PROJECT: Total Quality Audit Program
Name of Institute: Xavier Institute
Region: East Europe – small country
Study details:
IAO to ensure its quality education standards were being followed by all of its partners and its accredited members initiated its “Total Quality Audit Program”. The purpose of the audit was to sort out and focus on only those institutes that deliver quality education on par with international standards. The accreditation status of XAVIER Institute had recently expired. As part of the audit process, the institute was urged to undergo the renewal process. On negligence on the institute’s part, the institute was moved to our second step of the audit program, which mainly aims at removing the non-accredited institutes name from all our mediums and informing all relevant parties about its current accreditation status.
This case study aims to evaluate the effects Xavier institute experienced upon failing to renew the accreditation:
- 1) Removal of Xavier institute’s name from our accredited institute’s list:
Xavier’s name was removed from our accredited institute’s list. As a result, students coming on our website searching for accredited institutes in India would no longer find Xavier’s name in the list. This raised concerns regarding the institute’s quality of education and acceptance of degrees.
- 2) Showing a non-accredited institute status on your dedicated web-page
The dedicated webpage of Xavier started showing “expired accreditation” status. Anyone searching for XAVIER on google or on the website was shown that the university is no longer accredited by us. This again resulted in loss of student trust for the institute.
- 3) Responding to student inquiries with the actual status of your accreditation
If and when we were receiving any inquiries for Xavier’s accreditation status, as a nonprofit organization, working with the mission to only promote those institutes that deliver quality education we considered it our responsibility to not to mislead the students in anyway and inform them of the actual status of Xavier’s accreditation status. This created concern among both potential and current students related to acceptance of degrees of Xavier’s institute.
- 4) Restricting the usage of IAO’s accreditation seal
IAO’s accredited institutes are given rights to use IAO’s seals on their website, collaterals and all other marketing material. As soon as the accreditation expires, the institute cannot associate itself with IAO on any platform. XAVIER institute was also asked to remove IAO’s seal. However, Xavier still continued showing its association with IAO.
Informing all educational bodies, ministries, embassies and relevant government / non-government entities about your non-accreditation status
As soon as XAVIER lost its accreditation with IAO, we considered it our responsibility to inform all relevant parties including our network of educational institutes, employers, ministries, embassies, government and non-government entities. As a result,- Immediate investigation pertaining to institute’s credibility was initiated
Made XAVIER Institute the part of our AWARENESS PROGRAM
IAO’s Awareness Programis a highly-rich media campaign which runs on social media, TV channels and newspapers of your region, creating awareness to avoid any misguidance about our accredited institutes. When Xavier institute did not stop showing their association with IAO, despite being on expired status, the institute was made part of our awareness program in which we:
Informed media of that region regarding institute’s current accreditation status.
