Doctor of philosophy in education management

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY FOR PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHERN KEY ECONOMIC REGION OF VIETNAM Dissertation Submitted to Bulacan Sta

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY

IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY FOR PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

IN SOUTHERN KEY ECONOMIC REGION OF VIETNAM

Dissertation Submitted to Bulacan State University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

By

PHAM DINH SAC

ID: BCC120436

APPROVAL SHEET

This Dissertation of PHAM DINH SAC entitled IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY

FOR PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHERN KEY ECONOMIC REGION OF

VIETNAM”, which is prepared and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the Degree, Doctor of Philosophy, major in Educational Management, is hereby

Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy, major in Educational Management

Date:

ABSTRACT

After over 20 years of socialization in Higher Education, Vietnam got some achievements in provide educational chances for learners However, until now, there have been few of private universities accepted by society Most of them are trying day by day for survival due to lack of students Nowadays, education considered as business industry globally If so, university is service provider and student is their customer Service supplier cannot do business without customer Private universities in Vietnam need to build its own brand starting with improving training quality and student satisfaction Hence, this research was conducted to investigate determinant factors of training service quality affected on student satisfaction The objectives of this study are: (1) To measure and access service quality of private universities in Southern economic region, (2) To explore determinants of Student satisfaction toward Service quality in Higher education, and (3) To recommend some solutions for service quality improvement in Higher Education This research aimed to extend and verify the HEdPERF model developed by Ferdaus (2005) in case of Vietnam The findings of this study showed that there are five determinants of training service quality have mainly effected to student satisfaction, they are: Non-academics, Reputation, Academic, Selection, and Student rights Practical implications: The results drawn out from this research will be helpful for private university to improve its quality in Higher education and service in severe market as education, which accepts the existence of highly qualified universities

Keywords: Student satisfaction, Service quality in Higher education, Private

University, HEdPERF, Education Management

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Completion of this doctoral dissertation was possible with the support of several

people I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of them First of all, I am

extremely grateful to my research guide, Dr Phan Ngoc Son, for his valuable guidance,

scholarly inputs and consistent encouragement I received throughout the research work

This feat was possible only because of the unconditional support provided by Sir A

person with an amicable and positive disposition, Sir has always made himself available

to clarify my doubts despite his busy schedules and I consider it as a great opportunity to

do my doctoral programme under his guidance and to learn from his research expertise

Thank you Sir, for all your help and support Some faculty members of the Dongnai

University of Technology have been very kind enough to extend their help at various

phases of this research, whenever I approached them, and I do hereby acknowledge all of

them I thank Dr Ta Xuan Te, Rector of the Dongnai University of Technology, for his

valuable suggestions and concise comments on some of the research papers of the thesis

My colleague-Vu Thinh Truong has extended his support in statistical data analysis and I

thank them for their contributions

I am myself showing my deepest thanks to Victoria P Valenzuela, D.P.A - Dean of

the Graduate School Bulacan State University, friends who support and create

advantageous conditions for me to study and complete this dessertation

Last but not least, I would like to give my special thanks to my family whose

patient love enabled me to finish this work

Dong Nai / January, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE TITLE: IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY FOR PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

IN SOUTHERN KEY ECONOMIC REGION OF VIETNAM

APPROVAL SHEET ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FINGURES ix

LIST OF FINGURES ix

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Problem Statement 2

1.3 Objectives 2

1.4 Importance of the study 3

1.5 Time and Place of Study 3

1.6 Scope and Limitation of Study 3

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 4

2.1 Higher Education 4

2.2 The overview of Higher Education in Vietnam in recent years 4

2.3 Definition of Service 13

2.4 Features of services 14

2.5 Service Quality 15

2.6 Service quality models and related topics to service quality in Higher Education 15

2.7 Student satisfaction 28

2.8 The relationship between satisfaction and service quality 29

2.9 Conceptual Framework 30

CHAPTER 3: METHOD OF RESEARCH MODEL AND TECHNIQUES OF STUDY 32

3.1 Research Procedure 32

3.2 Sample Size 33

3.3 Questionnaire Design 33

3.4 Measurements 34

3.5 Analysis techniques 36

3.5.1 Testing reliability of scale by Cronbach’s Alpha 36

3.5.2 Exploratory Factors Analysis (EFA) 37

3.5.3 Multiple-Regression Analysis 37

3.5.4 ANOVA Analysis 39

CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 40

4.1 The performance of private universities in the Southern key economic region of Vietnam 40

4.2 Sample Description 42

4.3 Testing the reliability of training quality in Higher Education scale by

Cronbach’s Alpha 48

4.4 Testing the reliability of scale of satisfaction by Cronbach’s Alpha 49

4.5 Assessment on Training Service Quality Scale using EFA analysis 50

4.6 Assessment of Customer Satisfaction Scale through EFA analysis 52

4.7 Research Model Adjustment 53

4.8 Regression Analysis 54

4.8.1 Correlation Matrix 54

4.8.2 Regression Analysis 56

4.9 ANOVA analysis 57

4.10 Discussion 63

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 66

5.1 Summary and Conclusion 66

5.2 Recommendation 67

5.2.1 Creating and training serving style for non-academic staffs 67

5.2.2 Investment more on campus facilities, health care for student and job consulting 68

5.2.3 Developing academic staffs team 69

5.2.4 Offering good campus for student 69

REFERENCES 70

APPENDIX 72

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Staff Qualifications in Higher Education Institutions (%) 6

