Factors in fluencing on students satisfaction of student supporting services at thai nguyen university

The model consists of five independent variables including Physical facilities, Regu­lations and service procedure, Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude, Lecturer’s capacityand a

OF STUDENT SUPPORTING SERVICES

AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

A DISSERTATION

Presented to The Faculty of the School of Graduate Program

Central Philippine University

In Collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT (with concentration in Public Management)

DOAN MANH HONG

DECEMBER 2020

I would also like to thank my family for encouraging and supporting me to finish my dissertation.

I would additionally like to thank my friends and staff at TUEBA who help and continuouslyencouraged me to complete the work

Signed:

Date:

Tác giả xin bày tỏ lời cảm ơn chân thành tới những người đã giúp đỡ tác giả hoàn thành bản luận án:

Đầu tiên, tác giả xin được cảm ơn PGS TS Hoàng Thị Thu và TS Mary O’Penetrante, các thầy hướng dẫn đã kiên trì giúp đỡ, hướng dẫn không mệt mỏi để giúp đỡ và động viên tác giả hoàn thành bản luận án đầy khó khăn này,

Tác giả cũng xin bày tỏ lòng biết ơn sâu sắc đến gia đình, vợ, các con và những người thân đã động viên tác giả vượt qua những khó khăn trong cuộc sống riêng để đủ kiên nhẫn hoàn thành công việc đầy vất vả này,

Tác giả xin bày tỏ sự cảm ơn đến các bạn bè và đồng nghiệp ở Trường Đại học Kinh tế và Quản trị Kinh doanh – Đại học Thái Nguyên đã không ngớt động viên và giúp đỡ tác giả khi hoàn thành luận án này

Một lần nữa xin cảm ơn giáo sư hướng dẫn và toàn bộ bạn bè người thân của tác giả

Nghiên cứu sinh (ký và họ tên):

Ngày:

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I, Doan Manh Hong, declare that this dissertation titled, “Factors Influencing on Student’s Sat­isfaction of Student Support Services at Thai Nguyen University” and the work presented in itare my own I confirm that:

• This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at thisUniversity

• Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any otherqualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated

• Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed

• Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given With the ex­ception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work

• I have acknowledged all main sources of help

• Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clearexactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself

Signed:

Date:

độ hài lòng của sinh viên đối với các dịch vụ hỗ trợ của Đại học Thái Nguyên” là công trình khoa học của riêng tôi Tôi cam đoan rằng:

 Đây là công trình nghiên cứu tôi thực hiện cho đề tài Luận án tiến sĩ của chương trình Liên kết giữa đại học Central Philippine – Philippines và Đại học Thái Nguyên – Việt Nam, được thực hiện tại Việt Nam,

 Không có bất kỳ phần nào của Luận án này được xuất bản trước đó hoặc được nộp ở bất kỳ đâu trước đó để xin cấp bất kỳ văn bằng nào,

 Bất kỳ thông tin nào trong Luận án này có trích dẫn từ các tác giả khác đều có ghi nguồn đầy đủ Các phần còn lại là nghiên cứu riêng của tác giả,

 Tác giả đã cảm ơn sự giúp đỡ tận tình của GS hướng dẫn và các đồng nghiệp, của những nhà nghiên cứu khác mà tác giả có trích dẫn

Nghiên cứu sinh (ký và họ tên):

Ngày:

In this research, the theories in service quality and student satisfaction were reviewed and theconceptual framework was built by modifying the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF to make theIPO model to put the factors affecting student satisfaction on supporting service at TNU intowork The model consists of five independent variables including Physical facilities, Regu­lations and service procedure, Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude, Lecturer’s capacityand attitude, Extracurricular activities, and one dependent variables Overall Satisfaction builtand tested for reality Questionnaire with 5 Likert­scale was used to collect data from students

at members of TNU

A sample of 366 students were randomly chosen at 7 campuses of TNU to answer the question­naire The study used 25 observed variables to perform regression analysis and verification ofreported values The results of regression analysis show five components (including: physicalfacilities, Regular and Procedure of service, Administrative staff, Lecturers, and ExtracurricularActivities) have a strong correlation with student satisfaction It was found out the five variables

­ facilities, teaching staff, administrative staff, extracurricular activities the regular and proce­dure were positively related to student satisfaction of the support services of the university Thelinear regression test results show that these 5 independent variables were able to explain about69.7% of the variation in student satisfaction variable of the support services of the universityset at 99% level of confidence Finally, the results of testing show there is difference in the level

of satisfaction when respondents were classified by demographic factors

1.1 Background and Rationale of the Study 1

1.2 Objectives 5

1.2.1 General Objectives 5

1.2.2 Specific Objectives 5

1.3 Theoretical Framework 6

1.4 Conceptual Framework 9

1.5 Hypotheses 11

1.6 The Operational Definitions 12

1.7 Significant of the Study 18

1.8 Scope and Delimitation 18

2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES 20 2.1 Literature Review 20

