Abstract—The rapid changes in the business environment and the pressures associated with the global competition have led several institutions to pay special attention to adopt the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM) in order to achieve their competitive advantage. The concentration in investing in human capital, which is a supplier of the most prominent among the resources available to those institutions is not the only way to get a position in the global market. Therefore, since the last decade of the last century, several calls have been started by international and regional institutions to focus on higher education institutions within the interest of public education institutions in the community as the body directly responsible for building the human resources and consequently the society. Sirte University which is one of the governmental institutions in Libya has been working tirelessly since 2008 to create the necessary requirements for the establishment of an appropriate system of TQM, trying through which to accomplish its mission, by achieving and satisfying the expectations of the beneficiary in line with the requirements of quality systems including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 in an effort to achieve its vision in global excellence. However, despite of the huge efforts that have been made in this context, the University is still far from the starting phase of the regional and international accreditation. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of the practice of Quality Management System (QMS) in Sirte University compared to the requirement of the ISO 9001:2008. It has come out with a set of results indicating the extent of the policies and strategies of QMS at Sirte University in fulfilling the requirement of quality performance of this institution according to ISO 9001:2008. It has also identified the strength and weaknesses in applying this requirement. Furthermore, this study has made some proposals in which shortcomings in performance can be avoided. Keywords—TQM, ISO 9001:2008, Quality in Higher Education. Eltayeb Mohamed Elgobbi is with the Department of Management, Sirte University, Libya (e-mail: e.elgobbi@gmail.com ). I. INTRODUCTION UALITY has always been a matter in business dealings between various and different groupings and parties. During the last two decades significant attention has been emphasized on the subject of quality and much literature has been written outlining how institutions should set about their improvement (Dale et al, 2001). "The quality movement can be seen as a term which could be seen as referring to a set of ideas and principles incorporating those listed above which are adopted in organizations under a variety of names including: total quality management (TQM), Six Sigma, ISO 9000, business excellence and many other more specific tools and techniques such as lean manufacturing, quality function deployment and Statistical Process Control (SPC). It might be considered as encompassing broader organizational cultures, strategies and structures involving leadership, continuous improvement and employee involvement to very specific operational tools such as seven tools, SPC, 5S and so on" (Brown, 2013, p. 585). Quality has been defined by several authors. For instance, (Ovretveit, 2000, p. 75) defines it as "exceeding customer expectations". In addition, the American Society for Quality Control defines quality as "the total features and characteristics of a product or service made or performed according to specifications to satisfy customers at the time of purchase and during use" (Talha, 2004, p. 16). There are general principles of quality. The most common principles include: continuous improvement, teamwork, empowerment, use of data and facts for decision making, problem solving, and customer satisfaction (Evans, 2005). The core principle is the total orientation of all actions and activities of institution to fulfilling and satisfying customers and making value to various and different stakeholders, customers, human resources, shareholders, suppliers, and society (Martins and Toledo, 2000). "In today’s competitive business world it is very important to adopt total quality management principles not only for making profits but also for survival" (Yapa, 2012, p. 505). TQM currently provides the logical, coherent structure and scientific tools for the enhancement and improvement of quality (Reed et al., 2000). In addition, (Garvin, 1987) mentions the following eight dimensions for quality and he applies them in the higher education. These are: Implementing the Requirement of Quality Management System According to ISO 9001:2008 in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study for Sirte University in Libya Eltayeb Mohamed Elgobbi Q International Conference on Law, Management and Humanities (ICLMH'14) June 21-22, 2014 Bangkok (Thailand) http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/ICEHM.ED0614009 20