Table 4.1: The number of students of each university in the study 41

Table 4.2: Frequency of sample 42

Table 4.3: Descriptive statistics 43

Table 4.4: Coding Variables in Measurement Scale 44

Table 4.5: Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis of HEdPERF Scale 48

Table 4.6 : Exploratory Factor Matrix for HEdPERF scale 51

Table 4.7: Exploratory Factor Matrix for student satisfaction scale 52

Table 4.8 Correlation Matrix 55

Table 4.9: Regression Analysis 56

Table 4.10: Hypothesis of variance between groups Test 58

Table 4.11: ANOVA analysis 58

Table 4.12: Test of Homogeneity of Variances 60

Table 4.13: ANOVA analysis of modified HEdPERF scale 61

LIST OF FINGURES

Fingure 2.1: The Integrated Gaps Model of Service Quality 18

Fingure 2.2 Conceptual Model 31

Diagram 4.1: The structure of sample in term of province 42

Diagram 4.2: Mean of student satisfaction within groups 59

Diagram 4.3: Mean of service quality’s factors within groups 62

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

1.1 Introduction

In the past, all universities in Vietnam owned and funded by the Government There were only few of universities located in big cities At that time, it was very hard for one student to be accepted for admission by the university However, within ten years, under the policy of socialization in Higher Education, there have been many private universities, colleges and vocational schools appeared This policy gives many opportunities to learners for selection Nowadays, private universities are driven towards commercial competition imposed by economic forces resulting from the development of global education markets In addition, the reduction of government funds that forces tertiary institutions to seek other financial sources From now, the competition in recruiting new students between Higher education institutions exploded According to data collected by Vietnam ministry of Education and Training, some institutions could not recruit enough students, even included state-owned one in last two years The measurement for success now is the annual number of fresh students Institution, which meets the requirements of reputable academic staffs, modern facilities, accredited training programs, and has long-term development strategy, will attract qualified students If not,

it is likely to eliminate from this severe market Service quality in training being considered as the key of problems solving Only concentration on improving study environment quality is main strategy in forming highly reputable brand in students’ mindset and society That is reason why measuring and accessing the service quality is necessary for all universities and colleges It helps to improve and increase the satisfaction of students

1.2 Problem Statement

Service quality management in Higher Education considered as an interesting topic, it attracted many researchers to participate and explore the key of service quality in training and education However, most of them developed research models based on SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1985) and SERVPERF (Cronin & Taylor, 1992) model Although, these models tested and validated in many different industries in different countries and regions, each industry has different features, if we only use the same scale

to access the service quality, the value of study will be questioned Therefore, this study

is going to apply new model – HEdPERF (Ferdaus, 2005) to measure and access the service quality in Higher education This paper aims to extend and validate HEdPERF model with data in Vietnam Besides, through this thesis, the author also tried to clarify and highlight the status of private universities in Vietnam and in Southern key region of Vietnam, associated with accessing the level of compliance of non-state owned universities on student’s satisfaction The results draw out from analysis would be helpful

to proposed intervention programs or solutions to further improve the quality of service

in private higher education This research is expected that its findings will contribute to consult Management Board in enhancing service quality for their institutions significantly

- To recommend some solutions for service quality improvement in Higher Education

1.4 Importance of the study

Until now, there have been many researchers used SERQUAL or SERVPERF model to measure the service quality in Higher Education However, it is necessary to apply other model built for education only, instead of applying the same in different industries If this study completed its objectives, it would have contributed to validation

of the HEdPERF model in case of Vietnam and would be helpful for private universities

in southern key of Vietnam in order to build long-term strategy in improving training quality and enhance their brand name

1.5 Time and Place of Study

- Time: From February 2013 to December 2013

- Place: Some of private universities in Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City

1.6 Scope and Limitation of Study

This research conducted in Southern Key Economy Region Its results only is applicable for private universities in this area Next studies should do research in another regions and make a comparison between them By this way, it maybe find and collect other factors affected to student satisfaction and service quality Additionally, it is necessary to apply one or two models to compare with HEdPERF It will make this model more valid

