Students' perceptions of service quality at a Greek higher education institute

Abstract

Competition in the higher education industry is becoming more and more intense. Higher education institutes need to focus their efforts on measuring service quality and develop processes for improving offered services in order to satisfy students, their primary customers, and other stakeholders. HEdPERF is a comprehensive performance-based measuring scale that captures the authentic determinants of service quality within the sector of higher education. However, when HEdPERF scale is used in different countries and education systems, factor loadings differ from the proposed original dimensions. Thus, the paper aims at developing a modification of the HEdPERF measurement scale in order to identify students' opinions about service quality of education in a higher education institute in Greece. The research findings suggest that the instrument is suitable for use in the Greek education context, as the proposed dimensions present high reliability and validity indices. The implementation of the instrument at the Technological Education Institute of Central Macedonia revealed that students have in general a positive opinion about the Institute. However, other higher education institutes should replicate the study in order to further empirically test the proposed dimensions.

Effect of service quality on graduates’ satisfaction

“…Mansoor and Ali (2015) said in Sri Lankan universities that students' satisfaction on their academic performance quality was 3.29. However, the results are contradicting to Vrana et al (2015) who concluded that students' perception about service quality offered by Greece higher education institutes was less than expected. Ong and Casillano (2017) indicated that in Eastern Samar State University, the students' perception about the offered service quality was less than average.…”

“…There is a gap between students' expectations and perceptions related to reliability, tangibility, assurance, empathy and responsiveness in Malaysian private universities (Ansary et al, 2014). In higher education institutes in Greece, students' perception about service quality was less than expected, where facilities rated 5.10 out of seven, academic aspects 4.87, program 4.72, support services 4.57 and academic staff 4.26 (Vrana et al, 2015). In Sri Lankan universities, students' satisfaction on their academic performance quality was 3.29 out of five (Mansoor and Ali, 2015).…”

“…There is a need for more research about students and graduates' expectations and satisfaction related to quality services offered by higher education institutions (Sum et al, 2017), and comparing the results of students' expectations with actually offered service quality (satisfaction). This will help to develop and improve higher education quality (Liu, 2013;Ezeokoli and Ayodele, 2014;Icli and Anil, 2014;Vrana et al, 2015). We also need suitable guidelines for measuring, assessing and evaluating education service quality (Sultan and Tarafder, 2007), and clear methods, models and tools to measure and evaluate the service quality and satisfaction (Saeedifard, 2015).…”

“…The majority of the quality management models that have been used in the business world were specifically adapted and adopted to assess and evaluate service quality in higher education (Pratminingsih, 2005). In recent years, educational institutions of different levels, including higher education, have been facing an increasingly fierce competitive environment (Taulet et al, 2010;Vrana et al, 2015;Liu, 2015;Haile and Dimissie, 2018) while, at the same time, working under pressure to contribute to countries' economic development and growth (Ciriaci and Muscio, 2014). The majority of the top economically developed countries in the world tend to give higher education institutions more attention and support and treat them as a top priority (Raju and Bhaskar, 2018).…”

Antecedents Brand Trust and Private Universities Reputation

“…Quality services and undergraduate communication assist students in the decision-making process and will attract more students to choose university at the Technological Education Institute of Central Macedonia (TEICM) where students generally have positive opinions about the institution (Vrana, Dimitriadis, & Karavasilis , 2015). Inadequate research where student perceptions do not meet student expectations for overall service quality at certain Higher Education in South Africa (Martinez-Arguelles & Batalla-Busquet, 2016).…”