UNI-QM is co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Program of EU DG Education and Culture; it is a two-year project ending in September 2009. The project recently released the matrix for external evaluation, which can be downloaded for free. The website also offers e-Tools for self-assessments of lifelong learning centres. Users fill in simple yes-and-no questions, and the system gives them a first approach to start their journey to quality management. Participants are further able to anonymously compare their institution with other centres worldwide.

More about UNI-QM's Background

University education is facing significant changes: universities' traditional and exclusive role as fountains of high-level education and research is expanding into a wider role definition. The universities should be able to show the value and impact they bring to the society as a whole. They should, for instance, have rich cooperation with the working life, foster innovations, act as tools of technology transfer, and promote third mission. In short, universities are facing demands of accountability.

The fundamental principle of UNI-QM is to understand quality management as a tool to make things better and have a continuous development in the processes and results of universities. There are systematic tools for quality management in the market, but their application in the educational sector has been controversial as they have been said to be too business oriented and thus do not respect the fundamental elements of university research and education.


As a result, universities have lacked systematic tools to analyse their processes and outcomes. This project wants to meet this need by applying the EFQM model to lifelong-learning organisations, specifically universities.