Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and report students’ perception of service quality in a university by examining the perceptual context of service quality with respect to students’ loyalty behavior, image of the university and culture/values.Design/methodology/approachA research framework is developed for quality assessment with three hypotheses. A questionnaire with 65 instruments was used for gathering the required data for the analysis. The questionnaire was sent through email to all engineering students. The analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, gap analysis and hypotheses tests. Seven dimensions of service quality were identified: the original dimensions of the SERVQUAL, namely, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. Two additional dimensions image and culture/value were added for the research to understand perceived service quality and loyalty.FindingsThe results provide a significant positive correlation between service quality and student's loyalty. It also shows that there is statistically significant relation between the image of the institution and the perceived service quality, and culture/values of the students in the institution and perceived service quality.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used data collected from a survey in the university in a given period.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that to provide quality education, meeting students’ needs, wants and expectations of services quality should be carefully understood and addressed. Management also needs to consider factors such as corporate image and culture/value, as they have the ability to heavily impact the type of services provided by the institution.Originality/valueThe findings presented in this paper fill the gap in the current literature by providing empirical knowledge on the quality of service assessment and customer satisfaction in the higher education context. The study is the first of its kind in Qatar’s context and provides opportunities for higher institutions to focus more on current students’ services. This can lead to an increased brand value representing one of the premier institutes of higher education in the Middle East Gulf Region.
Highlights
The service sector is considered an important sector in many countries (Abdullah, 2006) due to which the research on the measurement of service quality has increased (Baron et al, 2009)
The survey focused on current students Stakeholder’s as it is easier to understand their current perception of service quality
The framework consists of main parts: the first part is the dimensions of service quality, which includes two new dimensions, image and culture/values for measurement, the inclusion of which is a contribution in this study
Summary
The service sector is considered an important sector in many countries (Abdullah, 2006) due to which the research on the measurement of service quality has increased (Baron et al, 2009). Many service organizations recognize that good service quality may bring customer satisfaction and increased customer loyalty. Many researchers mention that customer loyalty and customer satisfaction can be used as an outcome of service quality measures implemented in an organization (Orel and Kara, 2014; Chou et al, 2014; Hussain et al, 2015; Kasiri et al, 2017). The quality of service in education is important in primary and secondary education, and more prominently so in the higher education sector. Primary and secondary education systems are handled by the governments (O’Sullivan, 2006; Braathe and Otterstad, 2014; Rose, 2015; Van der Bij et al, 2016), and quality is defined, implemented and measured through various assurance tools
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