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International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
2013; 1(3): 128-135
Published online May 30, 2013 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijefm)
doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20130103.11

Service quality and student satisfaction: a case study on

private universities in Bangladesh
Asaduzzaman1, Moyazzem Hossain2, Mahabubur Rahman2
1
Department of Management, BUBT, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Department of Statistics, IU, Kushtia, Bangladesh

Email address:
[email protected](Asaduzzaman), [email protected](M. Hossain), [email protected](M. Rahman)

To cite this article:

Asaduzzaman, Moyazzem Hossain, Mahabubur Rahman. Service Quality and Student Satisfaction: A Case Study on Private Universities
in Bangladesh, International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences. Vol. 1, No. 3, 2013, pp. 128-135.
doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20130103.11

Abstract: With an ever growing assortment of educational options, students seek institutions that will provide for them a
unique educational experience that they will remember for a life time. In addition, the present student is a customer seeking an
educational program that will prepare him/her for a successful career and gainful employment. Since institutional budgets are
developed based upon projected enrolments, it is becoming crucial for private institutions to retain the students they recruit.
This situation has created a need for continued research in the area of student satisfaction and student retention. A reduction in
student numbers, therefore, leads to a reduction in budgeted funds available to operate, maintain, and grow a private insti-
tution. This study attempts to examine the relationship between service quality dimensions and overall service quality (tan-
gibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy) and students satisfaction. Furthermore, this study is also ex-
amining critical factors in service quality dimensions (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy) that
contribute most to the satisfaction of the students. This study was conducted using a set of questionnaire to 550 Business
students from Private University institutions, Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Among the respondents, male respondents were 411,
thus representing 75% of the total population, whereas the female respondents were 139 and thus representing 25% of the
total population. All the respondents are undergraduate students. Majority of the Student population were between 18 to 24
years of age group. There is a significant correlation among all the constructs with student satisfaction. Factor 1 is by far the
most important, accounting for the largest proportion of the variance (34 per cent), with eigenvalues greater than 3.00
(10.596). This factor includes a group of statements related to environment and facilities of the university, and is labeled here
‘tangibles’.
Keywords: Service Quality, Student Satisfaction, Private University, Bangladesh

government (see Teo, C. L., [50]).

1. Introduction Student satisfaction has become a major challenge for the
In today's competitive academic environment where stu- universities and it has been recognized that student satis-
dents have many options available to them, factors that faction is the major source of competitive advantage and this
enable educational institutions to attract and retain students satisfaction also leads towards student retention, attraction
should be seriously studied. Higher education institutions, for new students and positive word of mouth communication,
which want to gain competitive edge in the future, may need as well (Arambewela & Hall [8]). It has been recognized and
to begin searching for effective and creative ways to attract, reported in earlier studies that long term survival and suc-
retain and foster stronger relationships with students. As a cess of the universities depending upon the quality of ser-
private organization, it has to depend on the interaction and vices and the effort made by them to achieve that distin-
mechanism of the market. As a result, competition to woo as guishes one university from other universities (Aly and
many students as possible or so-called “potential customer” Akpovi [5]; Kanji et al., [30]). In some earlier studies it had
may become more and more intense. To make the matter been reported that universities were also implementing
harder, as a private institution, it does not have the “privilege” quality management principles and used these principles as a
to receive any subsidies or financial assistances from the strategic tool to gain competitive edge (Montano and Utter
[34]; Swift [49]) and improved performance (Kanji and
 International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences 2013; 1(3): 128-135 129

