STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK ON SERVICE QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Students are key stakeholders in any institution of higher education and their feedback on the offerings of the institutions is likely to provide management with timely information for effective institutional changes and restructuring. The study, therefore, solicited feedback from business education students on the quality of services offered to them by the University. Students’ feedback was solicited through their perception of service quality. Hence, their perception was used as a proxy for their feedback on service quality. The survey design was adopted with a sample of 550 business education students. These students were proportionately selected from two programmes (accounting education and management education). Data were gathered with the use of the SERVQUAL model. The data were analysed through the use of descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent samples t-test). Generally, students provided negative feedback on the services offered to them by the University. Apart from the reliability component of the SERVQUAL model in which students’ seem to shower positive feedback, negative feedback was provided for tangible, responsiveness, empathy and assurance components of the service quality enjoyed by them. A further analysis of their feedback in terms of gender indicated that both male and female students seem to equally agree that poor services are provided to them by the University. The management of the University should, therefore, improve the services offered to students in the area of tangible, responsiveness, empathy and assurance components of their service quality.