The Impact of Service Quality Dimensions on Students’ Satisfaction: A Study of International Students in Malaysian Public Universities

Abstract

This study is conducted to examine the relationship between quality service and students’ satisfaction based on the perceptions of international students in Malaysian public universities. The questionnaire used was adapted from ServQual and Customer Satisfaction instruments. Using the mean scores, Cronbach Alpha, correlation matrix, and regression analysis, the findings indicated moderate positive perceptions of overall university quality service and satisfaction with a low level of satisfaction for some dimensions of quality service such as empathy and assurance. This gap can be minimized by improving the issues of trust, courtesy, and responsiveness of university service with more focus on the emotional aspects and human connection in delivery service.

Student satisfaction: the role of expectations in mitigating the pain of paying fees

“…The expectation of employability is increased through attending university; the expectation that some universities that are well-equipped to support students with graduate employment services is like to reduce negative feelings associated with payment of university fees and heightens student satisfaction and likely recommendation to peers. As student-consumer, satisfied students are also more inclined to recommend positive word of mouth to their peers (Najimdeen et al, 2021). Therefore, we hypothesise that:…”

“…Some observers suggest that student-customer satisfaction is directly influenced by their expectation of the choice factors (Patterson & Johnson, 1993;Voss et al, 2007). Najimdeen et al (2021) argue that student-customer expectation indirectly influences customer satisfaction in service quality, whereas other scholars find a direct relationship between student customer expectation and customer satisfaction (Río-Rama et al, 2021). Tukiran et al (2021) conclude that student expectations may, directly and indirectly, impact satisfaction.…”

Internationalization of Higher Education, University Quality Service, and International Students’ Loyalty in Malaysia

“…The efforts to improve products and services made quality a crucial issue in the marketing field. In the following five decades, scholars developed theories, including the Gap Model of Parasuraman et al (1985), based on customer's perceptions and expectations of quality and different dimensions of what constitutes service quality (Najimdeen, Amzat, & Ali, 2021). Most of these studies are conducted within a certain service (Huang et al, 2017), and quality in education is viewed from either the perspectives of stakeholders or clients ( Najimdeen, Amzat, & Badrasawi, 2021).…”

“…However, the majority of these findings reported physical facilities (tangibles) as the main factors. At the same time, intangible aspects (emotional), such as empathy, courtesy and assurance, have been complained about by international students in Malaysia and have received little attention (Najimdeen, Amzat, & Ali, 2021). Thus, in general, Malaysian universities have attempted to improve their services to satisfy their customers (students) when it comes to physical facilities, infrastructure, academic labs and materials.…”