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Higher Education

Higher education is an educational level that follows a completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium Tertiary education is normally taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and training Colleges, universities, and institutes of technology are the main institutions that provide tertiary education (sometimes known collectively as tertiary institutions) Examples of institutions that provide post-secondary education are vocational schools, community colleges, independent colleges (e.g institutes of technology), and universities in the United States, the institutes of technical and further education in Australia, pre-university colleges in Quebec, and the IEKs in Greece They are sometimes known collectively as tertiary institutions Completion of a tertiary education program of study generally results in the awarding of certificates, diplomas, or academic degrees

Higher education includes teaching, research, exacting applied work (e.g in medical schools and dental schools), and social services activities of universities Within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level, and beyond that, graduate-level (or postgraduate level) The latter level of education is often referred to as graduate school

2.2 The overview of Higher Education in Vietnam in recent years

Education attainment and growth in Vietnam have been impressive The country has expressed strong commitment to achieving universal basic education as a foundation

for social development and economic growth Accordingly, primary and secondary net enrolments have grown rapidly with upper levels of education having seen the greatest expansion: Enrolment in colleges and universities has nearly doubled from 2001 to 2011 This increase can be explained by: (i) an initially low enrolment rate; (ii) high demand for higher education as a result of higher returns to skills; and (iii) the Government’s actions

in expanding the sub-sector

Access to higher education is becoming more equitable across urban and rural areas and income quintiles but ethnic minority groups have yet to see significant improvement Individuals from more advantaged groups still outpace those from other groups in terms of higher education enrollment, but rural areas and groups from lower income quintiles have registered the fastest gross enrollment rate growth These trends, however, stand in stark contrast with almost insignificant improvements of ethnic minorities’ access to higher education between 1998 and 2010.Therefore, reducing the large differences in enrolment between advantaged and disadvantaged groups and closing the large educational attainment gap will require a sustained effort

The emergence of private higher education started in the mid-1990s in response

to an increasing demand for and enrolment in higher education By 2012, Vietnam counted 419 HEIs, of which 80 are private Although the Government remains by far the main provider in the sector, private provision is playing a critical role and has become an increasingly important share of the total sector provision

The management of the higher education system is fragmented Responsibility for the oversight of the education sector is shared between the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), and other line ministries and local authorities: some 60 public HEIs

are under direct MOET control, while the others are controlled by other ministries (depending on the areas of study and research) or Provincial People’s Committees HEIs submit their annual plans and budget estimates to their respective ministries for approval and consolidation Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) consolidate the budget proposals from line ministries and make final allocations based on budget availability This has led to issues of incoherent and non-transparent budget allocations The quality of higher education and faculty has not significantly improved The proportion of faculty members with doctoral degrees is generally used as an indicator of the quality of a higher education institution, especially in the case of international rankings In Vietnam, the proportion of faculty having a doctoral degree has been falling due to the rapid system expansion, leading to an increase of academic staff without a postgraduate degree The large number of students for each faculty member has negative consequences on the learning environment

Table 2.1 Staff Qualifications in Higher Education Institutions (%)

Vietnam is going through a structural shift of its economy, going from a net food importer to the world's second-largest rice exporter The agriculture sector share of economic output declined, falling to 21 percent of GDP in 2010 as production in other sectors of the economy rose Industry and construction represented 40.9 percent of GDP and services 38.1 percent in 2010 Foreign trade and FDI have also improved significantly In this evolving economic context, employment opportunities for tertiary graduates have increased substantially Nevertheless, employment of tertiary graduates is still concentrated in a few sectors and employment opportunities are still constrained by a high share of self-employment There is an increasing demand for highly skilled labor, especially in sectors such as manufacturing and FDI This is also visible from the combination of drastic increases in the tertiary education wage premium over the 1998 to

2008 period (by over 40 percent) with very high “professionalization” rates (over 80 percent) The figure below shows that employment attainment for tertiary graduates remains quite stable over the 2002-2010 period with some variations: Less tertiary graduates worked in state owned enterprises in 2010 than they did in 2002 (respectively 20.84 percent against 8.32 percent) while more tertiary graduates worked in private enterprises in 2010 (20 percent) compared to 2002 (only 7 percent)

While demand for higher education graduates has been growing, there are significant levels of skills “mismatches” related to higher education Skills mismatches are particularly relevant in technologically intensive and export-oriented sectors in Vietnam suggesting both important constraints to country competitiveness and mismatches affecting higher education (quantity and quality) Beyond issues of shortages

of highly skilled labor, it is clear that poor quality and relevance of skills acquired in

higher education are a big issue Recent evidence collected from employer and employee surveys confirms pervasive gaps in technical, English and communication skills of professionals A recent report on foreign employers also confirms that only 10 percent of the recent graduating class of engineers had the potential to become “effective employees” Two constraints to higher relevance clearly appear: (i) information regarding employment of graduates, labor market and skills is still weak; and (ii) research capacity

of universities is not only low but also more supply- than demand-driven Furthermore, the lack of university-industry linkages and lack of information on labor market needs have negative consequences on the relevance of university programs Vietnam’s national competitiveness increasingly depends on skilled human capital, which its higher education system is expected to deliver

