The present work constitutes the result of an investigation that is carried out at the Agrarian University of Havana, which has as a problem the need to perfect the postgraduate process in said entity. This study is pertinent since, despite the fact that this process has been worked on at the university, the results have not been fully implemented and it still presents problems. For the study, methods of the theoretical, empirical, mathematical - statistical level and techniques for obtaining information are used. The main weaknesses were detected through the diagnosis carried out: no indicators are established for the measurement and monitoring of the process, non-compliance with the documentation requirements, risks and opportunities are not addressed; and as strengths:High prestige of the institution due to the intense formative and investigative work and the quality of the faculty that offers the programs. Based on the deficiencies, actions are proposed that contribute to the improvement of said process.
Today, quality management has become a way to continuously improve the performance of an organization, which implies working to satisfy not only the end customer, but all interested parties.
In Higher Education, a process of change, transformation and improvement cannot be started without considering quality, since it plays an important role in the training of highly qualified professionals capable of facing the new challenges and transformations of society.
The university substantive functions are key in the analysis of the quality processes of the university, which will depend on the success of the management that exists in it and must respond, both to the fulfillment of its strategic objectives and to the improvement of the quality of its management.
According to Torres. (2010) the substantive university processes have characteristics that differentiate them from other service processes, because they are complex and multipurpose, offer a long-term service to multiple beneficiaries and must respond to the expectations of stakeholders in the university management, differentiated management structures and schemes coexist, they respond to knowledge management, understood from three perspectives: effective management of information to increase knowledge, technology management and increased knowledge of the professionals who carry them out.
In the university, the processes of training, research and extension whose integration allows a full response to its mission are recognized as substantive: teaching as a process of teaching and learning knowledge; produced through the scientific research represented in the different sciences and constitutes the content of the disciplines. The university extension interrelates teaching and research through the promotion of these actions in the social environment to satisfy the needs of cultural development and the solution of problems of social practice (González, 2010).
The Agrarian University of Havana (UNAH) has a quality management department where some studies related to the management of substantive processes have been carried out, in its efforts to improve them and from the need to solve the lack of a quality management system, however, they have never been fully implemented, hence the postgraduate process constitutes one of the substantive processes identified in it and despite having been studied previously, it was not They have implemented the proposals of said investigations and when there are insufficient performance, it is considered as the objective of the work: to propose actions that contribute to the improvement of the postgraduate process at UNAH.
Materials and methods
In order to fulfill the objectives of the work, methods were used at the theoretical level (unit of the historical and logical, analytical - synthetic, inductive - deductive and system approach), at the empirical level (documentary analysis, survey, interview), as techniques (Cause-effect, AMFE), and mathematicians - statisticians (statistic - descriptive, percentage calculation).
The research was supported by a study and bibliographic analysis on the subject of reference, where books, specialized magazines, as well as articles published on various web pages were taken into account.
Results and Discussion
To diagnose the postgraduate process at the university, different techniques and methods were used which yielded the following results
Documentation analysis
A review and analysis of the documentation of the postgraduate process was carried out, which revealed that:
- Not all the process regulatory documents such as procedures and instructions are included. The risks and opportunities of the process are not considered according to the requirements of the ISO 9001: 2015 standard. Indicators for the measurement and monitoring of the process are not established in the UNAH. The efficiency and effectiveness of the process are not really reflected. Failure to comply with the documentation requirements. Furthermore, the flow chart containing the development of postgraduate activities at the center has not been prepared.
In general, there is compliance with the established procedures and records, although the documentation needs to be reviewed to modify it in accordance with the new postgraduate provisions given by the ministry. The process flow chart has not been prepared, the process sheet is outdated and does not reflect all the necessary information, so the most current regulations and new guidelines given by the MES, the Advisory Commission for the development of the Postgraduate course, must be taken into account. (COPEP) and the CNGC for the development of professional improvement and academic training respectively.
Check List Results
In correspondence with the provisions of the Cuban Standard ISO 9001: 2015, and the requirements established by the National Accreditation Board (JAN), documents that establish the quality of the postgraduate process, the factors and requirements that affect this process were identified.
From these, a checklist was prepared and applied to an intentional, non-probabilistic sample, it includes a total of 45 requirements and the review of the QMS documentation related to the process, with a view to verifying their compliance in the center.
The results obtained showed compliance with the requirements established in the checklist by 84.21%.
It was also verified that of the 9 requirements related to the ISO 9001: 2015 standard addressed in the checklist, six are 100% met and three have a compliance equal to or less than 85%, among them one is not met.
