The Gap between the Students' Expectations and the Existing Educational Services at Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Using SERVQUAL Model

Abstract

Introduction: Service quality assessment is a basic step in quality improvement planning. Educational services offered to students of academic organisations are of different types. So students’ satisfaction is an indicator of disirable services in academic organisations. This study aimed to indentify the students’ expectations of educational services, their viewpoints about current educational services and determination of the quality gap at Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, using SERVQUAL Model.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study the existing gap between the students’ expectations and the educational services was assessed, using the SERQUAL model with a standard questionnaire containing 28 items and a sample of 273 students. The data was analyzed by SPSS software, version 16 with t and ANOVA tests.Results: Most of the students were 21 years old and 67.4% of them were female. Also undergraduate students with 77.7% and nursing students with 23.4% had the most frequencies. Regarding the five aspects of quality, there was considerable gap between the quality of current educational services and the students’ expectations (p= 0.000). The students of Health School gave the best score to the current educational services. ANOVA analysis showed that regarding the five asspects of quality in different schools, only the difference between the empathy aspect was ststistically significant(p-value=0.086).Conclusion: Based on the results, the students’ expectations are beyond the current status. Thus improving the quality of services, particularly those with the most gap, should be of the highest priority.