CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION AND DESIGN OF THE STUDY

1.1. Introduction

Education is one of the basic needs for human development.1 Education is

necessary for national development and a prosperous society. The strong

educational system results in the economic growth, social transformation and

greater performance of the students. The importance of education in India was

recognized by the founding fathers of the country and the subsequent

governments, and as a result considerable importance has been given to literacy,

school enrolment, institutions of higher education, over the decades ever since

independence. In this knowledge economy, due to globalization and development

of information and communication technologies, knowledge and learning emerged

as the primary sources of wealth creation.2 Development of knowledge is based on

the quality of education system available, particularly of higher education, in a

country. As higher education is the backbone of any society, it decides the quality

of human resources.3 Higher education is a powerful tool to build knowledge-

based society of the 21st century.4 India has one of the largest systems of higher

education in the world offering facility of education and training in almost all

aspects of human creativity and intellectual endeavour. Today, higher education

1
Sivakumar, M and Sarvalingam, A (2010). “Human Deprivation Index: A Measure of
Multidimensional Poverty”, MPRA Paper No.22337, pp.1-53.
2
Neef, D (1998). The Knowledge Economy, London: Butterworth-Heinemann.
3
Mishra, S (2007). Quality Assurance in Higher Education: An Introduction, Bangalore: National
Assessment and Accreditation Council, pp.1-196.
4
All India Survey on Higher Education (2011). Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Department of Higher Education, Planning, Monitoring & Statistics Bureau, pp.1-63.
 2

institutions are fast emerging as a major contributor that fuels the socio-economic

growth of a nation. Hence, in the age of competition, the higher education

institutions need to understand students' perceptions of service quality and identify

the gap between their expectations and perceptions.

1.2. Concept of Service Quality

Service quality has been defined as customers’ overall impressions of an

organization’s services in terms of relative superiority or inferiority.5 Service

quality encompasses customers’ expectations in terms of quality after they

have highlighted a large number of service that are supposedly used by customers

to evaluate the performance of the service delivery. 6 Service quality is a measure

of how well the service level delivered matches customers’ expectations. 7 The

extent of customer satisfaction bears a direct relation to quality of service where

good quality of service gives better customer satisfaction. It is a critical factor in

achieving competitiveness in most service industries.8 From the customer

perspective, service quality differentiates sought quality and perceived quality.

Sought quality is the level of quality customers demand and expect from service

providers. Perceived service quality is an overall evaluation of the goodness or

5
Johnston, R (1995). “The Determinants of Service Quality: Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers”,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol.6, No. 5, pp.53-71.
6
Yue, H and Tom, G (1995). “How the Chinese Select their Banks”, Journal of Retail Banking,
Vol.16, No.4, pp.36-39.
7
Lewis, R. C and Booms, B. H (1983). The Marketing Aspects of Service Quality, in Berry, L,
Shostack, G and Upah, G (Eds.), Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, Chicago:
American Marketing Association, pp.99-107.
8
Galloway, R.L and Blanchard, R.F (1996). “Variation in the Perception of Quality with Life
Stage in Retail Banking”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol.14, No.1,
pp.22-29.
 3

badness of a product or service.9 From the provider perspective, there are target

quality and delivered quality. Achieving the quality of conformance between the

target quality level and the real quality delivered to customers depends on the

service quality management system in an organization. Parasuraman, Zeithaml

and Berry have identified 5 dimensions of service quality, namely, assurance,

empathy, reliability, responsiveness and tangibility.

It is difficult to give a comprehensive definition of quality in education

because there has been lot of discrepancy in the concept of quality in education

sector. From the service provider view, educational services are intangible,

heterogeneous and inseparable; conversely, students’ viewpoint of educational

services are variable and perishable.10 The most accepted definition of quality in

the field of education is proposed by Harvey and Green11 who developed a

framework which consists of five definitions of quality, namely quality as

exceptional, quality as perfection, quality as value for money, quality as fitness for

purpose and quality as transformation. A more comprehensive approach to

classify the quality attributes in higher education was proposed by West, et al.12

