The world is evolving, and it has transformed from the industrial age to the era of connected and intelligent products in both organizations and competition. The advances in technology in the last decade have led to the introduction of a new term called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution and that has led to the emergence of the term Quality 4.0. Quality 4.0 is the digitalization of traditional quality approaches and the focus on the use of digital tools to improve an organization’s ability to meet customers’ requirements with high quality. The purpose of this paper is to assess the environments of higher education institutions (HEIs) against the 11 axes of LNS Research Quality 4.0 framework and provide insights about their readiness for Quality 4.0 transformation. The framework helps the organizations digitalize their traditional quality practices and transform to Quality 4.0 through exploring the traditional quality—Quality 4.0 continuum of tools and/or concepts related to each axis so they can assess their transformation efforts accordingly. This paper uses these continuums to identify the quality implementation efforts conducted by HEIs through analyzing the continuums’ related practices adopted within their environments and find out what should be done to get to the full transformation to Quality 4.0 within the higher education field. The study shows the HEIs potential of adopting the Quality 4.0 tools and techniques of varies axes of the framework while revealing a limited adoption of most of them in the current times. This is due to several challenges the most impacting of which is having fragmented processes together with fragmented data systems and sources. The study is concluded with a proposed roadmap to assist HEIs to get the best out their efforts in the Quality 4.0 transformation process.

Recently, engineering graduates who acquired different skills, as well as leadership capabilities, are very much demanded to maintain high-level innovation, dealing with emerging technologies, and fulfilling the various needs of the public. Consequently, it is necessary that academicians in engineering programs develop appropriate curricula to achieve excellence in engineering education. Being accredited from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is an indication that an academic program has fulfilled international standards in engineering education. The main element in ABET evaluation process is Student Outcomes (SOs) as they incorporate several capabilities and skills expected by stakeholders such as employers. In this study, we used Interpretive Structural Modeling technique (ISM), which is a soft operational research technique, to prioritize SOs and develop a precise study plan for the Industrial Engineering program at Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) at Kuwait University (KU). This plan showed an intelligible depiction of the relationships between the SOs and a clear direction on how to merge them within the engineering study plan. For data collection, surveys were developed and conducted to faculty members at IMSE Department at KU in addition to a set of employers within the country. The results indicated that ISM model facilitates a clear understanding of the relationships among SOs within the Industrial Engineering study plan at IMSE at KU. In addition, it recommended that students should understand the professional and ethical responsibilities at early stages of the study plan and that should be followed by training them on effective communication techniques.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Emirate of Aseer Province, Saudi Arabia, has established the Corona Crisis Management Room (CCMR) to help support the health affairs and eliminate all the risks associated with the virus within the region. The study aimed at establishing the trends and emerging practices in healthcare project management with a concerted interest in determining the role played by the CCMR in controlling and stopping the spread of the virus in Aseer region. The study adopted the exploratory research approach which sought to investigate the research phenomenon. The CCMR formed the focus of the study. 17 participants working in the CCMR were selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using in-depth interviews where a clear and detailed description of the phenomenon under research was obtained. The collected data were subjected to thematic analysis and classified into three thematic areas. The findings of the study established that the CCMR had a critical role in coordinating government activities within Aseer region. New management practices were based on the experiences of the pandemic and ranged fromevidence-based decision making, use of modern technology, and collaboration of various entities. The pathological spectrum was key in risk assessment. Key words: Covid-19; Corona virus; risk management; project management; crisis management; healthcare; qualitative research; Emirate of Aseer Province; Saudi Arabia