system and the standards that are set. In an ISO certified organization like CTU, continuous improvement is an institutional venture. In fact, the ISO certification is a major accomplishment and only the first major step. The success of this ISO certification as an endeavor however will not end on the acquired registration and certificate but on the major and formal review of its standards and policies. Correcting and preventing occurrence of a minor and major non-conformance will not only ensure the universitys quality service to students but will maintain the ISO certification status of the school. A very appropriate review could be done first, where else, but to a very obvious and vulnerable enrollment system of the university. RESEARCH PROBLEM The study aims to evaluate the extent of implementation of the enrollment system policies of Cebu Technological University as provided in the Quality Manual to serve as inputs for management review and action plan. Specifically, it sought the profile of the respondents groups (students and enrollment personnel); , status of the enrollment system, extent of conformance of the existing enrollment system as

provided in the universitys ISO Quality Manual as perceived by the respondent groups, mean difference between the perceptions of the respondents groups on the extent of conformance of the existing enrollment system as provided in the ISO Quality Manual of the university and problems encountered by the respondent groups on the existing enrollment system.

INTEGRATED REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE & STUDIES There are some references that are taken into account in relation to this research in order to enhance and give emphasis to customer care. It is understood that the students here are the customer of the university because they are the initial users of such service. Some books expounding on the field of customer care and some internet sites that featured customer care are being cited. Likewise, related studies and literature are being critically browsed through and reviewed curiously so as to reinforce and crystallize the concept of this study. In order for the university to improve its services to the students, it is essential to develop a strong student-focused culture (www.theloyaltyleader.com). Exceptional customer service, after all, is the only thing that will differentiate any organization in a very competitive world. The universitys administration should make the right decision in addressing the customers problems/complaints in its present enrollment system. Perhaps through this inquiry, it will serve as a basis for decision-making. Cited by the American management Association, quoted in Dawson (1994), that an average human being only make 50% of his whole decision making right. A scientific and systematic approach like this research could draw precise decision and appropriate actions easier for the top authorities (management). Vogelaar in his study states that nobody enjoys having ones organization criticized, yet knowledge of the problems and needs permits improvement or correction. The identified problems are direct feedback by the customers of the school, both externally and internally. Here, these identified problems are being studied and quantified on how serious these are and how these could be resolved. It would mean that the real challenge is being objective about the problems (complaints) and getting them directly from the customer instead of watching them dissatisfied without knowing why. Furthermore, he adds that complaints should be respected as constructive criticism and this statement could easily be applied in our organization after all it is a public institution. When a problem is resolved, a stronger customer relationship is established and the good word is passed on to others. As observed also, relatively few customers actually report their complaints to the business/organization; the majorities are grumbling to friends and more customers are dissatisfied. This is obvious to our students for various reasons: maybe an outlet is not open to have a formal complaint; and perhaps the channels may be inexistent for them or maybe there is fear of being marked. Again, Vogelaar further says that inviting constructive criticism and successfully dealing with complaints clears the air of discontent and maintains a valuable communication channel.

Cebu Technological University is committed to equip its students with quality education. Its enrollment system can initially provide the quality education through service quality. A commitment to service quality without a commitment to standards is a dedication to lip service, not customer service. Standard and measurement through customer feedbacks are essential for efficient functions and to improve the existing enrollment system (bell and Zemke, 1994). Indeed, during enrollment period, students are delayed when they could have been swiftly served and the system is distracted when it should have been steady phased; the brilliance of our enrollment system that appeared in the ISO Quality Manual actually is not carried out. The present inefficiencies experienced in the system just clearly undermine the certification and the commitment for quality, which the university is intended, to gear towards. Generally, a system is considered effective if it facilitates the goals of the people and the organization that uses it (Kronke, 1989). The direction of the university must be planned, organized and controlled strategically to meet the standards that are set.