Development Direction for Vietnamese Higher Education: Vietnam’s policies for the development of its higher education in the period 2011-2020 are based on the following fundamental guidelines: (1) The general directions and strategies for socio-economic development, education and technology, human resource development for the first decade of the 21 century as identified in official documents of the Communist Party and the Government: such as Instrument of the CPV at the 9th General Conference (April 2001), Law on Education passed by the 9th National Assembly at its 4th session (December, 1998), the Planning of Higher Education Institution System for 20011-2010 approved by the Prime Minister in April 2001, the Education Development Strategy for 2001-2010 approved by the Prime Minister in December 2011, the Resolutions of the 9th CPV Congress at its 6th Session about education & training and science & technology, Policies to encourage socialization activities in Education, Healthcare, Cultural Affairs,

and Sports approved by the Prime Minister in September 1999 All of these documents have some articles for education in general and higher education in particular; (2) Major trends and achievements and development experiences in higher education in the world at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century represent the second grounds for Vietnam’s education policies It is always considered an important task to review successful educational development policies in other countries so that they can be applied creatively to the concrete situations in Vietnam Higher Education Objectives and Policies

The objectives stated in the 2011-2020 Education Development Strategy are as follows: “to provide high quality human resources in line with the socio-economic structure of the industrialization and modernization of the nation; enhance the competitiveness in fair co-operation for Vietnam in its international economic integration; to facilitate the expansion of post secondary education through diversification

of educational programs on the basis of a path-way system that is suitable for the structure of development, careers and employment, local and regional human resource needs and the training capacities of education institutions; to increase the appropriateness

of the training to the employment needs of the society, the ability to create jobs for oneself and for others”

To realize such objectives, the higher education policies must target the following new points:

- Training highly qualified competitive human resources responsive to the needs of the society and ability to create jobs for themselves;

- Opening up higher education system to include post-secondary education perception with diversification and standardization of levels, training curricula, flexible pathways among levels and job markets, and the strengthening of training capacities for higher educational institutions Attention and priority should be given to some new directions in these objectives: “everybody is entitled to education and life-long learning, the whole country becomes a learning society”

In accordance with the objectives, the policies for educational development can be grouped into four categories:

- Structural policies which serve as the focal point for other policies The structural policies deal with educational levels, specialties, types of educational institutions in relation with social human resource structure in different localities Further structural improvements are needed to establish a new network of higher educational institutions that consist of both public and non-public institutions with more diversity in objectives and modes of delivery, more pathways to make the system more flexible This will not only help meet the demand for high level human resource but also provide the people with more educational opportunities and choices, making it easier for the re-structuring of both the human resources and the re-structuring of the economy This will also help with social, gender, ethnic equity and fairness According to the 2001-2010 Education Development Strategy, the educational level and quality will be based on international standards so that education can contribute to the industrialization and modernization of the country and the gradual realization of a knowledge based economy and a lifelong learning society

- Quality policies form the foundation for all policies towards quality assurance Higher quality in education is the key factor in ensuring better educational outcomes and the enhancement of competitiveness of the whole economy Quality policies are based on a new perception that quality must be relevant with the uniformity and diversification of training objectives Quality assurance process must be carried out at three important points: the input (through selection of students on entrance examinations), training process and the output (at graduation)

Quality assurance must be standardized and modernized on all aspects ranging from curricula, faculties, facilities and investments from the Government and society One new development in the quality policies is the master frame curriculum for all training programs These shall be the guidelines for different educational institutions to develop detailed and specific curriculum and syllabuses for each institution A system of quality assurance based on assessment criteria and quality accrediting process will also be introduced This will be a combination of institution-administered assessments and external auditing and evaluation

Quality policies also emphasize the innovations of training methodologies so that students can develop their self-learning and independent research capacities, problem-solving skills; IT skills, language skills, communication skills and they will be able to form their own business and create jobs for others

To supplement these quality policies, there must be policies targeted at quality assurance, such as criteria for selection of inputs, social equity, training of teachers with standard quality, evaluation of the teaching staffs, incentives for teachers and recruiting young and talented people to work in the higher education system

Higher education quality implies not only training quality but also research and application quality: "training must be linked with research, application, implementation and technology transfer" and "partnership between training and research institutions and the business sector shall also be formed to solve problems arisen out the labor market and technology market through training contracts, joint research contracts, development of university enterprises etc"

Policies that relate to the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of the higher education system mainly focus on the appropriate utilization of graduates, the reduction

of unemployment rate, further training in responses to human resource needs and the linkages between training and production and business

- Management policies focus on the improvement of management efficiency with emphasis on the implementation of recent innovation measures such as the standardization and accreditation of higher education institutions, aiming at strengthening educational institutions’ autonomy Other measures include the standardization of the management staffs, the reforms of financial systems within the higher education system

to encourage efficient use of resources; the promotion of socialization of education with the development of non-public higher education institutions, the incentives provided to economic and technological associations to invest in higher education