With respect to the requirements addressed in the list that relate to the JAN, full compliance with them was observed.
In summary, taking into account the results of the checklist, the following non-conformities were detected. From the above, it is concluded that there is partial compliance with the requirements established for the process. Nonconformities
- Some clients do not have the necessary basic skills (computer and language).
- There are problems with the infrastructure necessary for the operation of the process, the total assurance of the necessary resources is not achieved: areas or premises to deliver the programs, lack of computer equipment, difficulties in accessing the internet. responsibilities and authorities for the process. Difficulties with the human resources necessary for the operation and control of its processes, lack of methodologists and specialists. The risks and opportunities of the process are not addressed. The process is not monitored and measured, no Customer satisfaction is known. The indicators to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the process are not identified or declared, although the requirements established by the ISO 9001: 2015 and JAN standards are largely met.
The nonconformities detected show that in the development of the postgraduate process at UNAH there are elements that are not adequately controlled, affecting the quality of the service. Furthermore, since the risks of the process have not been identified, no actions are foreseen that could minimize or eliminate them so that the quality of the process is not affected. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the management of this process to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.
Results of the MES Evaluation
In November 2016, a control visit by the MES took place; in the review carried out to the postgraduate process it was evidenced as: Strengths
- The postgraduate programs respond to the lines of research and problems of the territory and in the areas of veterinary, agricultural and agricultural machinery engineering, they contribute to the country's priorities. There are scientific leaders who promote research and postgraduate training at the university in the areas in which the university is authorized for doctoral training. A postgraduate academic training system is identified, fundamentally in the areas of agricultural, veterinary and agronomy engineering with territorial and national leadership. The university has an infrastructure (classrooms, laboratories and accommodation) for postgraduate training. WeaknessesDoctoral training is not yet sufficient to guarantee the indicators of excellence to which the university aspires. The faculties of
Social and Humanistic Sciences, Economic Sciences and
Business and Physical Culture have a low number of doctors in their faculty.
- The insertion of applicants to the research centers of ICA and INCA, mainly from the veterinary and agronomy faculties, is not achieved to guarantee the necessary generational replacement of the cloister. Relations with MINAG do not favor material support (laboratory supplies and reactive) of graduate programs.
On the other hand, as a result of teamwork with experts, including managers and coordinators of the postgraduate process, other weaknesses and strengths were identified in addition to those already mentioned:
Weaknesses: The virtual spaces of the university intranet are not adequately exploited to keep the information related to the management of the process updated.
Strengths: High prestige of UNAH.
Existence of teachers and doctoral students with high potential.
Proposal for actions to improve the postgraduate process at UNAH
Taking into account the main weaknesses identified, a set of actions was proposed to help counteract them, which aim to:
Improve the postgraduate process at the Agrarian University of Havana. An important element in the improvement is to identify and evaluate the risk factors based on the experience and knowledge of the operation of the process and responding to them expressed in ISO 9001: 15, where a suitable technique for this is the Modal Failure Analysis and Effects (AMFE).
The AMFE, as an evaluation and decision support tool, tries to detect weak points in the process based on past experience and problems.
The results obtained from the calculation are shown in the AMFE table, as can be seen in the same the causes that obtained a value greater than 100 are: Lack of training, Deficiencies in planning, Lack of human and material resources and Lack of knowledge of the process requirements.
| MODAL ANALYSIS OF FAULTS AND EFFECTS Process:
Design: |
|||||||||
| Product Process: Postgraduate Course Carried out by:
Reviewed by: |
|||||||||
| Set of operations | Function description. | Evaluation | |||||||
| Mode
Failure Potential |
Effect
Potential of Failure |
S | Cause
Failure Potential |
OR | Controls
Current |
D | NPR | ||
|
Lack of skills basic in customers. |
Alteration and interruption of the program. | 9 | Lack of training.
Deficiencies in planning. |
8 | None | 5 | 360 | ||
| All the activities
they take away out for the management of the process of Graduate Certificate at UNAH |
Insufficient infrastructure and little material support. |
Customer dissatisfaction. | 3
9 9 |
Lack of resources materials. |
9 | Evaluation
s of the process |
3
one 3 |
81
81 243 |
|
| Program interruption. | |||||||||
| Failure to meet deadlines. | |||||||||
|
Insufficient resources humans. |
Customer dissatisfaction. | 3
9 9 |
Lack of human resources | 9 | Evaluation
s of the process |
3
one 3 |
81
81 243 |
||
| Program interruption. | |||||||||
| Failure to meet deadlines. | |||||||||
|
Poor operation and control of the process. |
Program interruption.