2.1.1 Services and Support Services 20

2.1.2 Student Satisfaction 23

2.1.3 The Relationship between Student Satisfaction and the Support Services at University 25

2.1.4 Factors Affecting Student Satisfaction 30

2.2 Empirical Related Studies 32

2.2.1 International Studies 32

2.2.2 Domestic Researches 34

2.2.3 Summary of Empirical Studies 37

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 38 3.1 Research Design 38

3.2 Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique 39

3.2.1 Target population 39

3.2.2 Sample Size 41

3.2.3 Sampling Technique 42

3.3 Research Instrument 43

3.4 Data Gathering Procedures 44

3.4.1 Secondary Data 44

3.4.2 Primary Data 44

3.5 Data Processing and Data Analysis 45

3.5.1 Descriptive Statistics 45

3.5.2 Verbal Interpretation 46

3.5.3 Evaluation of the Scale Reliability 46

3.5.4 Explore Factor Analysis (EFA) 50

3.5.5 Factor Naming and Model Modification 54

3.5.6 Testing the Hypothesizes 54

3.5.7 Regression Analysis 55

4 DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 57 4.1 Introduction of Thai Nguyen University 57

4.2 Profile of Respondents 58

4.3 Student Assessments on Supporting Services in Thai Nguyen University 61

4.3.1 Student Perception on Physical Facilities 61

4.3.2 Student Perception on Regulation and Service Procedure 62

4.3.3 Student Perception on Administrative Staff 66

4.3.4 Student Perception on Teaching Staff 66

4.3.5 Student Perception on Extracurricular Activities 69

4.3.6 Overall satisfaction with Student Supporting Services at TNU 71

4.4 Hypothesis Testing and Regression Analysis 73

4.4.1 Hypothesis Testing 73

4.4.2 Regression Analysis 77

5 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 81 5.1 Summary of Findings 82

5.2 Conclusions 87

5.3 Recommendations 89

5.4 Limitations of the study and scope for further research 91

List of Figures

1.1 SERVPERF Model of Service Quality 8

1.2 Theoretical Framework 10

1.3 Conceptual framework 11

3.1 Research Design Process 40

C.1 Scree Plot of EFA Analysis 108

List of Tables

3.1 Sample size of participant from university members of TNU 43

3.2 Actual Respondents 45

3.3 Verbal Interpretation 46

3.4 Cronbach’s Alpha of the Variables 47

3.5 Item­Total Statistics of Facilities 48

3.6 Cronbach’s Alpha of the ’Regular and Procedure’ Variable 48

3.7 Cronbach’s Alpha of Administrative Staff variable 49

3.8 Cronbach’s Alpha of Teaching Staff variable 49

3.9 Cronbach’s Alpha of Extracurricular activities variable 50

3.10 Cronbach’s Alpha of Overall Satisfaction variable 50

3.11 KMO and Bartlett’s Test 52

3.12 Rotated Component Matrix 53

4.1 Profile of Respondents 59

4.2 Respondents at institutional members by academic progress 59

4.3 Respondents at institutional members by grade 60

4.4 Respondents grouped by academic progress and by grade 60

4.5 Student Perception on Physical Facilities 61

4.6 Student Perception of Physical Facilities Grouped by Institutions 62

4.7 Student Perception on Regular and Service Procedure 63

4.8 Student Perception on Regular and Procedure Grouped by Institutions 65

4.9 Student Perception on Administrative Staff 66

4.10 Student Perception on Administrative Staff grouped by Institutions 67

4.11 Student Perception on Teaching Staff 67

4.12 Student Perception on Teaching Staff Grouped by Institutions 68

4.13 Student Perception on Extracurricular Activities 69

4.14 Student Perception on Extracurricular Activities grouped by Íntitutions 70

4.15 Overall Satisfaction on Supporting Services 71

4.16 Overall Satisfaction on Supporiting Services Grouped by Institutions 72

4.17 Summary of ANOVA Results for Hypothesis testing 74

4.18 Pearson Correlation of variables 76

4.19 Descriptive Statistics of the Regression 77

4.20 Durbin ­ Watson test for auto­correlation 77

4.21 F­test of ANOVA for Regression Model 78

4.22 Regression Coefficients 78

A.1 Questionnaire 97

B.1 Cronbach’s Alpha of the variables 103

C.1 Total Variance Explained 107

D.1 ANOVA Analysis of Different Satisfaction on Student profile 109

D.2 Test of Homogeneity of Variances 110

List of Abbreviations

ABBREVIATION FULL WORDS

ICTU Information and Communication Technology Uni.TUMP Thainguyen University of Medicine and PharmacyTNUE Thai Nguyen University of Education

TNUS Thai Nguyen University of Science

TNUT Thai Nguyen University of Technology

TUAF Thainguyen University of Agriculture and ForestryTUEBA Thainguyen Uni of Economics and Business Admin

Chapter 1 PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING 1.1 Background and Rationale of the Study

Education is the most effective means of bringing about total change that will ensure acceler­ated economic growth and national development in any given country (Odediran et al., 2015).Higher education is a diverse sector, often with specialist on educational development of everynation (HEFCE, 2005) Therefore, the objectives of higher institutions are to provide in­depthknowledge, seek academic development, educate students, and coordinate national developmentdemands (Johnes and Taylor, 1990) Every tertiary institution is built to serve tertiary education

to students based on the various programs offered and therefore, the design and facilities pro­vided in the higher institutions must suit the objectives of the education programs (Khalil et al.,2012)

Educational institution assessment of facility performance has become a matter of particularinterest to governments around the globe, seeking to increase the effectiveness of educationalprovision and maximize value for facilities Hence, educational facilities are connected with thestudent’s performance either directly or indirectly (Vidalakis et al., 2013)

