University students' knowledge of services and programs in relation to satisfaction

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to survey students on their satisfaction with university services and programs in a coeducational Lebanese Catholic higher education institution. The study attempts to relate self‐assessed knowledge of the university procedures, rules and regulations on six dimensions of satisfaction, being: academic experience, academic advisor, residential life, campus life, personal development opportunities, resources and student services.Design/methodology/approachA cluster random selection procedure was used to select n=870 students from within the university. Students rated 31 knowledge items and 33 satisfaction items. The study analyses student satisfaction in relation to their knowledge of procedures, rules and regulations. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run to determine differences between university class level, and knowledge level on satisfaction. In addition, a regression analysis was run to determine whether university class (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior level) and knowledge level (low, middle and high knowledge levels) were predictors of the satisfaction dimensions.FindingsGenerally, those who assessed their knowledge (of the services) as higher were more inclined to be satisfied. In addition, seniors in general were less satisfied with programs and services than freshmen students. Self‐rated knowledge and university level (freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors) significantly predicted satisfaction with both variables being highly associated (i.e. predicting) with satisfaction in academic advising.Originality/valueSelf‐enhancement theory suggests that those individuals with greater self‐worth have greater affective need to feel satisfied. Increased self‐worth is manifested in active roles of decision making and judgments about events that the individual experiences (Wells and Sweeney, 1986). Thus, self‐worth is highly correlated with knowledge about an aspect. This study shows that knowledge is an important predictor to satisfaction – i.e. the higher the knowledge the more satisfied students are likely to be.

Towards an Identification and Classification of Service Quality Attributes in Higher Education

“…The determination of the categories of service items under refined Kano's model requires a customer survey using a questionnaire of the type developed by Kano et al [10] and Yang [11]. In addition, higher education institution need to conduct surveys of student satisfaction and importance levels for a set of pre-determined service quality attributes.…”

“…For the first two measures, Likert-type scales from '1' to as 'extremely unimportant (or very unsatisfied)' to '5' as 'very important (or very satisfied)' were used. For the third measure, the methodology suggested by Kano et al [10] was used.…”

“…While there is a consensus on the importance of service quality issues in HE, the identification of service quality attributes and implementation of the right measurement tool are a challenge that practitioners who aim to gain a better understanding of the quality issues of students' experiences face [9]. In fact, the use of the most appropriate evaluation tool would help managers to assess service quality provided by their institutions, thus having the ability to use the results to better design service delivery [10], [11].…”

The Relationship between Knowledge for Customer and Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction: A Study on UniKL MITEC Student Services

“…As such, the fulfilment of customer satisfaction though the use of service quality dimensions (SQ) has long been in practice where the gap between customer expectations and perceptions are identified and analysed accordingly. It was also mentioned that identifying the values, attitudes and expectations of students are essentially important in order to ensuring quality service in higher education [3]. Therefore, in a higher learning institutions noble duty to fulfilling the societal needs, delivering of the knowledge and understanding of all related student services to the students is as well important and should not be taken for granted as this would in a way affect their satisfaction.…”

“…Student service can be regarded as part of the educational process to elicit the students' perceptions and experience of facilities, programmes and services [3]. As part of the satisfaction in the higher education institutes, the students services is the measure of the effectiveness where the universities are working towards the plans for the future sustainability.…”