ISO 21001: 2018: Educational organizations – Management systems of educational organizations
ISO 21001: 2018 was published in May 2018 by the ISO / TC 232 technical committee, responsible for Education and Learning Services. It is a management system for organizations that provide educational products and services able to meet the requirements of trainees and other beneficiaries.
The critical need to assess the extent to which educational organizations meet the requirements of trainees and other involved clients led to the creation of ISO 21001: 2018 for these organizations to continue to operate.
Defines the requirements for organizations that need to demonstrate their ability to support the acquisition and development of skills through teaching, learning, or research as well as for those aiming to enhance the satisfaction of trainees, other beneficiaries, and staff through effective implementation of its EOMS.
All ISO 21001: 2018 requirements are general and are intended to apply to any organization that uses a curriculum to support capacity building through teaching, learning, or research, regardless of type, size, or delivery method. As well as in larger organizations whose main activity is not education, such as vocational training departments. However, it is important to emphasize that ISO 21001: 2018 does not apply to organizations that produce or manufacture only educational products.
The benefits that an organization can bring from the implementation of an educational management system (EOMS) are:
- better alignment of goals and activities with policy (including mission and vision);
- enhanced social responsibility by providing inclusive education and fair quality for all;
- more individualized learning and effective response to all students and especially to students with special educational needs, distance learners, and lifelong learning opportunities;
- consistent evaluation procedures and tools to demonstrate and increase efficiency and effectiveness;
- increased credibility of the organization;
- an instrument that enables educational organizations to demonstrate their commitment to effective educational management practices;
- a culture of organizational improvement;
- harmonization of regional, national, open, private, and other standards in an international context.
