An investigation of customer satisfaction with the English-taught project - A case study of a public...

NguyenNgocUyenPhuong TV pdf AN INVESTIGATION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH THE ENGLISH TAUGHT PROJECT A CASE STUDY OF A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM by Nguyen Ngoc Uyen Phuong A dissertation submitted[.]

AN INVESTIGATION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH THE ENGLISH-TAUGHT PROJECT - A CASE STUDY OF A PUBLIC

UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

by

Nguyen Ngoc Uyen Phuong

A dissertation submitted to Coventry University for the degree of Master of Engineering Project Management in Faculty of Engineering and Computing

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

This project is all my own work and has not been copied in part or in whole from any other source except where duly acknowledged As such, all use of previously published work (from books, journals, magazines, internet, etc) has been acknowledged within the main report to an item in the References or Bibliography lists

I also agree that an electronic copy of this project may be stored and used for the purposes of plagiarism prevention and detection

Copyright Acknowledgement

I acknowledge that the copyright of this project and report belongs to Coventry University

Signed: Nguyen Ngoc Uyen Phuong

Date: August 17th, 2014

Office Stamp

ABSTRACT

In order to make education projects succeed, project managers usually concern about how to make students, who are also customers of education projects, satisfied with what the projects provide Student satisfaction is a common topic that many researchers implemented their studies to identify the importance of this concept in education Nevertheless, language acquisition is quite scarce in education researches but it is really a large problem in international education This fact lays the foundation for this current research to evaluate student satisfaction with the English-taught project, the case study of the University of Danang-University of Economics (UD-UE)

in Vietnam, where English is not the native language

In this study, literature review of project, project success, higher education, student satisfaction in the international context is implemented before the semi-structured interview and the survey using questionnaire are conducted in the English-taught project at UD-UE This research gives three main findings: determining factors affecting student satisfaction with the project, assessing the level of the effect of these factors and giving some recommendations for student satisfaction for project success There are many results suitable to some other previous researches but other results expose the common paradox in Vietnamese education which is students’ dependent learning approach

The recommendations in the end of this study will be some suggested solutions

to overcome problems of the project which are found from the collected data In addition, problems of the English-taught project and limitations of the research will suggest further research with a larger scope

Key words: project, education project, project success, customer satisfaction,

student satisfaction, international education

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a great honor for me to thank all the people who give me support, assistance and positive encouragement in performing and finishing this dissertation

Firstly, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Xue Zhou, for her guidance during the time of my research This study cannot be possible without her instructions and enthusiasm

Secondly, I would like to thank Dr Anthony Olomolaiye, the director of MSc

of Engineering Project Management program He was the person who has inspired my love of Project Management as well as gave me encouragement and directions of Project Management for my dissertation I am also thankful to Dr Mark Hooper, Dr Philip Southey, Dr Owen Richards, Dr Richard Anderson, Dr Ian Wilson, Dr Phillip Lewis, Miss Lydia Adigun, Miss Stella-Maris Orim, Miss Magdalena Rybak-Adamczewska and all other professors and tutors in my course who gave me interesting knowledge related to my course and laid the foundation for me to finish my dissertation

Thirdly, I highly appreciate my friend, Mr Le Minh Thanh, who is a good translator for the questionnaire and data in the research as well as Mr Nguyen Van Long and Miss Tran Thi Hang, who always encouraged me and gave me many useful advices during the dissertation process Furthermore, I love to thank Miss Le Thanh Thuy, Mr Le Minh Thanh and Miss Ho Ngoc Chi who are always on my side during the whole of my time in Coventry

In addition, I would like to thank my colleagues and students in the University

of Danang-University of Economics, especially in Department of Business Administration, in Vietnam

Lastly, I am so grateful to my grandmother, my parents, my younger brother and sister and all members of my family who gave me the spirits to complete my course in Coventry and in the long journey in my life