Couch in his study cited that the systems goal should be carried out with as little deterioration as possible while satisfying its design constraints. Laudon added in his paper that every organization requires many different kinds of skills and people. In addition to managers, knowledge workers, design products or services and data workers process the organizations paperwork. Production workers or service workers actually produce the products or services of the organization. Each organization has a unique culture, or fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members. Parts of an organizations culture can always be found embedded in its practiced systems. Different levels and specialties in an organization create different interest and points of view. These views often conflict. Conflict is the basis for organizational politics. Good system comes out of this cauldron of different perspectives, conflicts, compromises and agreements that are natural part of all organizations. Ideally, different organizational level is served with an appropriate type of system. These could be operational-level systems, knowledge-level systems, management-level systems and strategic-level systems. Each of these level systems has its own role in serving the organization. The operational-level systems aid the monitoring of the elementary activities and transactions of the organization. The knowledge-level systems support knowledge and data workers in the organization. Management-level systems support the monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle managers or department heads and strategic-level is one that supports the long-range planning activities of senior management (Laudon, 1996). These level systems should carry out their respective tasks as consistent and as constant to achieve the goals set of an organization. Hawryszkiewycz in his study states that a system can be made up of any number of subsystems. Each subsystem carries out part of the system function. Subsystems are important because they can help to handle systems complexity and thus improve the understanding of a system. Each subsystem carries out some part of the system goal. The subsystems communicate by passing messages between themselves. A good system will be made up of highly independent subsystems with minimal flows between them. Minimizing flows, in turn, minimizes complexity and simplifies the system.

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS What if standards did not exist? Actually, standards contribution to mankind is very invisible; well in fact, it makes an enormous contribution and has tremendous effects in our daily lives. In this complex world, its contribution can only be noticed clearly if there is an absence to it. As commuters and drivers will be obviously affected if traffic lights color standard (red, yellow and green) does not exist or as users of products soon noticed that the products quality is poor, do not fit, are incompatible with the equipment we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted. We tend to usually unaware of the role played by standards in raising levels of quality, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability as well as in providing such benefits at an economical cost. ISO is the worlds largest developer of standards. Although ISOs principal activity is the development of technical standards, ISO standards also have important economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive difference, not just engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve basic problems in production and distribution, but to society as a whole (www.nqa.com). The university understands the role of the students, being its major clientele or customer; this, the university has developed and designed system, which is appropriate in satisfying them. One of these is the present enrollment system in which the students themselves are the first-hand users. The whole concept of student as customers was started in the mid-1980 when Total Quality Management Movement was introduced in the business world. The idea of treating students as customers received very harsh criticisms from the academic world; many academicians consider this as pandering and believe strongly that education is a unique experience in which knowledge is passed down from one generation to another generation with the hope that the next generation will expand it for the common good of the society. This is the classical view of education (www.ocair.org.com). On the other hand, the people who advocated students as customers believe that students and their parents pay the tuition and have a wide range of choices to choose from in attending college education. Therefore, when they make the decision to attend college, it is reasonable that they expect added-value at least equal to their payments. Treating students as customers means that the whole students experience must be so well-managed that the students will feel welcome and comfortable. The school will streamline the system to facilitate the student learning. That means when better system support exists, there shall be more course offerings, and smaller class sizes. Just like any other service entity, Cebu Technological University should be customer-oriented to focus on students welfare and care. The Quality Manual of CTU is a document and a reference to ensure that the quality procedures are being carried out. Under management responsibility specifically 5.2 which is customer focus in the quality manual, states that the universitys top management should identify the needs of customers, end-users, people in the organization and suppliers. It is purposely aimed to structure the system for satisfying internal and external customers and suppliers by integrating the environment, continuous improvement to develop negative organizational culture. To ensure that these standards are met and carried out, ISO standard dictates that a Management Review should be conducted. Management Review is a key

element of how the top management of an organization can assess its performance in terms of the objectives it sets itself, the requirements set by the standard and how its systems are operating. Normally, a management review is a regular meeting of the top management team and uses the information that the organizations systems have derived. It is a useful forum to review and revise quality objectives. Therefore a Management Review is a requirement by ISO standard as a function to check on the organizations systems. It is the opportunity for an organization to determine compliance with the systems it has established and maintained to meet the needs of its customers and identify opportunities for improvement. It serves as a health check for an organization (www.nqa.com). There is no specific time when and how many reviews should be made by the management but it suggest that it should take place normally and could take a good deal of time. There is no recommendation on how often reviews should occur or how it should occur. In CTUs case, it is twice a year (bi-annual); it will review all its quality policies, systems, processes and procedures which includes its enrollment system. Lastly, the quality management system that the university adopts including the enrollment system should fulfill the customers requirements and applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of its ultimate goals and objectives (www.iso.ch). These could be done only through a scheduled management reviews that will 1.) Review the quality management system 2.) Examine management review inputs and 3.) Generate management review output. Specifically, it will evaluate the performance of the quality system, evaluate whether the quality system should be improved, examine audit results, examine service conformity data, examine opportunities to improve, examine feedback from customers, examine corrective and preventive actions, examine changes that might affect the system, examine previous quality management reviews, generate actions to improve the quality system, generate actions to improve the services or products and generate actions to address resource needs.