It is notable that most of the satisfaction studies on higher institutions of learning focus onstudent satisfaction with the unversities core functions (Kama and Julinn, 2015) However,there is growing evidence that physical facilities support teaching and learning in various ways(Temple, 2008; I­Tline and Tschannen­moran, 2008; Tan and Kek, 2004) Therefore, facilitiesare among the major factors that determine the achievement of teaching and learning objectives,hence deplorable facilities pose a barrier to the achvievement of this set objective

In 2005, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam initiated Education Accreditationand Law of Education The purpose of Education Accreditation is to help managers of uni­versities revise and adjust the entire operation of the schools to accreditation standards; helpuniversities identify quality standards and create a quality assurance mechanism that is flexibleand close to self­assessment and external assessment Accordingly, since 2007, the Ministry

of Education and Training has implemented standards for assessing the quality of universitiestogether with Decision No 65/2007/QD

In recent years, a number of universities have been concerned about student satisfaction with theservices it provides because they identify students as one of the most important environmentalfactors that contribute to the success of the university Since determining student satisfaction

is the key to success, universities must put in place policies that bring confidence and peace ofmind to their studies

There have been a number of researchers to determine the factors affecting student satisfaction

In the study by Mohammadreza Faghihi (2007), the satisfaction index of professors, students,and staff of the Faculty of Engineering of Tarbiat Modares University was measured A study

by Niloofar Motefakker (2015) showed that IT service quality plays an important role in studentsatisfaction In addition to academic support services, an element of servicing health care forstudents is also of interest, Renato Mercado (2008) pointed out that clean dining spaces andabundant food will increase student satisfaction

In Vietnam, there have been some studies on the quality of education and student satisfaction,such as: Research by Do Minh Son 2010 on student satisfaction to improve and enhance thevalue of training activities in universities; research by Duong Tan Tan (2010) at Da Nang Univer­sity on the factors affecting student satisfaction conducted at Da Nang University of Economics;research by Tran Xuan Kien (2008) on the level of student satisfaction with the quality of edu­cation at University of Economics and Business Administration ­ Thai Nguyen University; MaCam Tuong Lam’s (2011) research on ”Factors affecting student satisfaction on facilities andequipment at Da Lat University”, etc However, these studies have mainly focused on particular

issues such as curriculum, teaching staff, teaching methods, and facilities There have been nostudies on the level of student satisfaction with the quality of student supporting services.Founded in 2004, Thai Nguyen University is a regional university with 10 member educationalinstitutions (including 7 universities, 2 schools, and 1 college) Among its members, someuniversities have developed for over 40 years With a variety of majors and fields, Thai NguyenUniversity enrolls nationwide and its students are, therefore, diverse in race and qualification.Currently, all members have organized training in a credit system, so the class learning time ofstudents is decreased; they spend more time on self­study and group discussion This learningstyle enables students to practice self­study, research as well as teamwork For this reason, themission of universities is to provide supporting services to students during their learning process.Once higher education is considered as a service, university can be regarded as a service providerwhose customers are the government, enterprises, students, etc Of which, the student can beboth beneficiary and customers There is variety of service packs that university can supplysuch as, especially for the students, training service, learning support service, physical practicingservice, accommodation service, job orientation service.

Student supporting services can only be provided by the university to its students in the followingconditions as follows:

• Students: the beneficiary – that is the determination factor

• Physical facilities: Equipment used in service provision

• Management: Administrative staff and lecturing staff

• Extracurricular activities: to help students get practice experiences and improve theirknowledge and skills

All member universities of Thai Nguyen University are currently providing their students with

a number of services such as: subject registration, tuition fee collection via banks, canteen, ve­hicle keeping, library, the Internet However, there have never been any studies on the student’s

satisfaction of these services before Therefore, it seems to be difficult for Thai Nguyen Uni­versity’s managers to define the effects of the services in motivating the students Besides, itcan be seen from the fact that the number of students enrolling in Thai Nguyen University hasdramatically decreased in the past three years; for example, University of Economics and Busi­ness Administration got only 65% of the approved quota in 2017 The other members such asUniversity of Sciences, University of Information Technology and Communications, University

of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Education are facing the same problem

Surveys on graduated students at member universities show that many students were not sosatisfied with the supporting services while they were studying at the universities One of thereasons is that the service quality is not good enough, which negatively influences the learner’schoice This situation leads to the low level of new enroll Therefore, it is necessary to conductresearch on student’s satisfaction on supporting services at Thai Nguyen University to determinethe satisfaction level of students on the supporting service provided by Thai Nguyen University

as well as the factors that impact student satisfaction From that, some recommendations can beproposed to solve the problems

Research questions:

It is important to begin by stressing what it is that the research is trying to determine (Punch,2005); this is the first and key step of any research project (Burns and Bush, 2000) If theproblem is not clearly defined, any research produced is not noteworthy or does not have anyvalue (Tull and Hawkins, 1993) Thus, researchers must design their study according to theresearch question so that the research question matches the research methodology (Punch, 2005)i.e., an appropriate methodology is chosen for the particular research question(s) In this work,there are two questions raised These questions lead to 5 research objectives as shown in thenext section

1 What is the satisfaction level of students with the supporting service provided by Thai

Nguyen University?

