In the global university sector competitive funding models are progressively becoming the norm, and institutions/courses are frequently now subject to the same kind of consumerist pressures typical of a highly marketised environment. In the United Kingdom, for example, students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behaviour and are now demanding even more ‘value’ from institutions. Value, though, is a slippery concept, and has proven problematic both in terms of its conceptualisation and measurement. This article explores the relationship between student value and higher education, and, via study in one United Kingdom business school, suggests how this might be better understood and operationalised. Adopting a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, this article also looks to identify which of the key value drivers has most practical meaning and, coincidentally, identifies a value-related difference between home and international students.

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Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience

SERVQUAL: Measuring Higher Education Service Quality in Thailand

Drawing on Tinto's [1975. Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1), 89–125] dropout-intentions model, Bean's [1985. Interaction effects based on class level in an explanatory model of college student dropout syndrome. American Educational Research Journal, 22(1), 35–64] socialisation model, Astin's [1999. Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 40(5), 518–529] involvement theory, and the service marketing literature, this research presents a conceptual framework for analysing students' satisfaction, perceived learning outcomes, and dropout intentions. This framework allows for a better understanding of how students assess the university experience and how these perceptions affect future intentions. This article presents four studies testing fragments of the framework using data sets from three countries and various undergraduate programmes (business, economics, geograph...

A framework for analysing higher education performance: : students' satisfaction, perceived learning outcomes, and dropout intentions.

Advocating a customer focus, the Total Quality Management model of leadership has led to success in raising performance levels throughout various manufacturing and service industries. Many education stakeholders, however, are resistant to the notion that postsecondary students benefit from being treated like customers. While many critics oppose the traditional business philosophy that ‘the customer is always right' and maintain that pandering to students' short-term demands is damaging to the learning process few studies explore alternative notions of what it means to ensure student satisfaction. This paper promotes a conceptual interpretation that is not governed by the philosophy that ‘the customer is always right’.

Student satisfaction and the customer focus in higher education

Purpose – This paper aims to develop and empirically test a hierarchical model for measuring service quality in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – The first phase of the study consisted of qualitative research methods and a comprehensive literature review, which allowed the development of a conceptual model comprising 53 service quality attributes. Quantitative methods were used for the second phase so as to test the dimensionality of the measurement instrument and assess its validity and reliability. A sample of 207 students was surveyed, and data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha test. Findings – The results of the factor analysis revealed the presence of sub-dimensions. A hierarchical model was therefore considered most appropriate. The final model consisted of five primary dimensions, which are administrative quality, physical environment quality, core educational quality, support facilities quality and transformative quality. The instrument contained a ...

Measuring service quality in higher education: Development of a hierarchical model (HESQUAL)

Quality experts believe that, ‘measuring customer satisfaction at an educational establishment might be regarded by educators as one of the greatest challenges of the quality movement’ (Cloutier & Richards, 1994, p. 117). This challenge is only one of several that surround quality improvement efforts in higher education. This paper focuses on identifying and evaluating techniques used to take on the challenges of quality improvement in higher education. This paper also examines two primary difficulties: first, definition of the customer; and second, measuring customer quality perceptions. An examination of representative historical applications of quality techniques was conducted as well as identification of the differences and similarities surrounding quality improvement efforts in each of three service areas typically found in higher education: academic, administrative, and auxiliary functions. While recognising these higher education areas differ from the typical business environment, positive research...

Peter Larsen

Papers

Service quality in higher education