Analysis of service quality elements in higher education

Abstract

Quality is becoming one of the main factors of competitive advantage both in the manufacturing and commercial sectors, and therefore in education. In order to attract and retain a greater number of students, higher education institutions must constantly work on their services quality improvement and increase of student's satisfaction. The aim of this paper is to explore how certain dimensions of service quality of higher education affect the level of satisfaction of students. In accordance with the abovementioned aim, descriptive statistics measures were used, as well as reliability analysis, correlation and regression analysis. The originality of the paper is reflected in this, in particular. The data were collected through survey on a sample of 206 respondents and on that occasion the new model was tested, developed on the basis of earlier models for measuring the quality of services. The results suggest that all elements of the service quality of higher education have a statistically significant impact on satisfaction. Intangible elements have the strongest effect, followed by tangible elements, while the influence of the connection with the practice is weaker than the influence of the aforementioned independent variables. These results indicate that none of the dimensions should be ignored, but also emphasize the need to focus on those dimensions that contribute most to the satisfaction of students. Results of the conducted studies will contribute to the management of higher education institutions.

Keywords

• service quality
• customer satisfaction
• higher education
• students