The students’ viewpoint on the quality gap in educational services

Abstract

Introduction: Students and university community are social and humanresources of the country. The students’ viewpoints about the quality ofeducational services can be considered as a basis for planning quality promotion and improving organizational performance. This study was conducted to determine the quality gap in educational services d by the students of Health and Nutrition School of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 140 students participated voluntarily(age range=19 to 40 years). The service quality (SERVQUAL) questionnairewas used for data collection. This questionnaire measured the quality gapin 5 dimensions of educational service including assurance, responsiveness,empathy, reliability, and tangibility. The students’ perception about the current conditions and their expectations as to optimal conditions can be determined, using this questionnaire. The score of the gap in quality of educational services is calculated from difference between perception and expectation scores. Due to non-normality of data, non-parametric tests were used. To this end, data were analyzed using statistical tests including Wilcoxon, Friedman, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whiteny tests in SPSS 14.Results: The results showed that there was quality gap in all 5 dimensionsof educational services. The largest and the smallest gaps were observed in"responsiveness" with a mean±SD of -0.94±0.74 and in "reliability" with amean±SD of -0.76±0.69, respectively. There was a significant difference inquality gap between the 5 dimensions (p<0.001).Discussion: According to the results, the students’ expectations were higherthan their perceptions of current conditions; also, in all aspects of theservices their expectations were not met. It is recommended that workshopson customer services, communication skills and personnel’s technical skillsdevelopment should be planned and held. Also, allocating more resources for improving educational facilities and physical environment is recommended.Keywords: Quality, Gap, Education, Questionnaire, Student