Service Quality in Higher Education—A Case Study of Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

No one doubts the value and importance of quality education, and quality assurance is one major driving force to achieve this. Measuring the performance of service quality of education services of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), as part of the quality assessment, was assessed based on Parasuraman's five Servqual dimensions. The assessment was obtained from the undergraduates' perspectives across four faculties, and data was collected using e-questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 400 students via email, but only 268 responded. Faculty-wise and university-wise rankings of the means of individual item scores from the questionnaire revealed some consistency in students' evaluation of quality at UBD. The analysis of variance findings rejected the hypothesis of equality of the mean scores across the four faculties of UBD. Post-hoc analysis and Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) reported significant differences between 'science-based' and 'social sciences-based' students' needs and perception of quality. Overall, the results of the study showed that the quality of education services provided by UBD was only satisfactory among all students, rather than being exceptional. Teamwork, communication skills, creativity and innovation indicated by the students signaled the need of TQM implementation in UBD. The study also stressed the role of the university's administration and management to vigorously improve the quality of services they provide to the students and continue to increase the overall organisational performance.

Effect of service quality on graduates’ satisfaction

“…Education environment, internal culture, university name and reputation, career opportunity, university relationship, communication and reliability and location were having an effect on students' satisfaction (Alhelalat, 2015). In the University of Brunei Darussalam, teamwork, communication skills, creativity and innovation affected the total quality management (Alani et al, 2015). In public universities in Kenya, ten dimensions were used to measure the correlation between higher education service quality and students' satisfaction, namely, teaching, library, internet, textbooks availability, administration, lecturer, instruction, examinations, gained learning and welfare (Kara et al, 2016).…”

Teachers’ views of corporate reputation: Influence on behavioral outcomes

“…Education services are intangible (Alani et al., 2015) and difficult to measure because their outcome is reflected in the transformation of individuals’ knowledge, characteristics and behavior (Tsinidou et al., 2010). Likewise, education services risk their reputation because stakeholders’ interests can go unsatisfied, increasing the gap between stakeholders’ expectations and a school's behavior (Power et al., 2009).…”

English language in Brunei: Use, policy, and status in education – A review

“…Although not investigating the student experience directly, Alani et al (2015) report on student views of the overall quality of education offered at UBD, but do not mention the bilingual (if not multilingual) context at all, which is somewhat puzzling. Metussin (2017) examines the gender gap in academic achievement at a tertiary level in Brunei, and elements of their findings (such as teaching methods, class size, and school facilities and environment) reflect the student experience, alongside factors such as study habits and strategies, and family and social life.…”