2 What are the factors that impact student satisfaction among students in Thai Nguyen

• To propose recommendations for Thai Nguyen University to improve the level of studentsatisfaction on the quality of support services

1.3 Theoretical Framework

The researcher synthesized several related theories on satisfaction based on available studies Ingeneral, it is possible to measure tangible product quality by parameters specifications, whereasthe quality of service is determined by the customer’s perceptions Thus, the measurement ofservice quality is hard to achieve in service quality control Jacoby (1978) argued that in mostinstances, the concepts have no identity apart from the instrument or procedures used to measurethe quality of service

According to ISO 9000, the quality of service is its suitability level to the customer’s require­ments Therefore, measuring the quality of services is usually based on the relationship betweenthe customer’s expectations and their actual perceptions of the service provided Researches inmethods of service quality measurement and assessment involve the characteristics of the ser­vice and its quality A number of measuring approaches in service quality by applying statisticalanalysis have been recently adopted in various areas

Gronroos’s Model of functional and technical quality

Gronroos (1994) introduced a model of service quality based on 3 crucial points to study cus­tomer’s perceptions of service quality In the Gronroos’s Model, there are three dimensions:

Firstly, functional quality is the interactions between customers and service suppliers, that is

how to represent and supply service Technical quality is the result of the service performance,which means what the customers receive

Secondly, the image is at the utmost importance because it indicates the service provider’s brand

and resources

Thirdly, a complete perception of service is a function of customers’ service evaluation and its

difference from their expectations

SERVQUAL Model of service quality

Basing on the model by Gronroos (1984) Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) introducedSERVQUAL as a scale including 10 components: (1) Tangibles; (2) Reliability; (3) Respon­siveness; (4) Assurance; (5) Accession; (6) Hospitability; (7) Information; (8) Trust; (9) Safety;and (10) Understanding Although most of the service aspects are covered in this scale, it can

be unlikely to get distinguished values in some cases due to its complexity Therefore, theylaunched another SERVQUAL 5­component scale with 20 observed variables as follows:

1 Tangibles: The external expression of physical facilities, equipment, staff and materials,

information facilities

2 Reliability: The ability to deliver suitable services as pledged.

3 Responsiveness: The level of expectations and willingness to serve customers promptly.

4 Assurance: The knowledge, professionalism, and politeness of the serving staff and the

ability to obtain customer trust

5 Empathy: The commitments and hospitality toward customers.

The SERVQUAL model consists of three segments Each of the first two segments has 22observed variables measuring the quality of service that customers expect and their actual per­ception with the use of 7­point­Likert­scale The divergence (perception minus expectations)

of the assessment indicates the quality of service This measurement model is called the dis­confirmation model Then in the third segment, customers are required to assess the importance

of the five components

In spite of the fact that SERVQUAL, after being researched and applied, is recognized as atheoretically and practically valuable scale, there remains much debate, criticism, and questionsabout this scale, especially in terms of generality and quality measurement effect One thing thatcan be seen is the SERVQUAL measurement procedure is quite lengthy Thus, there appears avariant of SERVQUAL called SERVPERF

SERVPERF model of service quality

Based on the SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml (1991),the researchermodified and established the SERVPERF model, a variant of SERVQUAL According to themodel SERVPERF: Quality of service means the level of perception (instead of measuring boththe perceived quality and expectations as in SERVQUAL) The authors argued that the quality

of service is best reflected by the perceived quality without quality expectations The conclusionhas received much advocacy from studies by Sultan and Wong (2010) The SERVPERF’s com­ponents and observed variables are kept the same as in the SERVQUAL The so­called measure­ment model is the defined perception model Figure1.1shows the dimensions of SERVEPERFmodel

Figure 1.1: SERVPERF Model of Service Quality

As can be seen from Figure1.1, the SERVPERF scale has 22 variables divided into five ba­sic components similar to asking about the customer’s perception in the SERVQUAL model,skipping the questions about expectations, as follows:

• Reliability: This is indicated by the ability to deliver service appropriately and promptly

at the first time

• Responsiveness: This is represented by the staff’s willingness and desire to serve cus­tomers timely.

• Assurance: This is shown by the knowledge, professionalism, and politeness of the serv­ing staff

• Empathy: This is recognized by commitments toward customers

• Tangibles: This is seen by the staff’s appearances and costume and service facilities

Summarizing the need theories

In short, these mentioned above measurement models on the quality of service have their ownstrengths and weaknesses While all the three models are normally often used to assess thequality of services, evaluation of customer satisfaction in the field of economics, in this study,the modified model is chosen to assess student satisfaction of student support services at TNU.Based on the theoretical and practical backgrounds, the author formed the theoretical framework

as shown in figure1.2

1.4 Conceptual Framework

After studying the literature review on student satisfaction conducted by domestic and interna­tional researchers, the author used the Input ­ process ­ Output model to evaluate the level ofstudent satisfaction on the quality of student support services at Thai Nguyen University Themodel is presented in figure1.3

The Conceptual framework is derived from the Bothaina et al (2018) on ”Factor Influence Stu­dent Satisfaction in the First Year of College in a Public University in the State of Qatar” inwhich the authors built the linear regression model with student satisfaction as a dependentvariable and fibe factors grouped into three dimensions The first one is called academic dimen­sion which including student evaluation of course effective, citizenship skills and knowledgeobtained The second one is called social dimension which including sense of belonging and