Tambi [29]). Now the concept of quality and customer sa- satisfaction.
tisfaction had been evolved in educational sector and got
considerable attentions (Ana Brochado [6]). These trends
have also been seen in the developing countries like Ban- 2. Background of the Private Higher
gladesh. Education in Bangladesh
The higher education sector in Bangladesh has undergone
enormous growth in recent years and it is widely believed In the 1990s the government realized the need for setting
that future success in a globalize world economy belongs to up private universities as it was clear that the public uni-
those firms that go the extra distance in providing customers versities in Bangladesh would not be able to meet the in-
with world-class customer service. Universities must con- creasing demand for higher education. The government
tinually assess their service. Outstanding service quality as recognized and appreciated the initiatives taken, in the early
perceived by the customer, can give any organization a nineties by a group of educationists to establish private
competitive advantage (Albrecht [3]). Therefore, perceived universities. After due examination of their proposals, the
service quality could be the product of the evaluations of a government felt the necessity of enacting the legal frame-
number of service encounters and in this case, of a student, work under which private universities could work. As a
these could range from encounters with office staff, to en- result the National Parliament passed the Private University
counters with tutors, lecturers, the head of departments, etc Act-1992. It was a milestone in the history of higher educa-
(Hill [27]). As a result, if an organization regularly provides tion in Bangladesh. With the ratification of this Act, the
service at a level that exceeds customer expectations, the government lost the monopoly of providing higher educa-
service will be evaluated as high quality. In contrast, if an tion. The first government approved private university was
organization fails to meet customer expectations, the service established in 1992 quickly followed by several others. In
will be judge as poor quality (Zammuto et al., [51]). 1998, the private university Act was amended to remove
Generally, students have three main criteria that need to some inadequacies and prevent misuse of privileges granted
be satisfied with services. These has been labeled as Requi- by the Act. At present, we have 70 private universities in
site encounters which essentially enable students to fulfill Bangladesh. Of the 70 private universities most are located
their study obligations; Acceptable encounters which stu- in Dhaka. The total number of students enrolled in these
dents acknowledge as being desirable but not essential universities is more than 280822. This number is increasing
during their course of study and Functional, an encounter of yearly by 20 percent compared to 5 percent yearly increase
a practical or utilitarian nature (Oldfield and Baron [37]) in the public universities (Annual report of UGC: 2011).
According to Lassar, Manolis and Winsor [32]), two most
prevalent and widely accepted perspectives on service 3. Literature Review
quality include the SERVQUAL model and the Technic-
al/Functional Quality framework. Gronroos [22]) held that The services literature focuses on perceived quality,
service quality is made up of three dimensions "the technical which results from the comparison of customer service
quality of the outcome", "the functional quality of the en- expectations versus perceptions of actual performance
counter" and “the company corporate image”. He argued (Zeithaml, [52]). Quality as relating to how good a service is,
that in examining the determinants of quality, it is necessary and not necessarily how large or extensive. The recipients of
to differentiate between quality associated with the process a service therefore must experience quality, which may also
of service delivery and quality associated with the outcome be a property of the service itself and the client, and not
of service, judged by the consumer after the service is per- necessarily of the provider. Quality can also be seen as re-
formed. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry [43] however lating to the fitness of a service or product to its intended
listed ten determinants of service quality that can be gene- purpose or use, subject to the expectations of the customer,
ralized to any type of service. The ten dimensions include user or public. Quality, therefore, must be in conformity with
tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, the customer's requirements or needs. This means that the
courtesy, communication, credibility, security and under- quality of a service can be a definition of the customer's
standing. In addition, these ten dimensions were then re- perception of what is good or bad, acceptable or not ac-
grouped in the well-known five dimensions in the SERV- ceptable service (Babbar, [10]). Customers are likely to be
QUAL model (Parasuraman et al., [41]) which include as- satisfied when their perception on services provided exceeds
surance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness and tangibility. their expectations. Service quality in educational industry is
Ijaz et al. [1] used a modified SERVQUAL instrument to defined on the basis of students overall evaluation on the
evaluate the service quality of four business schools working services they received which is part of their educational
under public sector universities based on student perceptions. experience. This covers a variety of educational activities
Based upon the present context of service quality in the both inside and outside the classroom such as classroom
higher education sector of Bangladesh, the main objectives based activities, faculty member/student interactions, edu-
of this paper is to examine the relationship between service cational facilities, and contacts with the staff of the institu-
quality dimensions (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, tion.
assurance, empathy and overall service quality) and students
130 Asaduzzaman et al.: Service quality and student satisfaction: a case study on private
universities in Bangladesh