The strengthening of the state governance capacity for MOET covers three major tasks: the development of strategy and plans for higher education, the development of policies and governance of training content and quality, the evaluation and inspection The management policies also pay attention to the collection and processing of educational

information to improve governance efficiency Innovations in the governance of education are considered the key issue which lead to many other solutions

- International co-operation policies: In the world of globalization and economic integration, the Government supports the expansion of international relations to exchange views, ideas, experiences, advanced progresses in researches, studies, technologies and to enhance mutual understanding among peoples for peace, friendship and co-operation International cooperation provides opportunities to mobilize external resources for the development of higher education The Government also encourages foreign investments

in the higher education system in the form of joint training and research programs, foreign owned universities, and overseas research fellowships More importantly, the Government has reserved funds from the state budget to send Vietnamese students overseas to study and do researches in needed areas Self-funding overseas studies are also encouraged

The Government also implements policies for good use of foreign aids through bilateral and multi-lateral co-operation schemes with international donors, non-governmental organizations, and loans from foreign banking institutions A large percentage of these aids and loans is targeted at the capacity building of higher education institutions and contributes to the implementation of strategic objectives for human resource and technology development

2.3 Definition of Service

Kotler and Keller (2010) defined service as follows:

“A service is any act or performance one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything” (page 386.)

- Inseparability: The service provider is indispensable for service delivery as he must promptly generate and render the service to the requesting service consumer In many cases, the service delivery is executed automatically but the service provider must preparatory assign resources and systems and actively keep up appropriate service delivery readiness and capabilities Additionally, the service consumer is inseparable from service delivery because he is involved in it from requesting it up to consuming the rendered benefits

- Variability: Each service is unique It is one-time generated, rendered and consumed and can never be exactly repeated as the point in time, location, circumstances, conditions, current configurations and/or assigned resources are different for the next delivery, even if the same service consumer requests the same service Many services are regarded as heterogeneous or lacking homogeneity and are typically modified for each service consumer or each new situation

- Perishability: Services cannot be stored and available at the time when it was provided Perishability can be a problem if the demand fluctuates

Each of these characteristics is retractable per se and their inevitable coincidence complicates the consistent service conception and makes service delivery a challenge in each and every case Proper service marketing requires creative visualization to effectively evoke a concrete image in the service consumer's mind From the service consumer's point of view, these characteristics make it difficult, or even impossible, to evaluate or compare services prior to experiencing the service delivery

2.5 Service Quality

Managing the quality of service is an interesting subject in Marketing Until now, there have been many studies related to this topic, therefore, also have its definitions were given However, no agreements are made From the standpoint of customers, the quality

of service means a measure how well a delivered service matches customers’ expectation and satisfies their requirements (Lewis and Booms, 1983)

Quality is one of important elements to service and physical goods, and criteria for consumers in distinguishing and selecting the provider among many competitors For service industry, quality is not able to be estimated before Therefore, it has caused difficulty for both assessment of customers (in purchasing process) and providers (in after sales service.)

2.6 Service quality models and related topics to service quality in Higher

Education

According to Gronroos (1984), the service quality experienced by a customer has two dimensions: Technical and Functional quality In which Functional quality describes

how the service is delivered and technical quality describes what the customers received during a service delivery The organization’s image works as a filter and can thus positively or negatively modify the customers’ perception of service quality Gronroos (2007) emphasizes that the followings “Seven criteria of good perceived service quality” are the determinants that need to be considered when evaluating the service quality of any organization

- Professionalism and skills

- Attitudes and Behaviour

- Accessibility and Flexibility

- Reliability and Trustworthyness

- Service Recovery

- Serviscape

- Reputation and Credibility

However, the above Seven criteria of good perceived service quality” concepts have the similar characteristics to the Parasuraman el at (1985) “Ten determinants of service quality”

The service-quality model or Gaps model was first developed by a group of authors (Parasuraman, et al., 1985) This model indicated that consumers’ perception toward a service quality depends on the four gaps existing in organization – consumer environments These gaps also identify that cause unsuccessful service delivery

*Gap 1: gap between consumer expectation and management perception Management does not always correctly perceive what customers want

*Gap 2: gap between management perception and service quality specification Management might correctly perceive customer’s wants but not set a performance standard

*Gap 3: gap between service-quality specifications and service delivery Personnel might be poorly trained, or incapable of or unwilling to meet standards or they may be held to conflicting standards

*Gap 4: gap between service delivery and external communication Consumer expectations are affected by statement made by company representatives and ads

*Gap 5: gap between perceived service and expected service The gap occurs when the consumer misperceives the service quality

Based on this service-quality model, Parasuraman et al., (1988) developed SERVQUAL scale This is a multi-item scale developed to assess customer perceptions

of service quality in service and retail businesses (Parasuraman et al., 1988)