Figure 1.2: Theoretical Framework

student interactions with key college members The third one is called environmental dimensionthat is the awareness and utilization of campus resources The findings of the research show thatstudent perceptions of the academic, social, and environmental aspects were positively corre­lated with overall satisfaction The authors further claimed that their finding was consistent withstudies conducted by Mai (2005), Douglas et al (2006), and Gibson (2010) In fact, Douglas

et al (2006) concluded that the most critical factors related to student satisfaction were thoseassociated with the quality of teaching and learning

As can be seen from figure1.3, in this model, there are five dimensions of supporting servicescalled independent variables, including Physical Facilities, regulation and service procedure,Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude, Lecturer’s capacity and attitude and Extracurricularactivities which can influence the satisfaction level of students In addition to the mentioned

Figure 1.3: Conceptual framework

factors, it is considered that male and female students may have different levels of satisfactionwith the same supporting service Similarly, a different ethnic group may feel differently atthe same supporting service, or students studying at a different member university may havedifferent opinion about quality services Therefore, 6 antecedent variables including gender,ethnic group, residents referring to whether students staying in the dormitory or not, studentlearning outcome, student level referring to in which academic year they study, and university

of students referring to at which member university they study were added to the model

H2: There are no significant relationships between student’s perception on quality of physical

facility and the he overall student satisfaction on supporting service at TNU

H3: There are no significant relationships between student’s perception on quality of Regula­

tion & Service Procedure and the overall student satisfaction on supporting service at TNU

H4: There are no significant relationships between student’s perception on quality of Admin­

istrative Staff’s Capacity and Attitude and the overall student satisfaction on supporting service

at TNU

H5: There are no significant relationships between student’s perception on quality of Lecture’s

Capacity and Attitude and the overall student satisfaction on supporting service at TNU

H6: There are no significant relationships between student’s perception on quality of Extracur­

ricula Activities and the overall student satisfaction on supporting service at TNU

1.6 The Operational Definitions

This section presents the definition of the variables used in the conceptual framework.Thesevariables include Physical Facilities, Regulation and Service procedure, Administrative staff;scapacity and attitude, Lecturer’s capacity and attitude, Extracurricular activities and Student sat­isfaction of the student support services Antecedent variables such as Gender, Accommodation,Academic progress and Study location are also defined

Student Satisfaction

Elliott and Healy (2001) defined student satisfaction as a “short­term attitude resulting from anevaluation of a student’s educational experience” and and claimed that student satisfaction wasachieved when their actual experiences or performances met or exceeded their initial expecta­tions Aldridge and Rowley (1998) divided student satisfaction evaluations into two categories,with the first being focused on classroom teaching and learning evaluation and the second be­ing focused on the comprehensive student experience Bothaina Al­Sheeb et al (2018) defined

student satisfaction as student happiness or contentment with their overall college experience.Student satisfaction was assessed based on the extent of positive ratings given to the educationquality at the institution.

In this research, the author asking students how satisfied they are with the 5 level compatablewith Liker­scale including:

Physical Facilities: In the research model, the facilities describe all visible components serving

students in using support services such as classrooms, computers, documents in libraries anddormitory, etc Students will be satisfied if they feel that the facilities meet their needs Theirsatisfaction of facilities is measured by the 5­point­Likert Physical facilities is measured by theperception of respondents with the following 6 criteria:

1 The abundance and diversity of sources of books and documents at libraries

2 The electronic library responds well and is convenient for searching and downloadingdocuments

3 Libraries are good for self­study and research

4 Quiet and cool learning environment

5 System of equipment

6 Other facilities for studying / living activities

Regulation and service procedure: In the research model, regulation and service implemen­

tation processes are described completely and clearly Students will be satisfied if they feel that

regulation and services implementation process are adequate and clear, which help them con­veniently use support services The student’s satisfaction of the Rules and procedures for theprovision of services is measured by the 5­point­Likert Regulation and service procedure ismeasured by the perception of respondents with the following 14 criteria:

1 Students are provided with complete information about the school’s regulation system

2 Process, procedures for borrowing and returning books, textbooks

3 Borrow length of books, textbooks and documents

4 Update of the List of new books and documents on the library website

5 Course enrollment procedure

6 Time span for course enrollment

7 Class schedules and examination schedules are provided intime and stable

8 Process and procedures for applying transcripts, papers related to students

9 The system of forms related to the providing documents to students

10 Regulations on the outfit, and student card

11 Information about academic regulations is provided promptly via email / website

12 Procedure of Tuition collection

13 Procedure for applying reassessment

14 Time to announce the test results

Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude: In the research model, administrative staff rep­

resents their professionalism Students will be satisfied if they feel that the administrative staffwork professionally The student’s satisfaction of administrative staff is measured by the 5­point­Likert­scale Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude is measured by the perception ofrespondents with the following criteria:

1 Official staff friendly to students:

2 Official staff are helpful and supportive

3 Official staff respect students

Lecturer’s capacity and attitude: In the research model, teaching staff describe the qualifica­

tion, teaching methods and willingness to help their students Students will be satisfied if theyfeel that the teachers’ qualifications are high, teaching methods are appropriate and they arewilling to help students The student’s satisfaction of teaching staff is measured by the 5­point­Likert Lecturer’s capacity and attitude is measured by the perception of respondents with thefollowing 8 criteria:

