Many colleges and universities, in responding to public demand for higher education and the external challenges it creates, are employing Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques to improve quality, increase productivity, and decrease costs. The quality improvement process itself (the tools for problem identification and developing solutions), largely ignored in the past by academic organizations, is now being studied and applied. The TQM process involves the complete transformation to a quality orientation and requires top-level commitment followed by substantial and comprehensive re-education of all personnel. In addition, the administration must develop a cooperative climate for change and recognize that the faculty play the most important role in developing the concept of continuous quality improvements and other TQM principles as they apply to academic activity. This report examines what quality is and what it requires, the technical system and tools for improving quality, and the type of administrative system required to allow the quality process to be successful. Finally the process of improving academic quality in the curriculum and classroom, as well as its assessment is discussed with emphasis on the student as the beneficiary. An appendix contains the Criteria for the 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Contains 93 references and an index. (GLR)