54 International Journal of Scientific Management and Development Correspondent Author : Manouchehr Omidvari* Manuscript No: IJSMD-KINA-2014-091 International Journal of Scientific Management and Development ISSN:2345-3974 Vol.6 (1), 54-65 March (2014) Review Paper Presents a conceptual model of EFQM assessment in higher education Shirin Abbasimaleki 1 ,Manouchehr Omidvari 2 1 Graduate student of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Science and Research Branch,Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran 2* Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran Available online at: www.IJSMD.Com Received 25th Jan 2014, revised 10th February 2014, accepted 20th February 2014 Abstract Evaluating the organization status is the management most critical concerns in each. Establishing assessment indexes play a substantial role in determining organization position among its competitors. EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) is regarded one of the means that help management. So, this question will be raised that how to minimize the impacts of assessors’ personal judgments. Insomuch, universities and higher education institutes are included among those important, considerable organizations of each society, moving toward progress is as essential requirement. Studies showed that quality systems effectiveness in Iran is low which is mainly derived from the lack of proper indexing to assess systems’ performance. The present study def ined some indices to higher education centers in the EFQM ascendency framework relying upon experts comments so that overcome the problem. As the fuzzy governed atmosphere in organizations’ decision making, FAHP (Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process) method was applied to adopt the model with the organizations’ conditions. According to the proposed pattern, it can be concluded that a hi gher education center must concentrate on which areas to promote its organization as well as to avoid loss of sources, assuring the management that they are moving toward progress and ascendency. Key words: EFQM; FAHP; Higher Education centers 1. Introduction Today, business environments in organizations are moving from a supportive to competitive conditions. These contexts require organizations applying resource wise management to survive and achieve sustainable success. Organizations’ leadership and management face ample challenges in country. Economy globalization and dramatic evolutions occurring in world markets make the competition more complicated and difficult for enterprises. Changing influencing factors on national business environment which is generally unpredictable may intensify the issue. Therefore, economic survival and sustainability in organizations basically rely upon carefully and timely recognizing all aspects of the issue which call for planning within organizations’ strategic goals framework; moreover, the goals may not be obtained without accurately performance assessing, identifying and implementing improvement programs. In recent years, organizations are being more interested in self- assessment, utilizing EFQM ascendency model to recognize and identify their business strategy (Ahmed et al., 2008). EFQM sublimation award introduced in 1999 is one of the most honored, valued awards all around Europe. This model requires 9 criteria and 32 sub-criteria to determine organization’s quality final score (Aydin et al., 2011). The criteria in EFQM model are divided in to two groups: Enabling criteria (those affairs done by organization), and findings criteria (the achievements and results obtained through carrying out enabling standards) (Rusjan, 2005). EFQM may have been regarded as the most common, practical quality models in various organizations. However, it has been demonstrated that organizations, yet its prevalence, are encountering numerous problems in utilizing this ascendency model in self-assessment. The major problems in this way are the personal judgments influencing on assessments which may cause organizations misleading (Alinejad et al., 2010). The quality systems effectiveness in Iran is low, based on the reports provided by ISO International Organization, which emanate from lack of appropriate indexing to evaluate these systems’ performances. This study tries to present a pattern to assess EFQM ascendency model by using multi index decision making models in educational, training centers, considered as important organizations in each society, so that it is possible to accurately assess the organizations performance through a quality model. It is believed that whatever immeasurable in management would not be manageable (Kennerley and Neely, 2003). There have been many studies carried out on this model since 1998 which 14 European firms, supported by the Europe Union, have established EFQM ascendency model, up to the present with more than 800 members of European firms. Model’s flaws have been ignored as the popularity in most studies (Siow et al., 2001). The study conducted by Dr. Singhal and Dr. Hendrix, 2000, showed that those organizations