3.1. Service Quality a person who has experienced performance or an outcome

that fulfill his or her expectation. Satisfaction is a function of
The concept of quality had been evolved from “excellence” relative level of expectations and it perceives performance.
to “value”, to “conformance to specification”, and to Satisfaction is also perceived as the intentional performance
“meeting and exceeding customer expectations” (Reeves which results in one’s contentment (Malik, Danish and
and Bendnar [46]). The service quality in the field of edu- Usman [33]). According to Sapri and Finch [48]), customers
cation and higher learning particularly is not only essential are the lifeblood of any organization, whether private or
and important, but it is also an important parameter of edu- public enterprise sectors. The satisfaction concept has also
cational excellence. It has been found that positive percep- been prolonged recently to the context of higher education
tions of service quality has a significant influence on student and is focused on among the community of students. As
satisfaction and thus satisfied student would attract more referred to Oliver and DeSarbo [38], it is define that student
students through word-of-mouth communications (Alves satisfaction is “the favorability of a student’s subjective
and Raposo [4]). The students can be motivated or inspired assessment of the numerous outcomes and experiences re-
from both academic performance as well as the administra- lated with education and being shaped continually and re-
tive efficiency of their institution. Ahmed et al. [2] men- peated experiences in campus life”. Elliott and Shin [18]
tioned that service quality is a key performance measure in also mention that student satisfaction gives a positive effect
educational excellence and is a main strategic variable for on fundraising and student motivation in higher education.
universities to create a strong perception in consumer’s mind. On the other hand, according to Elliot and Healy [17] the
Similarly, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry [42] also con- term student satisfaction is mainly about a short term atti-
cluded that consumer perceptions of service quality result tude that results from the evaluation of their experience with
from comparing expectations prior to receiving the service, the education service received. It is merely a conceptualized
and their actual experience of the service. Perceived quality identification according to Bhattacharya et al. [12] as a de-
is also seen as a form of attitude, related to, but not the same gree to which an organization such as the university and the
as satisfaction, and resulting from a comparison of expecta- organizational members in this case referring to the gra-
tions with perceptions of performance (Rowley [47]). duates exchanging attributes and values in return, an attempt
Quality issues related to measure the quality of services to satisfy one or more personal needs among themselves.
was a subject to a large number of investigation by the Despite to the various definitions, student satisfaction is also
practitioners and academicians over past 25 years due to its considered as an effective reaction in a time referred to
intangible and complex nature (Prabha et al., [45]). Prabha et Beerli et al. [13] resulting from the assessment of the
al., [45] further explored that studies on measuring the ser- teaching services and study support offered to the student by
vice quality of educational institutions had also been the the university. Furthermore, it is also viewed by Astin [9] as
focus of increased attentions during the last couple of years a broad construct covering student’s subjective experience
due the tough competition among the educational institu- and perceptions of the value experience consequently re-
tions and the demand for excellence in education. Due to the sulted as a key outcome in higher education. Harvey,
abstract nature of services as compared to products, mea- Plimmer, Moon, and Geall [25] also indicate that student
surement of service quality and to its characteristics was also satisfaction is a quality enhancement tool which is designed
difficult and complicated task for the academicians and to improve the quality of student experience. In addition,
practitioners (Parasuraman et al., [42]; Carman [14]). Still Bailey, Bauman and Lata [11] study shows that student
there is no precise definition of service quality in educa- satisfaction can be viewed in a way of associating various
tional point of view however, according to O’Neill and multiple factors such as campus community, advertising
Palmer [39]), service quality in educational setup had been services, and faculty in the educational environment ac-
defined as “the difference between what a student expects to counted for the variance in students ’satisfaction.
receive and his/her perceptions of actual delivery”. Gold [21] reported that students are the key customers of
To measure the quality of services on a university campus academic institutions. Illias, Hasan, Rahman, and Yasoa [28]
is one thing; to measure the quality of manufactured goods is proposed that student satisfaction has been built conti-
another matter. Fitzgerald [19] takes this further and says nuously with experiences on campus during the college
that "a service ... cannot be objectively measured." Such years. Word-of-mouth communication from satisfied stu-
frustration stems from the difference between services and dents to their friends, acquaintances, and relatives can help
goods. For example, educational services are intangible and many academic institutions to attract new students. These
cannot be packaged, displayed or inspected fully by pros- satisfied students could go back to their previous academic
pective students. Services also have a perishability problem institutions to study further or take other courses (Helgesen
because they cannot be stored for future delivery: when a and Nesset [26]; Gruber, Fub, Voss, and Glaser-Zikuda [23].
student cut class, the professor’s time is wasted (DiDome- Every academic institution must make every effort toward
nico & Bonnici, [16]). meeting and exceeding student’s expectation in order to
3.2. Student Satisfaction ensure their sustainable operation and development (An-
derson et al., [7]). Student satisfaction plays an important
Kotler and Clarke [31] define satisfaction as a state felt by role in determining accuracy and authenticity of the system
 International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences 2013; 1(3): 128-135 131

