Engineering postgraduates perceived service quality and its association with satisfaction and loyalty

Abstract

ncreasing demand for competence and effectiveness in a competitive global market has made measuring service quality a significant requirement for all successful higher education institutions. This study identifies dimensions of service quality in higher education context. The survey first assessed the level of perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty by using mean analysis based on a sample including 357 international engineering postgraduate students from a university in Malaysia. The 22 items of service quality used in this study were distributed into five different factors: Tangible, Reliability, Assurance, Responsiveness and Empathy. Second, the study testifies the impact of perceived service quality on satisfaction and loyalty. Third, the effect of satisfaction on loyalty is testifies. Fourth, the study confirms that Empathy has significant contributions to satisfaction and loyalty. Fifth, data analysis by assessing AHP method, prioritize and weight factors of service quality. This study also shows these students do not have positive perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty. In this university the international students may consider western universities as a benchmark, thus causing this university to be rated lowly.