Fingure 2.1: The Integrated Gaps Model of Service Quality

Word of mouth

Communications Personal needs Past Experience

Expected Service

Service Delivery (including pre-post contacts)

External Communications to consumers

Translation of Perceptions into service-quality specifications

Management Perceptions of consumer expectations

Parasuraman, in his initial paper, introduced the gaps model and established ten possible determinants of service quality (Parasuraman ,1985) They are:

1 Competence (Possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the

service: knowledge and skill of the contact personnel, knowledge and skill of the operational support personnel, research capability of the organization)

2 Courtesy (Politeness, respect, consideration and friendliness of the contact

personnel: consideration for the customer's property, clean and neat appearance of public contact personnel)

3 Credibility (Trustworthiness, believability and honesty It involves having the

customer's best interest at heart: company name, company reputation, personal characteristics of the contact personnel)

4 Security (Freedom from danger, risk or doubt: physical safety, financial security,

confidentiality)

5 Access (Approachability and ease of contact: Service is easily accessible, waiting

time to receive service is not extensive, convenient hours of operation, convenient location of service facility)

6 Communication (Informing the customers in a language they can understand and

listening to them It may mean that the company has to adjust its language for different consumers: explaining the service itself, explaining how much the service will cost, explaining the trade-offs between service and cost, assuring the consumer that the problem will be handled)

7 Understanding / knowing the customer (Making the effort to understand the

customer's needs: understanding customer's specific needs, providing individualized attention, recognizing the customer)

8 Tangibles (Physical evidence of the service: appearance of physical facilities,

tools and equipments used to provide the service, appearance of personnel and communication materials, other customers in the service facility)

9 Reliability (The ability to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately: service is performed right at the first time, the company keeps its promises in accuracy in billing, in keeping records correctly and in performing the services at the designated time)

10 Responsiveness (The willingness and/ or readiness of employees to help

customers and to provide prompt service, timeliness of service: mailing a transaction slip immediately, setting up appointments quickly)

The advantage of this model is able to cover all attributes of service However, its weakness is that measurement is very complicated Therefore, researchers reduced to five components

1 Tangibles (Physical evidence of the service: appearance of physical facilities,

tools and equipments used to provide the service, appearance of personnel and communication materials)

2 Reliability (The ability to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately: consistency of performance and dependability, service is performed right

at the first time, the company keeps its promises in accuracy in billing and keeping records correctly, performing the services at the designated time)

3 Responsiveness (The willingness and/ or readiness of employees to help

customers and to provide prompt service, timeliness of service: mailing a transaction slip immediately, setting up appointments quickly)

4 Assurance (The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey

trust and confidence: competence (possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service), courtesy (consideration for the customer's property, clean and neat appearance of public contact personnel), trustworthiness, security (safety and confidentiality))

5 Empathy (The provision of caring, individualized attention to customers:

informing the customers in a language they can understand, Understanding customer's specific needs, Providing individualized attention)

SERVQUAL represents service quality as the discrepancy between a customer's

expectations for a service offering and the customer's perceptions of the service received, requiring respondents to answer questions about both their expectations and their perceptions

SERVQUAL consists of 22 pairs of items: one member of each pair assessing the customer’s expectations, the other assessing perceptions of service quality Service quality is determined by calculating the difference between expectations and perceptions for each item This aspect of the administration of SERVQUAL has been criticized on the grounds that there is a lack of evidence supporting the expectation-performance gap as a predictive measure of service quality (Cronin et al , 1992) Other researchers suggested that the calculation of difference scores could result in poor reliability, especially if the expectations scale was truncated by ceiling effects (Brown, et al , 1993) This would

happen if customer expectations of service are very high, as is likely for some types of retail provider Cronin and Taylor (1992) found that the performance component out-performed SERVQUAL in terms of reliabilities, providing some evidence to support these concerns Parasuraman et al (1993), on the other hand, although they conceded the logic of the criticism, argued that truncation had little effect on reliabilities in practice

Griffin (1996), defined a customer as anyone who pays money to acquire an organization’s products or services Stanton, Etzel, and Walker (1994) suggested that customer is the individual or organization that actually makes a purchase decision, while

a consumer is the individual or organizational unit that uses or consumes a product In education students are customers who come to contact with service providers of an educational institution for the purpose of acquiring goods or services Hill (1995) mentioned that as a primary customer of higher education services, the student should focus on expectations Waugh (2002), however, suggested that viewing students as customers created some tensions in universities by making universities seem to be too aligned with businesses Some researchers also view academic faculties as customers of university administration Pitman (2000) examined the extent to which university staff perceived students and academics as customers in Australia

Although the primary participant in the service of education is the student, there is also a strong underlying assumption that the “customer” of education includes industry, parents, Government, and even society as a whole The link between satisfaction, payment, and repeat custom is much less direct in education industry, and the simple approach of only considering the bottom line is not available even if it were acceptable