being used. The expectation of the students may go as far as other universities were about 5% to 9%.
before they even enter and engage in the higher education
(Palacio, Meneses, and Perez [40]). Table 1: Demographics of the Study

Fre- Percen- Institu- Fre- Percen-

Gender
4. Methodology quency tage tion quency tage

This study was adopted from Parasuraman’s SERVQUAL Male 411 75% NSU 52 9.5%
dimensions. The dependent variable in this study is overall Female 139 25% Brac 42 7.6%
student satisfaction that is measured by the overall satisfac-
Total 550 100% EWU 56 10.2%
tion with the HEIs. The independent variable in this study is
service quality in higher education that measures the level of ASA 45 8.2%
satisfaction with service performance. The dimensions in- South
cluded in this variable are tangibility, assurance, respon- Age 28 5.1%
East
siveness, reliability, and empathy. The major client group for
the present research work will be the students of the Private < 18 2 0.4% AIUB 59 10.7%
University of Bangladesh who usually interact with the 18-20 103 18.7% DIU 29 5.3%
faculty offices/classrooms/library with sufficient frequency 20-22 294 53.5% NUB 36 6.5%
and numbers to permit and justify measurements with the
22-24 121 22.0% UIU 40 7.3%
faculty. The student population consists of those who were
enrolled at the Private University of Bangladesh. A sample 24-26 25 4.5% Green 34 6.2%
of 550 students will be chosen on a stratified random sam- 26+ 5 0.9% Uttara 29 5.3%
pling to represent the population in this present research,
Total 550 100.0% ULAB 26 4.7%
based on their respective faculty, level of study and gender.
The researcher will be purposefully restricted the sample to Darul
34 6.2%
those students who are enrolled at the Private University of Ihusan
Bangladesh after 2008. In this way, it will be more likely
Stam-
that the respondents would still remember their previous 40 7.3%
experience at the University. Hence, most of the questions ford
will be in the 5 point Likert scale format. The consistent Total 550 100.0%
use of the Likert scale format in the questionnaire is a good
way to easily collect and code the data. This study will be Table 2 provides information regarding correlation be-
adopted from Parasuraman’s SERVQUAL dimensions. The tween the five service quality dimensions namely; tangibles,
dimensions included in this variable are tangibility, assur- reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and student
ance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy. satisfaction. Averages of all the constructs were calculated
and then run the correlation among the constructs
5. Results and Discussion representing the independent variables. There is a significant
correlation among all the constructs with student satisfaction
Reliability of the data was checked using Cronbach Alpha and also among each other at 0.01 significant levels. How-
which provides a value of 0.85 is more than the acceptable ever, highest correlation between satisfaction and tangibles
value of 0.70 (Nunnally [35]; Hair et al., [24]; Zikmund [53]) of the institution which is 54.6%, which indicates tangibles
and a value ranges between 0 and 1 and the value close to 1 of the institution plays a significant role while selecting the
provides more reliability (Nunnally and Bernstein [36]). As institution for study and it also has a significant impact on
reliability of the data plays a significant role in analyzing the student satisfaction. The weakest correlation among student
results. satisfaction and assurance is 48.4%, however, the correlation
Demographics of the data are reported in Table 1. The is positive among them and the p-value among the variables
participants of this study are the male and female students. is 0.000 indicating a significant correlation among them at 1%
Male respondents were 411, thus representing 75% of the level of significant. It is also observed that p-value between
total population, whereas the female respondents were 139 all the variables is 0.000 indicates, and positive correlation
and thus representing 25% of the total population. All the among all the variables exists.
respondents are undergraduate students. Majority of the The most important finding of the research to be reported
Student population were between 18 to 24 years of age here was that the factor analysis. Indeed, as set out in Table 3,
group and only 5% of the population was above 24 years of five dimensions are identified, and of these, Factor 1 is by
age. far the most important, accounting for the largest proportion
Students from fourteen different private universities were of the variance (34 per cent), with eigenvalues greater than
selected the highest number of students were 10.7% from 3.00 (10.596). This factor includes a group of statements
AIUB, 10.2% from East West University, where as only 4.7% related to environment and facilities of the university, and is
respondents were from ULAB and number of students from labeled here ‘tangibles’.
132 Asaduzzaman et al.: Service quality and student satisfaction: a case study on private
universities in Bangladesh

