Development of a Measuring Scale in Higher Education Experience under Pandemic: An Abstract

Abstract

COVID-19 has impacted the private and public sectors worldwide. Millions of students have been affected by schools being dramatically shut down and substituted with distance learning programs. Thus, the assessment of the quality of university services has become an important supportive mechanism to retain the sustainability of higher education. Thus, this research aims to develop an assessment scale for university service quality and examine the UniQual assessment model of higher education during the pandemic. This study applied a mixed-method design to develop and validate the scale of the university service quality (UniQual). Study 1 identified the initial items and dimensions of UniQual through in-depth interviews and literature review. In Study 2, item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to facilitate item refinement, scale refinement, purification, and validation. Finally, a confirmed UniQual was analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with the use of Smart-PLS 3.0. The research confirms UniQual to be a valid and reliable scale for the assessment of the service quality of universities. Having adopted the bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap technique to study 5,000 subsamples, we found “Responsiveness” and “Empathy” to be significantly associated and have positive relationships with the students’ satisfaction with university service quality. Besides that, “Health & Safety” concerns play a mediating role between university service quality and satisfaction. The newly developed UniQual scale would be of value to the educators and authorities of higher education to assess the service quality of their universities for the enhancement of the effectiveness of student learning. The improvement in the satisfaction with higher education’s service quality ultimately helps in retaining both international students and local students during the pandemic. This scale of UniQual provides a clear conceptual model and validates the assessment tool. Research hypotheses confirm the relationships’ association with university service quality and satisfaction from the perspectives of international students.