Universities’ and Academics’ Resources Shaping Satisfaction and Engagement: An Empirical Investigation of the Higher Education System

Abstract

Higher education research has claimed that the successful future of the educational service is highly dependent on the competencies and observations of the participants in the system, where service quality, employee satisfaction and engagement play an essential role in organizational competitiveness. Therefore, to contribute to the scarce investigation of the role of the institutions’ efforts in the support of engaged academics, we aim to assess the quality of higher education from an internal angle by investigating universities’ and academics’ resources as the antecedents of job satisfaction and engagement. The data from a survey with 322 academics from Macedonian public universities were analyzed using partial least squares structural equations modelling. The results of the estimated model reveal that institutional and educational capacities and academics’ adequate competencies are essential for accomplishing favorable perceptions, leading to a committed community dedicated to improving the higher education system. The implications underline that it is vital to recognize the institution’s potential by identifying and assessing the resources and capacities it possesses or can access. Moreover, to involve satisfied employees, universities must encourage academics’ position and integrity in the institution and promote harmonious collaboration while motivating their capacities and excellence development.

Validation of Educational Quality as a Tool to Measure the Degree of Satisfaction of University Students

“…The validation reduced the scale to 23 items, which were grouped into three factors: factor one, the curriculum, management and organisation of the institution, followed by factor two, the material resources available in university contexts, and finally, factor three, which measured the level of general satisfaction with the university educational community in general. These results indicate that, in the education field, quality is considered one of the processes of educational improvement; its fundamental pillars include the learning-teaching flow within human development [43,44] and at the social level [13], as well as the idea that university quality is linked to mechanisms and standards necessary for its evaluation [19].…”

“…In [11], students' perceptions of the quality of services provided in university contexts were studied based on factors such as the learning process, academic programme infrastructure, teaching materials and student orientation, among others; university excellence has also been analysed [12]. The recognition of university institutions, the study environment and academics' responsibilities determine the degree of student satisfaction [13,14]. This is coupled with the concept of effectiveness, which refers to the achievement of objectives in order to train future professionals according to the demands of today's society.…”

Should I Leave My Country? Higher Education Value Shaping Students’ Satisfaction and Brain Drain Intentions in Western Balkans

“…In fact, satisfaction literature claims that service satisfaction is indispensable, yet not necessarily the unique requirement for future intentions (de Oliveira Silva et al, 2020). That suggests the need to explore a more exhaustive model, integrating antecedents related to the higher education service quality, institutional support, or instructors' characteristics while likewise addressing professors' perceptions in comparison to the students' (Hora & Smolarek, 2018;Prodanova & Kocarev, 2023;Qiwang & Xiaorui, 2020) and even labor market issues, such as youth unemployment or wage rates (Abler et al, 2023). Furthermore, given the signs of circular migration of highly educated individuals going back to their original countries, called ''brain gain'' (Ðord À evic´, 2021), it can be beneficial to perform a longitudinal study, where the change in migration patterns could be observed to determine the motives for brain gain tendency in contrast to those of the brain drain.…”