Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand the quality management of private universities. Prior studies argued that "quality management" in higher education is a multi-faced phenomenon; however, little was known about the details of its nature. From extant literature, this current study, therefore, developed a multi-order hierarchical model. The model has been validated with survey data. Data were collected from six private universities in Bangladesh. A survey was conducted of 400 participants, with a 93.25 percent response rate. The analysis was performed using a partial least squares path modeling technique. The results suggest that quality management of the higher education system can be explained as a third-order model, where quality management is reflected by educational, administrative, and societal qualities. The results also show that the quality of a private university is related more to its administrative activities than to its curricula. Moreover, the respondents considered "image" to be a serious issue when evaluating the quality of a private university. In the higher education context, this study is the first reported initiative that explains quality management as a multi-order hierarchical reflective model. The implications of the findings have been discussed.