Failure to meet deadlines. |
9
9 |
Lack of resources
human and lack of training. |
9 | None | 8
8 |
648
648 |
||
| Lack of information and
outdated the documentation n. |
Customer dissatisfaction. | 3 | Ignorance of the
process requirements. |
8 | None | 5 | 120 | ||
| Little use and outdated intranet | Customer misinformation about activities and
program procedures. |
8 |
Poor communication. |
8 | None | one | 64 |
The actions to be taken to minimize the risks are intended to reduce the occurrence rate to decrease the probability; reduce the severity rating to decrease the severity of the effect on the customer or eliminate it entirely; or reduce the detection rate by improving controls to increase the probability of failure detection.
The actions to be taken to minimize risks will allow the training of personnel (clients and workers) for better planning and management of the process, thereby reducing the number of non-conformities.
Actions to be taken to minimize the problems detected:
Table 2 registers the main problems detected in the process, as well as the actions that contribute to its improvement, obtained from group work between the experts of the process and the students who analyze it, also establish the responsible and the period for compliance. In general, internal audits must be carried out in the process to detect non-conformities, resolve them and train personnel based on the non-conformities found. This is a corrective action that allows for improved controls and increases the chance of fault detection.
Table 2: Improvement actions for the postgraduate process.
| Not. | Problems detected | Actions of
Improvement |
Responsable | Compliance date | |
| one. |
Outdated documents -The risks and opportunities of the process are not addressed -No indicators of efficiency and effectiveness of the process are included -Ignoring the requirements of the process |
-Define responsible,
responsible for revising the documentation -Update the documentation according to the standard ISO9001: 2015 |
Process management | First semester of
2017 |
|
| two. | Infrastructure problems (premises, internet connection, intranet, materials
laboratory) |
Manage the resources that ensure the quality of the program. | Process management | First-second semester of 2017 | |
| 3. |
Difficulties in assigning responsibilities and authority |
-Identify and establish the limits of the process so that those responsible will be identified and evaluated based on their performance | Process management | First semester of
2017 |
|
| Four. | Insufficient human resources | Develop actions to acquire the necessary personnel | Process management and
human Resources |
First semester of
2017 |
|
| 5. | Lack of training | -Training the personnel involved in the process | Process management | First semester of
2017 |
|
| 6. |
Planning deficiencies |
-Develop strategic planning process to satisfy training needs in the long term | the
del for diano |
Process management | First-second semester of 2017 |
Conclusions
- The diagnosis of the current state of the postgraduate process at UNAH has made it possible to identify strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses that limit this process focus on the fact that no indicators are established for the measurement and monitoring of the process, non-compliance with the documentation requirements, risks and opportunities are not addressed. The proposal of actions aimed at improving the postgraduate process in The UNAH takes into account the training of the personnel involved in the process, updating the documentation according to the ISO9001: 2015 standard, and developing the strategic planning of the process to meet the training needs in the medium and long term.
Bibliography
- Alvarez Zayas, C. (1988). Theoretical foundations of the management of the training process for professionals with a broad profile. City of Havana.Alvarez Zayas, C. (1989). Theoretical Foundations of the direction of the Educational Teaching Process in Cuban Higher Education. In C. Á. Zayas, Theoretical Foundations of the direction of the Teaching Process
Educational in Cuban Higher Education (p. 155). Havana city. Obtained from
- Anderson, C. (July 15, 2009). Obtained from What is Quality in Education ?: http://www.bizmanualz.com/information/2009/07/15/what-isquality-in-education.html González, RR (2010). Proposal for a self-assessment guide for graduate programs. Cuban Journal of Surgery, 49. Jiménez, S. (2004.). Planning and strategic thinking tools for postgraduate and doctoral management. General guidelines and guidelines. (2010). Higher Education teaching organization regulations: Official Gazette of the Republic. Pérez, MA (2005). Guide for process-based management.
Andalusian Institute of Technology.
- Torres, CE (2010). Postgraduate challenges in public universities in Mexico. 2 (22). Evaluation and Accreditation System of the Doctoral Program. (sf).
Resolution No. 23/14. Havana, Cuba: National Accreditation Board.
- Evaluation and Accreditation System of the Master's Program. (2014). Resolution No. 25/14. Havana, Cuba: National Accreditation Board NC ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management System-Requirements.
