Students’ loyalty in higher education: The mediating effect of satisfaction, trust, commitment on student loyalty to Alma Mater

Abstract

Students' loyalty enhances sustainability and survival rate of higher education institutions. Successful university managers and higher education thrive to improve service quality and to build loyalty among local and international students to sustain under the globalization. The aim of this research was to investigate the mediation effect of some key long-term relationship antecedent variables such as trust, satisfaction, and commitment between the perceived service quality and student loyalty latent variables. The relationship between the constructs in the instrument was tested through Partial Least squares (PLS) structural equations methodology using SmartPLS 3 program. The results of this research show that perceived service quality impacts loyalty specifically through commitment. Students' loyalty is significantly influenced by commitment. However, student satisfaction has no significant direct effects on loyalty. Student trust has a negative effect on student loyalty so the results indicate that commitment fully mediates the effects of perceived service quality on student loyalty. Hence, university managers revitalize and sustain students' loyalty if along with high quality services they also stimulate bonds and students identification with the university by reinforcing emotional force such as commitment.

Service Quality, Institutional Image and Satisfaction : Can Drivers Student Loyalty?

“…The better service quality that is provided to the students is, the student satisfaction level will be higher. It is in line with a study by (Annamdevula & Bellamkonda, 2016;Appuhamilage & Torii, 2019;Azam, 2018;2015/20192019 Bakrie et al, 2019;Chandra et al, 2018;Dora, 2017;Hassan et al, 2019;Jabbaret al, 2020;Jiewanto et al, 2012;Leonnard et al, 2014;Lunarindiah, 2018;Munizu & Hamid, 2015;Mansari et al, 2014;Permana et al, 2020;Wulandari & Suryani, 2017). The students who are satisfied with the services provided by the company will stimulate the existence of student loyalty.…”

The Effect of Satisfaction on Trust, Social Identification and Loyalty Amongst International Students in Malaysian Public Universities

“…Different literature on the relationship between customer and service provider has identified trust to be a predictor of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Gul, 2014;Jones & Afnan, 2019) because when a customer is satisfied with service and loyal to the provider, he is basically trusting it (Latif, Bunce, & Ahmad, 2021). Trust is also considered to be a stronger emotion than satisfaction because it better predicts customer loyalty (Ranaweera & Prabhu, 2003;Ismanova, 2019).…”

Student Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Motivation as Observed From the Service Quality

“…In the context of higher education, several studies have examined and proven the relationship between service quality and student satisfaction (Annamdevula & Bellamkonda, 2016;Chandra et al, 2018;Yamani et al, 2017;Teeroovengadum et al, 2019;Justin et al, 2019;Ismanova, 2019). In educational services, loyalty is needed to develop solid relationships with students that will provide the basis for future university activities; academic institutional services significantly affect student achievement and loyalty (Annamdevula & Bellamkonda, 2016;Yamani et al, 2017;Justin et al, 2019;Kousar et al, 2015).…”