METHODS The descriptive survey method of research was utilized in this study. A survey questionnaire was developed and used as a primary means of gathering data. This was necessary to get data on existing enrollment system of the university. Information regarding the profiles of the respondents (students and the enrollment personnel), the status of the existing enrollment system in terms of its resources used (personnel involved, machines and equipment, procedures and forms used), compliance to the requirements of enrollment process stipulated in the Quality Manual, the problems encountered by the students in the existing enrollment system were analyzed. Data went through tedious tallying, consolidation and also undergone statistical computation using several tools to qualify results needed in the interpretation for accurate results. The results of the study were the basis for the conclusions and some proposed recommendations were propounded. These were used in the proposed enrollment procedure that served as an input for management review and action plan.

SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS On the profile of the Respondents The study revealed that there are more female respondents than there are males. There are also more students within the age bracket 19-21. The College of Technology has the most number of student respondents compared with the College of Education and College of Advanced Studies where the course Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology is the most populous. The study also disclosed that most of the enrollees stayed in school for at least 3-4 years while the number of years most enrollment personnel served is from 12 years and above. On the Enrollment System Status The study disclosed that the status of the enrollment system is generally Good. All the elements, customer satisfaction, machines and equipment used, enrollment forms used and procedures/processes have a descriptive rating of Good. On the Existing Enrollment System Conformance as Provided in the Quality Manual of the University The study reveals that the existing enrollment systems conformance as provided in the quality manual of the university has a general result of Conformance. This means that in general the existing enrollment system followed and acted on what is stated about the enrollment process, as provided in the Quality Manual. It also reveals that there are five of ten provisions (submit accomplished registration Form to registrar for validation, Old students must pass all the prerequisite subjects for the semester as can be seen in the Rating Slip, Transferees follow procedure for new applicants requirements, cross-enrollees from CTU and cross enrollees from other school) have a rating of Non-conformance. On Possible Problems Encountered in the Existing Enrollment System The study reveals that the identified possible problems encountered in the existing enrollment system has a general rating of Highly Serious. It also reveals that there are no other identified problems added and that the problems are either Serious or Highly Serious. None of the problems are described Less Serious, Moderately Serious or Very Serious. Among the identified problems, overtaking or singit being practiced during the enrollment period attracts most the attention which has a rating of Highly Serious while inadequate number of forms to be filled in has the least level of seriousness with a rating of Serious. CONCLUSIONS The study confirmed that the status of the existing enrollment system is Generally Good and it has a general rating of Conformance to the provisions of the Quality Manual of the university. It has also concluded that there is a significant mean difference between perceptions of the groups of respondents to the extent of conformance of existing enrollment system to the provisions of ISO Quality Manual. Lastly, it validated the assumption of seriousness of the identified problems encountered in the existing enrollment system. It garnered a general rating of Highly Serious. RECOMMENDATIONS

From the findings of the study, it should be recommended that the proposed action plan presented in this study will be included in the universitys management review and implemented. The university should also establish an enrollment committee to design, maintain and ensure a quality manual based enrollment system. Lastly, a further study on enrollment system practiced and implemented from other learning institutions will be conducted. REFERENCES: Bell, Chip R. and Ron Zemke. The Managers Guidebook Volume One: Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service: [S.I] Asian Sources Media Groups Printers Pte Ltd. 1994. Couch, Leon II. Modern Communication Systems- Principles and Applications, (Prentice Hall International Editions Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1995. Dawson, Roger. The Managers Guidebook Volume One: The Confident Decision Maker (World Publications Printers Pte Ltd. 1994. Hawryszkiewycz. Foundations of Business Systems, (United States of America: The Dryden Press, 1989. Kronke, David. Management Information Systems (Watsonville, California, USA: Mitchell McGraw-Hill, 1989. Laudon C. Kenneth and Jane P. Laudon. Management Information System Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 1996. Vogelaar, Don. Know Your Customer Using Practical Market Research for Profit Australia: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1992. Borja, Josephine. Enrollment Expert System of the University of San Carlos Cebu City- Module One: Plotting and Printing of Allowed Subjects to be Enrolled by the Students with Open Status Schedules, University of San CarlosTechnological Center, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1997. Websites: http://www.ocair.org.com http://www.theloyaltyleader.com http://www.iso.org.com http://www.ascl-lab.org.com http://www.thequalityportal.com http://www.isoeasy.org.com http://www.nccls.org.com http://www.flw.com http://www.nga.com http://www.iso.ch.com