1 Lecturer announces the teaching plan and criteria for evaluating academic results

2 Lecturer gives course guide for students

3 Lecturer guides students how to read and look up documents

4 Lecturer well uses of teaching aids

5 Lecturer encourages and guides students in scientific research

6 Lecturer well organises of seminars for academic advisors

7 Academic advisor is good in orientation, advice and support students

8 Academic advisor is enthusiastic, friendly and willing to help students

Extracurricular activities: In the research model, extracurricular activities describe the rich­

ness and practicality of extracurricular activities Students will be satisfied if they feel that theuniversities have many extracurricular activities, which are practical to them The student’s sat­isfaction of extracurricular activities is measured by the 5­point­Likert Extracurricular activities

is measured by the perception of respondents to the following 9 criteria:

1 Activities on student guidance on Scientific research, doing graduation thesis

2 Activities on practicing soft skills

3 Activities on opening day, job festival

4 Activities on enterprise visits

5 Activities on seminars

6 Instructing students to contact enterprises for internships

7 University leaders meet and discuss with students

8 Activities on music, gymnastics and sports contests

9 Activities at English club

Student satisfaction of student supporting services: in this study, student’s satisfaction is the

measurement index of the level of satisfaction that the students have about the support servicesprovided by their university Students joining in the study are from those who are in the first,second, third, and fourth years at Thai Nguyen University’s members Student satisfaction of thestudent support services is measured by the perception of respondents to the following criteria:

1 Physical facilities,

2 Regulations and service procedure,

3 Administrative staff’s capacity and attitude,

4 Lecturer’s capacity and attitude,

5 Extracurricular activities,

Academic Grade or Learning Outcome is the cumulative result (GPA) since the first year

of enrollment to the present time by a student Learning results are measured by respondents’perceptions with the following criteria:

• Excellence with GPA from 3.6 to 4.0

• Very good with GPA from 3.2 to 3.5

• Good with GPA from 2.50 to 3.19

• Fair with GPA from 2.0 to 2.49

• Unfulfillment with GPA smaller than 2.0

Gender: refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a

person’s biological sex On the other hand, gender is the state of being male or female (typicallyused with reference to social and cultural differences rather than sex Sex refers to a person’sbiological status) Gender is measured by the perception of respondents with the following twocriteria:

• Male

• Female

Accommodation: This variable asks whether the student is staying on campus or off campus.

For off­campus living, students may stay at home or home stay with their relatives due to theirhome is near to the university Other students may stay at rental houses near the campus

Academic progress: This variable measures the number of years that respondents attended up

to the present There are 4 levels to measure academic progress including:

• First year,

• Second year,

• Third year, and

• Fourth year

Study location: This variable describes the location at Thai Nguyen University where respon­

dents are studying There are 7 institutional members of TNU namely:

• Information and Communication Technology University (ICTU)

• Thai Nguyen University of Education (TNUE)

• Thai Nguyen University of Science (TNUS)

• Thai Nguyen University of Technology (TNUT)

• Thainguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF)

• Thainguyen University of Economics and Business Adminnistration (TUEBA)

• Thainguyen University of Medicine and Phamacy (TUMP)

1.7 Significant of the Study

This study provides managers with knowledge about student satisfaction with the quality of stu­dent support services of Thai Nguyen University From that, the study proposed some solutions

to the board leadership of Thai Nguyen University to improve the quality of its student supportservices

This study can also assist administrators of TNU and the members as well as the instructors

in their quality assurance initiatives which may include reviewing the current system, settingcollege priorities, and planning and allocation of future resources to better achieve higher levels

of student satisfaction

The results of the study provides basic knowledge about the factors that affect student satisfac­tion at a tertiary school In addition, the study also provides managers with an idea of whatfactors are important for student satisfaction It is very helpful to determine which factors aremost important The results of the study also provide managers with the choice of a reason­able factor to have plans and policies affecting that factor Therefore, it can further improve thequality of translation support services for students of Thai Nguyen University

1.8 Scope and Delimitation

Scope of the study

This study concentrates on the level of student satisfaction with Support Services in Thai NguyenUniversity In addition to that, the factors that are considered influencing on student satisfac­tion with Support Services in Thai Nguyen University can be classified into external factorsand internal factors, In this dissertation, the author focused only on the internal factors includ­ing Physical facilities, that are most influencing student satisfaction with supporting servicesprovided by Thai Nguyen University and its members.

Limitation

The research instrument was used in this research was the questionnaire with 5­Likert­scale

to examine the level of student satisfaction Descriptive statistics was used to calculate thecharacteristics Linear regression was used to determine factors affecting student satisfactionwith the supporting service provided by Thai Nguyen University

Data were collected from October 2018 to October 2019 from institutional members of ThaiNguyen university Since this study is a cross­sectional design, there are some dis­advantagessuch as: The study was carried out at one time point It is just conducted to estimate the preva­lence of the outcome of interest for a given population Cross sectional design cannot be used

to analyze behavior over a period of time It does not help determine deep causes

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND

STUDIES 2.1 Literature Review

2.1.1 Services and Support Services

Definitions of Services and Support Services

Service

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) service is defined as behaviors, processes and workperformance in order to create utility values with the aim of meeting customer’s demand andexpectations However, in ISO 8402 service is considered to be brought about by interactionsbetween suppliers and customers and the suppliers’ internal activities for their customer satis­faction It seems to be clear, from the above definitions, that higher education can be regarded

a form of service that directly serves the students’ needs and gets paid.In short, although thereare a number of different definitions of service, it is generally intentional for the purpose ofsatisfying human needs

