This study aims to diagnose the primary causes of quality decline in Indian higher technical educational institutes (HTEIs) and prioritise the Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) factors that most strongly influence stakeholder satisfaction, educational excellence and graduate employability, while mapping them to relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A mixed-methods framework integrating the EduQual, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was used. A 91-item questionnaire was reduced to 42 items and administered across eight HTEIs. Five reliable dimensions emerged (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.91). High-loading items (>0.7) from the weakest dimensions: management facilities and academics, were triangulated with fishbone analysis to extract nine Voices of the Customer (VOCs). These were then translated into 30 CTQs using a CTQ tree and prioritised through House of Quality (HOQ).
Management facilities and academics received the lowest satisfaction scores across stakeholder groups. Based on the HOQ analysis, five management facility CTQs exceeded the 7.692% threshold, while seven academic CTQs exceeded the 5.822% threshold. Together, these 12 high-priority CTQs align primarily with SDGs 4, 8 and 9.
The CTQ–SDG matrix offers HTEI’s manager an evidence-based roadmap for supporting India’s NEP-2020 quality agenda.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to integrate EduQual, LSS and QFD with a systematic, stakeholder-driven approach to CTQ prioritisation in HTEIs. This study also links quality interventions directly to the SDGs through HOQ results.
