Implementation of an EOMS based on ISO 21001
This is the largest domain: converting plans into controlled processes under clauses 7 and 8.
Support (clause 7)
Resources, competence, awareness, communication and documented information. Competence covers teachers, assessors and support staff: determine required competence, ensure it, retain evidence. Documented information must exist where the standard requires it and where the organization decides it is necessary for effectiveness - not a ream of procedures written for their own sake.
Operation (clause 8)
- 8.1: operational planning and control with criteria, including outsourced processes.
- 8.2: determine, review and communicate requirements for educational products and services - admission criteria, learner needs including special needs and reasonable accommodation.
- 8.3: design and development of curricula and programmes: inputs, controls, outputs, changes.
- 8.4: control of externally provided processes - partner institutions, placement providers, e-learning vendors.
- 8.5: provision, including identification and traceability of assessment records, care of learner property (personal data, devices), preservation, post-delivery activities and control of changes.
- 8.6: release - assessment boards and certification decisions.
- 8.7: nonconforming outputs - failed assessments, appeals, withdrawn programmes.
Worked example
A university outsources clinical placements. Under 8.4 it defines selection criteria for hospitals, information exchanged, monitoring of supervision quality and action when a placement fails. Placement completion becomes a release criterion under 8.6.
Traps
Documenting processes nobody follows; assuming a national curriculum removes 8.3, when adaptation, sequencing and assessment design are still design activities; forgetting that learner property includes personal data; limiting 8.7 to exam failures and ignoring appeals and complaints.