Adopting ISO 9001:2015 & ISO 21001:2018 EOMS to the Sri Lankan Higher Educational Institutions: A Review of Literature

Higher education is the critical economic sector that is eventually followed by all other major service sectors in an economy such as financial services, healthcare, telecommunication, aviation, transportation etc. Today, higher educational institutions all over the world operate in a fast-dynamic environment with high competition for reputation, talent acquisition, and student attraction. Following the basis of that high competition that is leading to a significant focus on quality. It is not easy to define the quality in terms of higher education since due to the complexity in relationships of higher education to students and the different roles played by a student in the higher education process. Addressing the issue, International Organization for Standards (ISO) has recently published a new quality framework for higher educational institutions; ISO 21001:2018 EOMS and most of the institutions adopted ISO 9001 standard series until the publication of the new ISO standard for higher education. This study employs an evidence-based approach and systematically evaluates the existing literature on ISO QMS implementation in higher education institutions in different countries with the intention of elaborating on the necessity of adopting it in the Sri Lankan context. Further, it attempts to summarize the key benefits, challenges, and critical success factors of ISO implementation considering Sri Lanka. According to the findings, the key benefits of ISO adoption by higher education institutions are cost reduction, consistent customer satisfaction, risk management, international recognition, adopting rapid changes, attracting grants/ funds, and strengthening international linkages and relationships. In addition, the challenges and critical success factors which were extracted from the literature are also stated for easy implication. Thus, the study highly recommends implementing ISO-standardized quality management systems in all higher education institutions in Sri Lanka to mitigate the serious limitations while achieving international recognition for all educational programmes to finally generate a quality workforce for the economy.