Service Quality in Universities-It is also interesting to note the application of SERVQUAL to education, for example, to business schools (Rigotti and Pitt, 1992) and higher educational institutions (Ford et al., 1993; McElwee and Redman, 1993) The extent to which students perceive the level of service performance meets their expectations reflects the quality of service (Zammuto et al., 1996) It was found that perceived poor service quality will ultimately affect funding and viability in the university sector by reducing the popularity of the institution and thus the number and standard of applicants, but that the effect is indirect and relatively slow Nonetheless, dissatisfaction expressed by the direct users of the service, students, will have an effect Student dissatisfaction, if on a sufficient scale, will result in reduced applications in subsequent years as the reputation for poor quality increases, even though existing students are likely to be constrained to remain

The earlier researches on service quality in higher education emphasized academic more than administration, concentrating on effective course delivery mechanisms and the quality of courses and teaching (Athiyaman, 1997; Bourner, 1998; Cheng and Tam, 1997; McElwee and Redman, 1993; Palihawadana, 1996; Soutar and McNeil, 1996; Varey, 1993; Yorke, 1992) The measurement of service quality of courses and programmes often rely on research instruments (e.g student feedback questionnaires) devised by representatives of the higher education institutions Kamal and

Ramzi (2002), however, attempted to measure student perception of registration and academic advising across different faculties and other administrative services to assure positive quality service that complements the academic

There are many reasons for focusing the administrative service quality in a university (Anderson 1995): The first exposure of the student to the university is through the admission and registrar’s services so providing high quality service to students contributes to the positive assessment of the university Compared with the academic units, the administrative departments of the university, such as the registration office, financial office or library, are more likely to be a replication of the bureaucratic units of governmental or public institutions (Salem, 1969) While registration in the Western universities has rapidly adopted the banking touch-tone telephone systems, universities in developing countries attempt to struggle with bureaucracies and inefficient infrastructure; hence registration remains tied to a traditional manual process (Spencer, 1991)

Globalization and information technology have brought challenges to educational institutions in Thailand The education service providers are facing with an increasing competition as more new programs offered, new delivery means of the existing program (i.e distant learning or e-learning) are introduced, new institutions are established (both public and private), and new foreign entities enter the market With this,service quality perceived by students becomes one of the key success factors

There are 26 private universities which serve 207,136 students in Thailand (MUA Annual report, 2002) Some have been established for over 25 years and have become full-fledged universities with their own undergraduate, Master and Ph.D programs while others have been established more recently The private universities do not have the government funding and must be more student- oriented, must have strong service quality and high academic standard

A student orientation strategy calls for a study on service quality based the SERVQUAL and IPA models What is the expectation of the students? What are their perception of service quality? Is there a gap between the expectation and perception? How can the students be provided with reliable, responsive, assured and friendly service

in an enjoyable environment? The SERVQUAL model and the Importance- Performance Analysis (IPA) reviewed above provide an important theoretical foundation for answering these questions

Although the relevance of the five dimensions to the education service may be examined and reestablished through qualitative research, a guiding framework of quality attributes could be developed based on the SERVQUAL model The five attributes of the model, however, may be redefined to enhance its relevance to the education service: Reliability: the institutional arrangements (e.g policy and structure) to deliver the services promised; Assurance: the capability of the academic and support staff; Responsiveness: the ability to update, adjust or customize the contents and delivery within a particular context; Empathy: a caring and student centered soft environment; Tangible: appropriate physical infrastructure

The SERVQUAL model compares the two static statuses (expectation and perception) The quality generation and assurance of education service is, however, a more dynamic process The five attributes of service quality may therefore be integrated into an input- process-output framework The quality of the output depends on the quality

of input and the quality control of the process by the educational institution

Another study in the same topic in Malaysia, service quality and satisfaction , a case study for private institutions, This study attempts to examine the relationship between

service quality dimensions and overall service quality (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy) and students satisfaction Furthermore, this study is also examine critical factors in service quality dimensions (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy) that contributes most to the satisfaction of the students This study was conducted using a set of questionnaire to 200 Bachelor Degree students from two private higher education institutions The study will provide results from empirical test of these relationships The empirical results of this study can provide support for the Parasuraman’s SERVQUAL (1985), which related to the factors contributing to students’ satisfaction

Cronin and Taylor (1992) presented the performance-based measure of service

quality to modify for SERVQUAL That is SERVPERF model-directly captures

customer’s performance perceptions in comparison to their expectation of the service

Two-above-scales have been applied to measure service quality in different industries in different countries, even in Education Ferdaus (2005) developed new

scale of service quality for Higher Education sector-HEDPERF This instrument

aims at considering not only the academic components, but also aspects of the total service environment as experienced by the student The author identified five dimensions of the service quality concept:

(1) Non-academic aspects.Items that are essential to enable students to fulfill their

study obligations, and relate to duties carried out by non-academic staff

(2) Academic aspects.Responsibilities of academics

(3) Reputation Importance of higher learning institutions in projecting a

professional image

(4) Access.Includes issues as approachability, ease of contact, availability and convenience

(5) Programme issues Importance of offering wide ranging and reputable

academic programmes/specializations with flexible structures and health

In year 2009, another researcher in Canada named Ana Brochado interesting with HedPERF model and she examined the performance of five alternative measures of service quality in higher education sector: SERQUAL; Important-Weighted SERQUAL; SERPERF; Important-weighted SERPERF and HedPERF Data were gathered from 360 students of a Portuguese University in Lisbon, Portugal and concluded that SERVPERF and HedPERF presented the best

measurement capability, but it is not possible to identity which one is the best There are many studies with the same topic in Vietnam applied SERVPERF to measure and improve the quality service in Higher Education (Tran, 2012; Chau, 2004; Toan, 2010) Therefore, this research intends to test the validity of Ferdaus’s Model in Vietnamese higher education environment

2.7 Student satisfaction

Kotler and Clarke (1987) define satisfaction as a state felt by a person who has experience performance or an outcome that fulfill his or her expectation Satisfaction is a function of relative level of expectations and perceives performance The expectation may go as far as before the students even enter the higher education, suggesting that it is important to the researchers to determine first what the students expect before entering the university (Palacio, Meneses and Perez, 2002) In contrary, Carey, Cambiano and De Vore (2002), believe that satisfaction actually covers issues of students’ perception and experiences during the college years While most student satisfaction study focus on the perspective of customer, researchers is facing a problem of creating a standard definition for student satisfaction thus providing a need of customer satisfaction theory to be selected and modified so that it can explain the meaning of student satisfaction (Hom, 2002) Even though it is risky to view students as customer, but given the current atmosphere of higher education marketplace, there is a new moral prerogative that student have become “customer” and therefore can, as fee payers, reasonably demand that their views be heard and acted upon (William, 2002)

2.8 The relationship between satisfaction and service quality

The terms ‘service quality’ and ‘satisfaction’ are often used in an interchangeable manner (Palmer, 2011), causing difficulty when attempting to distinguish between the two theoretical concepts Like service quality, customer satisfaction is an abstract and ambiguous concept (Munteanu et al., 2010) and many researchers have attempted to develop a consensus definition for this construct (Giese and Cote, 2000) Satisfaction has been defined as the perception of pleasurable fulfilment of a service (Oliver, 1999) In contrast, Athiyaman (1997) argues that satisfaction is the result of the evaluation of a specific transaction or consumption experience Despite this, measuring customer satisfaction provides organizations with one way to ascertain the success of a product following its introduction to its market (Munteanu et al., 2010)

On the other hand, service quality is interpreted as an enduring global attitude, encompassing a view of the organization in its entirety, while satisfaction is related

to a specific transaction or consumption experience (Rowley, 1997) Parasuraman et

al (1985) also suggest that service quality is a form of attitude that is connected with satisfaction but can still be differentiated However, Carman (1990) argues that

it is uncommon for researchers to refer to quality as an attitude Despite the controversy, a clear distinction can be made between the two constructs; quality is based on current perceptions whereas satisfaction is based on past, present and anticipated experiences or outcomes (Anderson et al., 1994)

Sureshchandar et al (2002) maintain that satisfaction possesses a dimensional nature, proposing that satisfaction should be operationalised along the

multi-same dimensions that constitute service quality It was established that satisfaction and 27 service quality were strongly correlated; however, the authors concluded that they were indeed two separate constructs Finally, Zeithaml et al (2009) see satisfaction as a broader concept than service quality, suggesting that service quality

Factor 2: academic aspects The items that describe this factor are solely the responsibilities of academics

Factor 3: reputation This factor is loaded with items that suggest the importance

of higher learning institutions in projecting a professional image

Factor 4: access This factor consists of items that relate to such issues as approachability, ease of contact, availability and convenience

Factor 5: programmes issues This factor emphasizes the importance of offering wide ranging and reputable academic programmes/specializations with flexible structure and syllabus

In order to measure the satisfaction of students, they will be required to point out the level of satisfaction from 01-strongly disagreed to 5-Strongly agreed toward non-academic services, academic training quality, the reputation of their institution, how fast

your problems can be solved, their academic training programmes, the caring attention to students individually

From literature review, this study proposed research model and hypotheses as follows:

Fingure 2.2 Conceptual Model

H1: Non-Academic aspects have a positive relationship with student satisfaction H2: Academic aspects have positive relationship with student satisfaction

H3: Institutions’ Reputation has positive relationship with student satisfaction H4: Access has positive relationship with student satisfaction

H5: Programmes issues have positive relationship with student satisfaction