Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between factors leading to student loyalty in open and distance learning universities. Specifically, this research explores the relationship between perceived service quality, perceived e-service quality, and university image as mediators of student loyalty in Open University Malaysia (OUM). Data were collected from 16 OUM learning centres throughout Malaysia. A purposive stratified convenience sampling technique was applied and a sample size of 752 respondents was obtained. The data indicated that perceived service quality has a positive and significant relationship with both university image and student loyalty. Similarly, it was found that perceived e-service quality has a positive significant relationship with both university image and student loyalty. University image acted as a mediator both in the relationship between perceived service quality and student loyalty, and in the relationship between perceived e-service quality and student loyalty.
Highlights
Higher education in Malaysia has evolved and transformed tremendously
In line with previous studies and consolidating the idea that perceived service quality precedes student loyalty, this study considers perceived service quality as an antecedent to student loyalty that has a positive relationship with student loyalty
The first objective of this study is to establish the relationship between perceived service quality and student loyalty, and it is found that the perceived service quality was positively and significantly associated with student loyalty
Summary
Higher education in Malaysia has evolved and transformed tremendously. The changes and trends in Malaysian education have been caused by globalization, new approaches to teaching and learning, new governance models, and the emergence of a knowledge-based society. The education sector is projected to play an important role in long-term investments that highly potential lead to higher productivity (Manohar, 2018). In Malaysia, there were only six universities providing lifelong education in 2006; as of 2019, there were twenty-one public universities that offered distance education programmes in different modes. This situation has created very intense competition among providers
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