Revising the Importance of Factors Pertaining to Student Satisfaction in Higher Education

Abstract

Background and purpose: Competition among higher education institutions is intensifying and such institutions are increasingly directing efforts towards improving their ranking. In this context, both high-quality programmes and student satisfaction have become major goals of universities. In our study, we tried to identify the importance of various factors influencing student satisfaction in higher education institutions.Design/Methodology/Approach: A paper-and-pencil survey was carried out in the 2017/18 academic year at the University of Maribor in Slovenia. Students were verbally informed of the nature of the research and invited to freely participate. They were assured of anonymity. Mean values and standard deviations of the responses were calculated. Friedman test was conducted to assess which satisfaction factors were a priority for the students. Independent samples t-test was used to examine whether a significant difference exists between specific groups. The correlations between satisfaction factors and selected study variables (age, average grade and readiness to spread information) were tested using Pearson correlation coefficients.Results: The study results revealed that the most important factors influencing student satisfaction were teaching staff, followed by administrative support, programme issues, physical environment, location of the institution, social life and support facilities. Significant differences between the genders were found for two satisfaction criteria, i.e. programme issues and administrative support, both being more important to women than men. We also found that the higher the level of the class, the lower was the importance of the satisfaction factors.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that higher education institutions need to focus efforts on improving the quality of teaching aspects so as to respond to the needs of their students, but also that they should not neglect non-teaching factors, especially regarding the physical environment. With improving these factors institutions can raise students’ satisfaction, gain on the reputation and impact future enrolment.

Focused Coordination Models towards Sustainability in Higher Education. Case of Quevedo State Technical University (Ecuador)

“…This way, the student is considered as a client who receives the services of the university as an organizational entity [1,26]. The level of satisfaction with educational experience is a very important component of the evaluation of an institution and a global sustainability factor [27]. Satisfaction is an outcome of service quality and student satisfaction has thus become one of the major goals of universities.…”

Satisfaction with Self and External Regulation of Learning in Higher Education Students in Brazil

“…Scientific literature lists a variety of factors that predict student satisfaction, including the quality of the teaching–learning process [ 6 , 73 , 74 , 75 ], as well as aspects related to the educational infrastructure, such as administrative staff [ 73 , 76 , 77 , 78 ], university facilities [ 65 , 79 , 80 , 81 ], location [ 65 , 78 ] and technological resources [ 66 ]. In this sense, educational technology should be highlighted as an important factor that influences student satisfaction, both with the educational infrastructure through the availability of technological resources and the support of information technologies [ 66 ], and with the teaching–learning process, by means of the use of technological resources by teachers [ 74 ].…”

“…In relation to satisfaction with the educational infrastructure, there are multiple studies that have empirically verified that facilities are indicated as a determining element for satisfaction by students from different areas of knowledge and in different countries, taking into account various aspects: library, communal areas, computers, classroom spaces, number of students per class, accommodation services, restaurant and sports, among others [ 78 , 79 , 88 ]. Regarding satisfaction with the educational infrastructure, according to gender, some studies do not find statistically significant differences [ 79 , 89 ], while others report that women are more satisfied than men [ 73 ]. Regarding the type of institution, the majority of research shows greater satisfaction with the infrastructure in private institutions [ 75 , 76 , 90 ].…”

“…However, in other investigations, it should be noted that it was students from public institutions who reported greater satisfaction with aspects related to infrastructure, such as library facilities or technological resources [ 87 ]. Likewise, some studies highlight an inverse relationship between the academic year and satisfaction with the educational infrastructure, with students in more advanced academic years showing the least satisfaction with educational infrastructure [ 65 , 73 ].…”

Criteria of Satisfaction with Universities from the Perspective of Czech Students: A Qualitative Research Study

“…Even though many surveys mapping students' expectations towards higher education institutions and identifying the dimensions / criteria of quality of services provided by the HE have been conducted (see e.g. Wiers-Jenssen et al, 2002;Gruber et al, 2010;Tsinidou et al, 2010;Zineldin et al, 2011;Ďaďo et al, 2013;Vouneagu et al, 2017;Bell and Brooks, 2018;Jereb et al, 2018; and others) the synthesis of the obtained results is problematic. The authors who attempted to compare the studies aimed at identifying key dimensions of student satisfaction and summarizing their findings conclude that since service quality is a contextual issue, its dimensions and the definitions of the variables identified as significant predictors of satisfaction vary widely among the various studies (Gibson, 2010;Sultan and Wong, 2010).…”