Reframing education quality in Hong Kong's sub-degree colleges : management strategies and students' perceptions

Abstract

Hong Kong’s sub-degree sector has grown at a tremendous speed since its emergence in 2001. There are now more than twenty colleges offering a host of Associate Degree and Higher Diploma programmes. In this highly competitive sub-degree sector, college administrators and faculty members are increasingly concerned with the quality of their educational services as well as their students’ perceptions of these services. Current literature on this sector of the Hong Kong education system provides scant analysis on the issue of students’ perception of education quality while the foci of their management strategies are very diverse (Huang, 2003; Choy, 2004; Law, 2010, 2011). To fill these knowledge gaps a conceptual framework was developed to investigate the relationship between management strategies and students’ perception of education quality in Hong Kong’s sub-degree colleges. To ensure reliability and validity of the findings, a multiple case-study approach with a comparative research strategy was used in this study. Four sub-degree colleges with differences in their organizations’ natures and modes of programme operation were purposefully selected. Information was collected primarily from in-depth, individual interviews and focus group discussions with programme administrators, lecturers, and students in the sample colleges. The collected data were analyzed using the proposed conceptual framework, with the aim of identifying policies and practices that are commonly used in the sub-degree colleges that took part in this study to ensure the quality of their educational services, as well as their effectiveness from students’ perspective.

The findings in this study show that all sample colleges have to work with two interrelated variables: institutional reputation and diversity in students’ educational goals and academic ability. A College Quality Alignment Model was developed to describe the four different stages of institutional development and to illustrate how different management strategies should be applied to enhance students’ perception of education quality. As revealed from the present study, students with different educational goals perceive education quality differently. Students with high levels of educational aspiration show a trend of applying for Associate Degree programmes. These students generally regard sub-degree programmes as their second chance to progress to the local government-funded universities. They treat examinations as a competition in which fairness is of utmost importance. To them everything about the college they are attending should be well structured and all learning materials and examination procedures must be standardized. They also prefer to study at colleges affiliated with high ranking local universities. They believe that this will enhance their chance of transferring to the affiliated university. Hence, Associate Degree students focus on the structural and symbolic management strategies in the programmatic organization. Students who are associated with high levels of occupational aspiration are most likely to apply for Higher Diploma programmes. As there is more diversity in their levels of ability and motivation, they focus more on the learning process and prefer lecturers who are patient and offer more help. As these students are keen to acquire practical skills, they desire lecturers to share their work experience. They are eager to participate in the policy making process and demand more flexibility in their assessments. As such, Higher Diploma students focus on the human resources and political management strategies in the programmatic organization.

This study contributes to the understanding of education quality in sub-degree colleges from the organizational perspective in higher education. The proposed College Quality Alignment Model enriches theoretical perspectives as well as offering practical recommendations in the field of management and organizational studies in higher education.