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Rajapaksha.U, et al (eds), 2017, “Design that cares”- multi disciplinary approaches to creating sustainable
and meaningful built environment: Proceedings of the 10thInternational Conference of Faculty of
Architecture Research Unit (FARU), University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, (Vol. 01) pp. 100-111 ©
Abstract
Recognizing students as key stakeholders, this research aims to assess students’
satisfaction with their experiences at community college CURAJ through a Student
Satisfaction Survey based on SERVQUAL model. The SERVQUAL model covers
five dimensions - tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. This
survey will help in strategic planning and decision-making regarding further
improvement of Community College’s services to students.
This paper aims to assess students’ satisfaction with their experiences at Community
College, CURAJ through a Student Satisfaction Survey. A questionnaire based on five
point Likert scale covering various dimensions of service have developed, put to pilot
test and then administered to all students of the community college. Presently there are
four batches of the B.Voc. (Interior Design) Programme. Few open ended questions
will also be included in the questionnaire to assess the weakness and strength of the
community college at CURAJ. The reliability of the data collected will be checked by
using SPSS and the student inputs will be analyzed according to the principle of
weighed averages.
This survey will provide valuable information about perceived service gaps and other
inputs to support strategic planning and decision-making at community college and
thus help to improve quality of programmes and students’ services.
Keywords: SERVQUAL Model, Service Gaps, Likert Scale, Community College, B.Voc.
(Interior Design) Programme
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1. Introduction –
With growing emphasis on skill development through vocational education and
training, there is a need to measure the quality of education and the consumer.
Grönroos (1984) states that the service quality model has three components:
technical quality, functional quality, and image quality. According to Zeithaml,
Parasuraman and Berry (1988), SERVQUAL is a universal method and can be
applied to any service organization to assess the quality of services provided.
This model covers five dimensions - tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy and has been applied in education sector and also
evaluation of service quality of academic libraries in developing countries. Few
other models are developed specifically for education sector, each one based on
their own context and requirements. Thus, for the purpose of assessment of
students’ experience at CURAJ, first step is to identify and list various
dimensions of service relevant for the community college and vocational
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Each level is defined by the job roles formulated by the respective sector skill
councils (SSCs) in the form of qualification packs (QPs) for the corresponding
job roles. The B.Voc. (Interior Design) programme trained students for level 5,
6 and 7. First batch of the programme was admitted in January 2014 and the
community college was established to run the programme on the pilot mode for
the initial period of 3 years. Thus there is a vital need to evaluate the quality of
the services being offered, identify the service gaps and improve the quality of
services.
Various models have been proposed to measure service quality (Moore, 1987;
Heywood-Farmer, 1988; Beddowes, 1988; Nash, 1988; Philip and Hazlett,
1997; Robledo, 2001). Out of all these proposed models, the most popular and
widely used method of assessing service quality is SERVQUAL (Asubonteng,
1996; Waugh, 2002) developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988).
SERVQUAL method is focused on identifying perceived quality, which is a
customer’s judgment about the excellence of a service (Zeithaml, 1987).
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UGC guidelines for community colleges, www.ugc.ac.in
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There was applied the scale of Likert (1 – 5) to rate the service quality level in
relation to respondents’ expectations and performance by asking students with
using the set of questions on attributes that reflect mentioned quality
dimensions (Table 1) (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988).
3.1 METHODOLOGY-
The aim of the study is to compare the perceptions and expectations of students
about the service quality of vocational education at community college, CURaj
and to put forth suggestions to raise the education quality.
The whole basis and the value of the SERVQUAL methodology lay in the
relevance of the statements asked during the survey. The questions are
normally derived from the conversation with students. Quantitative and
qualitative data were generated from structured closed- ended and open ended
questions.
The research was conducted using a structured questionnaire covered four main
sections. Section one contained questions pertaining to respondent’s
demographic background covered information related to gender, the training
institute and field of study. Section two and three covered 25 statements of all
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the five dimensions and required the respondents to indicate their opinion about
their expectations and perceptions respectively of each services dimension
using a five-point Likert Scale. In section four, there are three open-ended
questions and one closed ended question where the respondents were ask to
state their opinion regarding the training and services provided. The
respondents were asking to state their opinion and comment about the training
and services based on their experience. Keeping in mind the diversified
educational background and the basic understanding of the students the
questionnaire was prepared bilingual (i.e. in English and Hindi). The structure
of the questionnaire along with the service dimensions is presented in Table 1.
22 Teachers pay personal attention to each student and feedback on my work has
EMPATHY
Number of
No. of
students in
students Percentage
the sample
enrolled
(stratified)
Semester
1st 23 23 100%
2nd 14 11 79%
3rd 19 19 100%
4th 15 15 100%
Total 71 68 96%
Gender
Male 42 40 95%
Female 29 28 97%
Total 71 68 96%
and care which is provided to students and their specific needs. In this research,
a 5-point Likert was used. The scale was defined so that very important is
coded as 5 and not important at all as 1 in the expectations dimension.
Similarly strongly agree is coded as 5 and strongly disagree as 1 in perceptions
dimension. The collected data was then analyzed with the SERVQUAL
methodology to identify the gap between students’ expectations and
perceptions.
As seen in Table 3, although not very big, certain gaps are apparent in all five
dimensions between the expectations and perceptions about the service quality.
The negative gaps show that the service quality perceived by the students is
below their expectations and that can be viewed as an opportunity for
improvement.
Expectations Perceptions
Scale/
Frequency of Responses Frequency of Responses (P-E)
Ques. Average Average
5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1
The final four questions, 22 to 25, refer to the empathy dimension, which
obtained an overall average of -0.39. In this dimension, the greatest concern is
in understanding, meeting student needs and providing best services. Therefore,
a systematic approach or a quality improvement program needs to be
developed by the faculty management.
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The overall average for the five dimensions was -0.35. The presence of
negative quality gaps in all of the five dimensions was determined. This
indicates a great opportunity for improvement in the entire service providing
cycle.
4. Conclusion:
Determination of the negative gaps between perceptions and expectations of
the students in all five dimensions of service quality shows the quality
education service does not meet their expectations. The main findings of this
study are:
recruited for the other main core (under graduate & post graduate)
programmes in the university thus reinforcing the staff capabilities
through ongoing opportunities for training and development in the
vocational education may improve the knowledge transfer skills of
the existing faculties.
The one of the most important issues mentioned in the survey, that was low-
rated, is physical infrastructure and the timings of laboratories that supports
realization of the teaching process and ensures students with skill and
qualifications. The well-equipped laboratories can be a source of both students’
and teachers’ skills development and can result in the better quality output.
The results obtained from the survey provided valuable information about
perceived service gaps and other inputs to support strategic planning and
decision-making at community college and thus help to improve quality of
programmes and students’ services. We hope to make learning an enjoyable
and rewarding experience for all students at CURAJ.
4.1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors of this study would like to thank teaching assistant for their
valuable support in conducting the survey and collating data. Special thanks to
the management of Community College and the University authorities for their
sincere contributions and supports.
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