Abstract:

The Universidad Técnica Estatal de Quevedo was accredited as “type B”. The University is developing a strategic global plan to improve quality by considering different aspects. In this context the application of relational coordination model will allow identifying those organizational practices that explain heterogeneity and can be implemented within a plan oriented to improve processes. Relational coordination is a tool for strategic management and its improvement favours the increase of business results. The objective of this study is provide a quantitative measure the quality of education from student’s satisfaction perspective in organizational issues at the University Estatal of Quevedo (Ecuador).

A stratified random sample composed by 4000 students in the period of 2015-2016 was collected. The survey was composed by 6 items related to satisfaction. Quality has been measured by the level of student’s perceived satisfaction dealing with the following aspects: Lectures/Instructors, students’ representatives, administrative officers, materials, communication channels and training contents with a Likert scale from 1 (non-satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). In this case the intervals between the scale points correspond to empirical observations in a metric sense. According to Gulse Bal and Karakas (2018) a visual analogue scale was used.

Of the 6 aspects of student satisfaction that were evaluated; conferences and training contents obtained very positive evaluations; materials and communication channels obtained an intermediate assessment and the students representatives and administrative officers obtained very negative evaluations (p <0.01). 75.42% of the students rated satisfactorily or very satisfactory (value 4 and 5) to the lectures and less than 6% in a negative way (value 1 and 2). The elements of the second value are very positive in the content of the workouts. 70% very satisfactory and less than 7%. 60% of the students assess, in an intermediate way, the materials and communication channels available for the students in the UTEQ. Finally, 25% of students value very negatively the students representatives and administrative officers. These three assessment groups are segregated significantly by comparing multiple means.

Lectures and training contents are the two attributes with the highest valuation and are the reasons for success of the UTEQ. The faculty is the aspect most valued (3.99 points) by the students (p <0.01). Reasons such as: wide availability, empathy with students, mutual respect, search for solutions to problems, etc. are reasons given by students and independent of the academic level and requirement of lectures. The second aspect best valued are the training contents (3.88 pts). The student perceives content appropriate to the level they have and the future demands of the labour market. As a result of the negative perception of the administrative officers and students’ representatives, we have generated some questions related to the actions necessary for its improvement.

Keywords:

Student satisfaction, Strategic organization, Likert scale, Improvement processes.