Table 2: Correlation among service quality dimensions and student satis- personnel to assist
faction you
Availability of
Va-
Em teachers to assist .594
riabl Mean S.D Tan Rel Res Ass Sat
p you
es
Teacher's have
Tan 4.1036 .563 1 capacity to solve
.722 .511
Rel 4.1291 .551 1 immediate prob-
**
lems
.629 .655 Staff's have ca-
Res 3.9824 .572 ** ** 1
pacity to solve
.620 .665 .679 .630
Ass 4.0916 .554 1 immediate prob-
** ** **
lem
.649 .641 .716 .675 Channels are
Emp 4.0218 .605 ** ** ** ** 1
available for .617
.546 .514 .492 .484 .543 complains
Sat 4.1600 .683 ** ** ** ** ** 1
Queries are deal
.535
with efficiently
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Factor 4: Assurance
Staffs are friendly .468
Table 3: Results of Factor Analysis
Teachers are
.617
Factors friendly
1 2 3 4 5 Teachers are effi-
.592
cient for research
Factor 1: Tangibles
Staffs has know-
Lighting in class
.591 ledge of university
room is very nice .591
rules and respon-
Appearance of
sibility
building and .648
University has
ground is nice .610
enough security
Overall cleanli-
.651 Factor 5: Empathy
ness
University admin-
Temperature of
istration has stu- .615
class room and
.642 dent based interest
study room are
Computer facility
comfortable
for students is .627
Decoration and
.580 sufficient
atmosphere
Study rooms are
Appearance of
.560 available for stu- .628
personnel is good
dents
Available of
.554 Staffs are willing
parking
to give students
Computer ade- .575
individual atten-
quacy provided in .556
tion
lab
Eigenvalue
Access to the in- 10.596 1.581 1.445 1.187 1.075
.523 Explained variance
ternet 34.180 5.101 4.662 3.830 3.469
by factor (%)
Factor 2: Reliability
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis, Rotation Me-
Registration is
thod: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization, Rotation converged in 9
timely and error .509
iterations.
free
University keeps
records accurately
.551 The other four factors did not reach eigenvalues of 3.00,
Classes take reg- and the percentage variance together only accounts for 17
.515
ularly per cent of the total. The second factor is labeled ‘reliability’.
Staffs are sincere The items here emphasize the importance of the lecturer in
to solve student's .582 his or her intrinsic role as a teacher, willing to guide, teach
problem
Provide service in
and motivate students. The variables included in this factor
.651 also provide evidence of the responsibilities of the lecturer
time
Teaching capabil- towards the students in terms of providing clear instructions,
ity of teachers are .612 accurate and punctual feedback and private consultation.
well Factor 3 includes six items and although they only explain
Academic staffs
are interested to
4.66 per cent of the common variance, all the items have
.596 loadings, ranging from 0.511 to 0.63. Interestingly, they all
solve student's
problems relate to the adequate provision of services by the university
Factor 3: Responsiveness and hence are labeled here ‘responsiveness’. Factor 4 is
Availability of .534
 International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences 2013; 1(3): 128-135 133

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