Towards an Identification and Classification of Service Quality Attributes in Higher Education

In what has become a highly competitive environment, students have become more discriminating in their selection and more demanding of the universities they choose. It is important then for institutions to understand service quality attributes what incoming students desire (and increasingly expect) from the institution of their choice. Higher education (HE) institutions should ensure that all services encounters are managed to enhance students' perceived quality. While there is a consensus on the importance of service quality issues in HE, the identification and classification of the service quality attributes is a challenge to gain a better understanding of the quality issues of students' experiences face. The aim of this study is to identify and classify the service attributes that can promote student satisfaction. The process of identification and classification is demonstrated empirically in a case study of a well-known private university in Indonesia.

[1]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. , 1988 .

[2]  Mathew Joseph,et al.  An educational institution's quest for service quality: customers’ perspective , 2005 .

[3]  F. Buttle.  SERVQUAL: review, critique, research agenda , 1996 .

[4]  Ching-Chow Yang,et al.  The refined Kano's model and its application , 2005 .

[5]  Graham Bradley,et al.  Measuring the performance of IT services: An assessment of SERVQUAL , 2002, Int. J. Account. Inf. Syst..

[6]  Ramzi Nasser,et al.  University students' knowledge of services and programs in relation to satisfaction: A case study of a private university in Lebanon , 2008 .

[7]  Firdaus Abdullah,et al.  HEdPERF versus SERVPERF , 2005 .

[8]  Roland K. Yeo,et al.  Brewing service quality in higher education , 2008 .

[9]  B. Lewis,et al.  Quality in the Service Sector: A Review , 1989 .

[10]  Babar Zaheer Butt,et al.  A study examining the students satisfaction in higher education , 2010 .

[11]  N. Kano,et al.  Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality , 1984 .

[12]  J. Horovitz.  How to Win Customers: Using Customer Service for a Competitive Edge , 1991 .

[13]  Ana Brochado,et al.  Comparing alternative instruments to measure service quality in higher education , 2009 .

[14]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research , 1985 .

[15]  C. Grönroos.  A Service Quality Model and its Marketing Implications , 1984 .

[16]  Ching-Chow Yang,et al.  Improvement actions based on the customers' satisfaction survey , 2003 .

[17]  T. Mazzarol,et al.  The importance of institutional image to student satisfaction and loyalty within higher education , 2009 .

[18]  L. Lomas,et al.  Students’ perceptions of quality in higher education , 2003 .

[19]  Susan E. Pariseau,et al.  Assessing service quality in schools of business , 1997 .