Support Services

The Management Dictionary defines Support service is an activity required for successful ex­ecution of a product or program or process The support services are managed by a separatedepartment It is extremely important for any organization to have good support services tosucceed in their business

Characteristics of Service and Support Services

A service is a special product that is invisible but is created to serve the social demands Unliketypical commodities, service is characterized by its invisibility, heterogeneity, inseparability andcannot be stored For those features, service is immeasurable and intangible Therefore, it isunlikely to measure education service

Invisibility: Unlike physical products, it is impossible to see, taste, touch or smell any services

without using them Service can only be identified and evaluated through its place, owner,equipment, document, information, symbol and price

Heterogeneity This characteristic can be called as the distinctness of service Thus, service is

often carried out differently depending on its method, suppliers, owners, time, serving aspectand places As a result, things that a company intends to serve can be different from thoseconsumers receive

Intangibility: Unlike product, service cannot be touched or sensed, tested or felt before they

are availed A service is an abstract phenomenon

Inseparability: Personal service cannot be separated from the individual and some personalised

services are created and consumed simultaneously

Perishability It is impossible to store or stock service For this feature, service cannot be af­

fected when demands are stable In contrast, a service company can encounter challenges if thedemands are changed

Definitions of Service Quality

In accordance with the ISO 8402, service quality is defined as a collection of properties of anobject, making it able to satisfy the stated or potential requirements; or service quality is thecustomer satisfaction that is measured by the difference between the expected quality and theachieved quality If the desired quality is lower than that is obtained, the service quality can beconsidered as excellent In contrast, service quality is not good when the quality expectation is

higher than that of achievement If the expectations are exactly the same as the achievement,then the service quality is guaranteed.

According to Feigenbaum (1999), “Service quality is the customer decision depending on theirpractical experiences on the commodity and service, which can be measured basing on cus­tomer’s requirements These requirements can be, in fact, stated or hidden, conscious or simply

a sense, purely subjective or professional nature, and always represent the goals in a competitivemarket” Besides, service quality is also the level of satisfaction of customer’s needs and expec­tations (Lewis and Mitchell, 1990; Asubonteng et a 1996; Wisniewsky and Donnelly, 1996).Edvardsson, Thomson and Ovretveit (1994) defined service quality is to be up to the customer’sexpectations and meet their needs

Consistent with the distinction between attitude and satisfaction, is a distinction between servicequality and satisfaction: perceived service quality is a global judgment, or attitude, relating to thesuperiority of the service, whereas satisfaction is related to a specific transaction Indeed, in thetwelve focus group interviews included in the exploratory research conducted by Parasuraman

et al.(1988), respondents gave several illustrations of instances when they were satisfied with

a specific service but did not feel the service firm was of high quality In this way,the twoconstructs are related, in that incidents of satisfaction over time result in perceptions of servicequality In Oliver’s (1981) words, “ satisfaction soon decays into one’s overall attitude towardpurchasing products

Dimensions of service quality Exploratory research of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985)

revealed that the criteria used by consumers in assessing service quality fit 10 potentially over­lapping dimensions These dimensions were tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communica­tion,credibility, security, competence, courtesy, understanding/knowing the customer, and ac­cess (a description of the dimensions can be found in Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985).These 10 dimensions and their descriptions served as the basic structure of the service­qualitydomain from which items were derived for the SERVQUAL scale

Parasuraman(1998) cited from Nguyen Dinh Tho (2007) is considered the first to research ser­vice quality in a specific and detailed way in marketing with the introduction of 5­gap model

in service quality Gap (1) is the different between customer expectation and service provider’sperception of the expectation Gap (2) is created when the service providers face both objectiveand subjective challenges in their attempt to transfer the customer expectations into their desiredspecific quality criteria Gap (3) is also generated when the service staff fails to have correctservice delivery Gap (4) is the difference between service delivery and information that cus­tomers receive Gap (5) is formed from the difference between perceived quality and expectedquality when customers consume services Parasuraman et al (1988) stated that service quality

is the fifth gap that is dependent on the four previous gaps

2.1.2 Student Satisfaction

Definition of Student and Student Satisfaction

There are many different views on the evaluation of customer satisfaction Customer satis­faction is their reaction to the perceived differences between the experiences and expectations(Parasuraman et al , 1988; Spreng 1996)

According to Kotler and Keller (2006), satisfaction is the feeling of a customer generated in thecomparison between his perception of a product and his expectations, including three levels: Ifthe perception is the same as the expectations, he may feel satisfied; and if the perception ishigher than the expectations, he will feel satisfied and interested

According to Kano (1984), each customer has three levels of needs: basic needs, expressedneeds and implicit needs

• Basic needs: These needs are never expressed The fulfillment of these demands cannotmake customers satisfied; however, otherwise the customer may not be happy

• Expressed needs: these needs are expressed to show customers demand and expectations

There is a linear relationship between customer satisfaction and their demand’s fulfill­ment.

