Abstract:

In the recent past customers have become quality conscious and are no longer requesting for quality service but they are demanding for it. Organizations in the service industry have realized the importance of service quality. It is only through the provision of quality services that service providers can stay in business, be competitive, and be able to satisfy their customers.

Education institutions that are offering education service must emphasize on ensuring that they provide quality service. They must pursue a quality conscious approach that is aimed at satisfying their customers. Education al service providers in Kenya are facing stiff completion due to a number of higher institutions being set up. Most institution of higher learning in Kenya are now pursuing distance learning mode in order to be competitive in proving education service to students who may not have the time to attend regular classes due to various commitments. For universities to survive in this stiff competitive environment, service quality must be the mantra. Irrespective of the mode of study, whether institutions of higher learning are in the conventional mode of study or distance learning, quality of educational service is key consideration. This study therefore will seek to find out the factors influencing educational service quality among distance learners in Kenya.

The study adopted a case study of study of students who are pursuing their studies through distance learning. Data collection instrument that was used was a questionnaire well-structured in a Likert scale of 1 being strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree. The researcher used a non-probability sampling. A sample size of sixty students was conveniently selected from a population of student undertaking a distance learning program. Data was analyzed using factor analysis to find out the factors with the highest loading. This was done to reduce to the meaningful few factors that determine service quality.

Keywords:

Service Quality, distance learning.