Purpose: The education system globally has moved from a push-based or producer-centric system to a pull-based or customer centric system. Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award (MBQA) model happens to be one of the latest additions to the pull based models. The purpose of this paper is to develop a generic framework for MBQA that can be used by educational institutes to achieve Baldrige quality operational excellence. Design/methodology/approach: This paper traces back the history of the modern Pull education where the key driver is the latest research and needs of consumers through four major phases of western education. The first phase is the idealist phase where education was primarily religious and spiritual. The second is the realist phase where applied education was first introduced to solve practical societal issues. The third phase being the pragmatic phase, where anything, that was not needed, was put on the back-burner. The last of these phases being the existentialist phase, which primarily started after the second world war and was needed to fuel the fires of rapid development and progress. MBQA is a new pull-based philosophy operating in existentialist phase. This paper presents a case of University of Wisconsin-Stout, which has won the MBQA. Based on the case, this paper proposes a generic framework. Findings: Based on the analysis the generic Baldrige framework can be implemented using the following six steps: identification of stakeholders; definition of goals; proposal of KPIs; setting target KPI values; designing process; allocating resources; monitoring KPIs; and revising goals. Originality/value: This model can be used by any education institute to improve quality and align itself under the pull-based model. (Contains 6 figures.)