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY 1

ABSTRACT 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 8

1.1 BACKGROUND 8

1.2 THE RESEARCH’S AIM AND OBJECTIVES 9

1.2.1 Aim 9

1.2.2 Objectives 10

1.3 THE RESEARCHED FIRST FOUR-YEAR PROJECT TAUGHT BY ENGLISH 11

1.4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH 11

1.4.1 Chapter one - Introduction 11

1.4.2 Chapter two – Literature review 12

1.4.3 Chapter three – Research methodology 12

1.4.4 Chapter four – Data analysis and discussion 12

1.4.5 Chapter five – Conclusions and recommendations 12

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW 15

2.1 INTRODUCTION 15

2.2 PROJECTS AND EDUCATION PROJECTS 16

2.2.1 Project definition 16

2.2.2 Education projects 17

2.3 EDUCATION PROJECTS SCOPE 18

2.3.1 Education 18

2.3.2 Higher education 20

2.3.3 Activities in total student experiences 21

2.3.3.1 Teaching, learning and assessment 21

2.3.4.2 The scope of the English-taught project in UD-UE 23

2.4 PROJECT SUCCESS AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 24

2.4.1 Project success 24

2.4.2 Customer satisfaction in general perspectives 25

2.4.3 Customer satisfaction in education perspectives 26

2.4.3.1 The definition of student satisfaction 26

2.4.3.2 The importance of student satisfaction 26

2.4.3.3 Student satisfaction evaluation models 27

2.4.3.4 Student satisfaction in the international context 31

2.5 PROBLEMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM AND RISK MANAGEMENT OF THE ENGLISH-TAUGHT PROJECT 32

2.5.1 Problems in higher education in Vietnam 32

2.5.2 Risk management of the English-taught project 33

2.6 SOME FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT SATISFACTION 34

2.7 CONCLUSION 36

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37

3.1 INTRODUCTION 37

3.2 RESEARCH OVERVIEW 37

3.2.1 Research approach 38

3.2.2 Research methodology 39

3.2.3 Research strategy 41

3.2.4 Data collection 42

3.3 QUESTIONNAIRE 44

3.3.1 Questionnaire design 44

3.3.2 Potential difficulties 46

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS 46

3.4.1 Validity of data collected 46

3.4.2 Reliability of data collected 48

3.4.3 One-way ANOVA 49

3.4.4 Factor analysis 50

3.4.5 Correlation and linear regression analysis 51

3.4.5.1 Correlation analysis 51

3.4.5.2 Regression analysis 51

3.5 CONCLUSION 52

CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 54

4.1 INTRODUCTION 54

4.2 RESULTS 54

4.2.1 Results from the semi-structured interview 54

4.2.2 Descriptive information about respondents and Cronbach’s alpha reliability ……… 55

4.2.3 Mean value of student satisfaction level and important level with all independent variables and the overall project 56

4.2.4 Findings from one-way ANOVA of all independent variables and the dependent variable 56

4.2.5 Factor analysis of all independent variables 57

4.2.6 The correlation and regression analysis of new factors and the dependent variable ……… 57

4.2.7 The regression analysis of all independent variables in each factor 58

4.3 DISCUSSION 59

4.3.1 Factors affecting student satisfaction with the English-taught project in UD-UE……… 59

4.3.2 The relationships among factors and overall student satisfaction 60

4.3.3 Students’ points of view and items provided by the English-taught project 62 4.3.3.1 Students’ perspectives 62

4.3.3.2 Items provided by the English-taught project 63

4.4 CONCLUSION 65

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 67

5.1 OVERVIEW 67

5.3 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 71

5.3.1 Implications 71

5.3.2 Recommendations 72

5.4 CONTRIBUTIONS 74

5.5 LIMITATIONS 74

5.6 FURTHER RESEARCH 75

REFERENCES 77

APPENDICES 88

Appendix 1: Profile of sample 88

Appendix 2: Mean value of student satisfaction and important level with all items and the overall project 88

Appendix 3: Description of One-way ANOVA of all independent variables and the dependent variable in satisfaction level 91

Appendix 4: Factor analysis 96

Appendix 5: Correlation matrix for factors and dependent variable 100

Appendix 6: Regression analysis for factors and dependent variable 100

Appendix 7: Regression analysis for independent variables in each new factor and dependent variable 100

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 – ServQual model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985) 28

Figure 2 – Kano model (Bilgilia, Ercis and Ünal 2011) 30

Figure 3 – Research process 38

Figure 4 – Model of Herzberg’s two-factor theory for student satisfaction 60