Service quality – Cases of private higher education institutions explored

Abstract

The South African higher education landscape has changed significantly. PHEIs (private higher education institutions) play a more important role although they are not yet fully acknowledged as higher education “universities”. This may be a strategic incentive for service quality excellence. It seems if the market responds well to PHEIs, because they complement the higher educational need and cater for unique niche markets. The article reports on the level and importance of service quality in three cases of South African PHEIs with the focus on primary service quality dimensions. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategic importance of service quality at PHEIs per se, its general service quality status and their endeavours to manage (measure and improve) service quality. The investigation followed a mixed method approach and applied interviews, observation and questionnaire surveys (using the SERVQUAL instrument). Case research has consistently been of the most powerful research methods in operations and quality management, particularly in contributing to the paucity of literature and the development of new theory and/or new hypotheses. Besides the paucity of literature, the results indicate that service quality at the PHEIs is a high strategic priority and may be a higher priority than service quality at public universities (a hypothesis for further investigation).

Patients’ perception of service quality in a healthcare not-for-profit organisation

“… 25 The frequent use of the SERVPERF framework indicates that consensus has been reached in terms of its value and application in service quality measurement. 21 , 26 …”

“…25 The frequent use of the SERVPERF framework indicates that consensus has been reached in terms of its value and application in service quality measurement. 21,26 The adapted SERVPERF questionnaire consisted of 20 questions evaluating the respondent's perception of the quality of service received. 27 The questions were sectioned into the five dimensions of service quality, namely tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy.…”

Using the SERVQUAL model to evaluate the quality of services for a farm school store

“…SERVQUAL seems to be a trustworthy and reliable tool for decision even today. Recent studies in the health (Ajam, 2014;Khamis and Njau, 2014;Papanikolaou and Zygiaris, 2014;Wongrukmit, P. and Thawesaengskulthai, N., 2014;Anbari, Mohammadi and Taheri, 2014), education (Mansori, Vaz and Ismail, 2014;Zareinejad, 2014;May and Viljoen, 2014;van Schalkwyk and Steenkamp, 2014), and banking (Panda, and Kondasani, 2014;Ali et. al, 2014;Choudhury, 2014;Ryglová, Vajčnerová and Šácha, 2013) sectors confirm this.…”

Evaluating the Educational Services Quality of a Military Medical University (SERVQUAL Model): A Descriptive Analytic Study

“…Parasuraman et al devised one of the most important models for service quality assessment based on the mentioned idea (1). Initially, their model was based on ten different dimensions for the service quality assessment including; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security and understanding (2). The modified model that con-tained only five dimensions including; "tangibles", "reliability", "responsiveness", "assurance" and "empathy", was published by the same authors on 1990 and this model is known as the SERVQUAL model.…”

“…The SERVQUAL model was used in health areas by Khamis and Njau (3) and Papanikolaou and Zygiaris (5). In addition, it applied to educational researchers by Mansori et al (6), Zareinejad et al 7, May and Viljoen (8), and van Schalkwyk and Steenkamp (2). Moreover, Panda and Kondasani (9) and Choudhury utilized this model in banking industries (10).…”