A SERVQUAL-Based Framework for Assessing Quality of International Branch Campuses in UAE

Abstract

The quality of education provided in management institutions is a matter of debate in every country. With a rapid growth in the economy, the quality of management education provided in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also been a topic in the forefront. The burgeoning growth in this sector, with mushrooming "branch campuses" from around the world in the UAE, has led policy makers to reflect on the importance of quality of management education being imparted. The main purpose of this article is to explore the quality of management education in the UAE, and the study draws on the SERVQUAL model for the same. The study investigates the five dimensions (responsiveness, assurance, tangibility, empathy, and reliability) of service quality and identifies the gap between the perception and expectation, examining service standards across seven branch campus universities for management education providers in the UAE. A questionnaire survey with 300 university students from seven different branch campus universities in the UAE was conducted. The key findings of the study revealed a significant difference between the student's expectations from management education and their perception in all five dimensions of service quality. The gaps were compared across the five dimensions, and the highest and the lowest service quality gaps were given to assurance and responsiveness, respectively.

Service Quality the Road Ahead for Student's Satisfaction

“…The higher education industry has not been exempted from either high competition and student's demand for excellent service quality [2,3]. Currently students have a wide range of universities services to pick from and better service quality indeed influences a university competitive advantage as well [1,4,5].…”

“…Service quality is considered an important factor for higher education institutions. However, most of the research studies were focused on the Malaysia [6,7], India [1,8], UAE [5,9] UK, [3,10], and Africa [2,11], and very few studies has been undertaken to measure service quality of universities in Pakistan. Therefore, it is very important for organizations to possess knowledge about the student's' behaviour and satisfaction in order to deliver better service quality to its student's.…”

Application of the SERVQUAL Model for the Evaluation of the Service Quality in Moroccan Higher Education: Public Engineering School as a Case Study

“…These may be applicable to different categories of services (Mauri et al, 2013). Based on the bibliography (Datta & Vardhan, 2017;Đonlagić & Fazlić, 2015;Green, 2014). We have adapted these five dimensions to services offered by a Moroccan engineering school.…”

“…In addition, a study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 300 students, examined the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model at seven different campus universities in the UAE (Datta & Vardhan, 2017). The main results revealed that services with higher quality difference fall under assurance.…”

Transnational Higher Education and International Branch Campuses in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: The Case of the United Arab Emirates

“…TNHE programs are accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education's Center for Academic Accreditation. Many of the institutions operate in the free zones of the country such as the Dubai International Academic City and the Knowledge Village in Dubai (Datta & Vardhan, 2017).…”