• ­ Implicit needs: These needs are not required by customers; however, if there is a responsefrom the suppliers of services, customer satisfaction will increase

In addition to this, another common theory to consider customer satisfaction is the theory of

”Expectations ­ Confirmation”, which was stated by Oliver in 1980 and used to study customersatisfaction of the quality of services or products of an organization The theory involves twoprocesses independently influencing customer satisfaction: e expectations before purchasingthis service and perception after experiencing it According to this theory, customer satisfactioncan be viewed in such a process: (1) First of all, customers formed in their mind the expectations

of the factors that constitute quality of service that providers can bring them before deciding tobuy (2) Then, the purchase and using of services create customers belief in the efficiency of theservice they are experiencing (3) Customer satisfaction is resulted in the comparison betweencustomer expectations before using service and their perception of the service after its using.There will be three cases: Customer expectations are confirmed if the service effectivenessresemble what the customers expect; customers will be dissatisfied if their expectations are notmet; customers will completely satisfied if what they have felt and experienced is better thanwhat they expected before purchasing service

It can be easily seen, from the analysis of expertise opinions, that customer satisfaction plays

a crucial role on company’s development objectives and strategies Customer satisfaction hasbecome an important goal in improving service quality, maintaining customer loyalty, enhancingcompany’s competitiveness Customer satisfaction is a key factor to sustain long­term success

in business and suitable business strategies in order to attract and retain customers (Zeithamland Bitner,2000)

Important of Student Satisfaction with Student Performances and its University

While customer satisfaction has impact on the development of a company, the satisfaction of

students also affects their university’s development goals and strategies and can be regarded as

a basis for innovative measures so as to improve teaching quality and student supports servingthe university’s development and promotion

Meansuring Student Satisfaction

2.1.3 The Relationship between Student Satisfaction and the Support Ser­

vices at University

From the 1970s, Western countries began studies of customer satisfaction, and put forward thecorresponding theoretical model

Expectation­ Disconfirmation Model

The model considered that customer is not satisfied in difference between the expectations andperformance The model is the basis of the theory of customer satisfaction included expectations,inconsistent, and satisfaction variables Churchill (1982) found that different types of productshave different desired degree, thus it is better to explore other types of models on the basis ofexpectations model

Performance Model

Performance is that the customers receive the total product or service utility The performancemodel believed that product or service meet customer needs to the extent which directly de­termines the level of customer satisfaction The performance model is mainly used for overallsatisfaction level measurement Satisfaction index system of various industries is the theoreticalbasis to establish

Performance model and Expectation and Dis­confirmation model were applicable in different in­dustries and products, performance and expectation factors relative to other factors, the stronger,the greater positive factor impact satisfaction positively

Expectations ­ Performance Model

The most representative model proposed by Oliver (1989) examining the theory of customer sat­isfaction which include the expectation of customers forming process and comparison processbetween performance and expectations In this model, customer satisfaction =f (Expectations,Performance­ expectations) Subjective feelings of consumers determine product quality Feed­back mechanism of subjective feelings conducts to the customer that is directly proportional tothe actual feelings.

The model cannot explain the formation of customer satisfaction It is not significant that per­formance is different with expectations on customer satisfaction, the expectation of customershas indirect effect on customer satisfaction by the customer perception product or service per­formance

Customer Consumption Experience Model

Woodruff (1987) thought customers formed performance expectations of similar products orservice based on experiences For the similar product or service performance expectations, con­sumer experience will affect the process of the comparison between customer expectation andachievements Based on past consumption experience, consumers can forecast the performance

of the upcoming consumer product or service

It is difficult that consumers compare the expectations and performance for new products or ser­vices Different consumers have different expectations and performance on the same product orservice that cannot be quantified Product or service satisfies the consumers will determine theconsumer’s satisfaction, but expectation and performance cannot decide customer satisfaction.Expectations­performance model and customer consumption comparison model can explain theformation process of the customer satisfaction, but it was few researches in the degree of cus­tomer’s needs impact on customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction Model

Westbrook and Reilly (1993) proposed this model that customer satisfaction is psychologicalstate from the customer consumption experience meeting customer needs If performance of the

product or service can meet the needs of customers, customer can satisfy If it is not, customersare not versa dissatisfaction.

The model research method is flawed Scholars proved that the degree of customer needs doesnot directly affect customer satisfaction based on empirical research It has greater impact oncustomers’ satisfaction by degree of meeting customers

Student Satisfaction Model

There are some institutions that go further and systematically collect institution­wide feedback

on all or some aspects of the student experience The University of Central England has pio­neered this form of data collection and it has been imitated by many other institutions includingthe one that is the focus of this research UCE (2000) argue that because of their scope, they arealmost always quantitative surveys and are designed, usually, to provide management with in­formation to initiate improvements There is thus an implication here that large scale inevitablyresults in the need to administer a questionnaire It is at this point that inconsistency comes intothe UCE approach They argued for qualitative work for small­scale evaluation and question­naires for institution wide work There is no clear academic justification for this dichotomy inapproach

The leader of the UCE team, Lee Harvey (1997) developed a student satisfaction approach whichintegrates student views into management strategic decision­making and in so doing is able todevelop a quality enhancement tool designed to improve the quality of the student experience.Within this institutional approach there is still a commitment to qualitative investigation but this

is subsumed by an overarching quantitative strategy This strategy has been written in the form

of a staged manual

In his model, Harvey proposed five main reasons why an institution would benefit from aninvestment in student satisfaction: The first demonstrates the institution’s commitment to itsprincipal stakeholder – students Student satisfaction involves taking student views seriouslyand acting on them The second focuses on the student learning experience and is instrumental