This is called the “Input-Process-Output” framework in which input refers to the

selection of students, process refers to the teaching and learning process, and

output refers to the employability and academic standings. In this way, one can

9
Athiyaman, A (1997). “Linking Student Satisfaction and Service Quality Perceptions: The Case
of University Education”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol.31, No.7, pp.528-540.
10
Khan, M.S, Mahapatra, S.S and Sreekumar (2007). “Evaluating Service Quality in Technical
Institutes: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach”, Metamosphosis, Vol.6, No.1, pp.40-53.
11
Harvey, L and Green, D (1993). “Defining Quality, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education”, Higher Learning Research Communications, Vol.18, No.1, pp.9-34.
12
West, A, Noden, P and Gosling, R (2000). “Quality in Higher Education: An International
Perspective - The Views of Transnational Corporations”, Market Papers No. 17, London School of
Economics and Political Science.
 4

associate the quality improvements with the operating system of any organization

including those from the education sector.

1.3. Service Quality in Higher Education

One of the significant determinants of national competitiveness in this

global era is the quality of its higher education. This quality comes from the

combination of excellent learning process and public satisfaction in the service

delivered.13 The service quality in higher education is not only essential, but also

an important factor of educational excellence. In fact, quality in higher education

is a relative concept involving a number of various stakeholders. 14 There are

internal and external stakeholders, in which student is a primary external

stakeholder and teacher is an internal stakeholder.15 A higher education institution

which strives to provide excellent quality of education should strive to fully

understand the needs of its stakeholders. The central purpose in education sector is

to support students’ learning and knowledge gaining, by providing quality service

to students. Students who are satisfied with the service quality of their institution

will become a foundation of competitive advantage. Students’ satisfaction is

considered a decisive factor for the evaluation of higher education institutions.16

13
Hanaysha, J, Abdullah, H. H and Warokka, A (2011). “Service Quality and Students’
Satisfaction at Higher Learning Institutions: The Competing Dimensions of Malaysian
Universities’ Competitiveness”, Journal of Southeast Asian Research, Vol.2011, pp.1-10.
14
Tam, M (2002). “Measuring the Effect of Higher Education on University Students”, Quality
Assurance in Education, Vol.10, No.4.
15
Sallis, E (2002). Total Quality Management in Education, London: Kogan Page Limited.
16
Ham, L and Hayduk, S (2003). “Gaining Competitive Advantages in Higher Education:
Analyzing the Gap between Expectations and Perceptions of Service Quality”, International
Journal of Value-Based Management, Vol.16, No.3, pp.223-242.
 5

Improving higher education quality demands revising the curricula and changing

the pedagogy to replace learning with more self-learning and creativity.

Higher education institutions need to assure quality of service to sustain in

the market they operate in. These institutions are now considered service centers

like other profitable and non-profitable organizations. As the process of

globalization encourages free movement of people and goods, job markets are not

specific to country boundaries, but more accurately within regional blocks.17 In

order to make the institution progressive and effective the knowledge of students’

expectations, academic preferences and quality perception about the educational

environment should be kept by the authorities of the institute. Particularly the

students who are studying in a higher educational institution seek more quality

education and perfection of the system at study place because it satisfies their

esteem and develops them with all the essentials and capabilities.

1.4. Higher Education Performance

Service quality in higher education is measured by Higher Education

Performance (HEdPERF). This concept was propounded by Firdaus. He

developed HEdPERF model by comparing with SERVPERF so as to access the

relative merits and demerits of each instrument, to identify the most superior

instrument. HEdPERF is a new instrument of service quality that captures the

authentic determinants of service quality within the higher education sector. He

proposed a 41 item instrument which then was empirically tested for

17
Hill, C. W. L (2014). International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace, New York:
McGraw Hill Education.
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unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory

factor analysis. Fridaus categorized 5 determinants of service quality in higher

education. They are non-academic aspect, academic aspect, reputation, access and

program issues. Non-academic aspect relates to the duties that are carried out by

non-academic staff. Academic aspect consists of the items that describe the factor

that are solely the responsibilities of academics/instructor. The reputation factor

consists of the item that is important for higher learning institutions in projecting a

professional image. Access includes issues as approachability, ease of contact,

availability and convenience of academic and non-academic staff. Program issues

include the item related to program flexibility, offering wide range of

programs/specialization, and quality program.

1.5. Statement of the Problem

Higher education institutions were formerly not regarded as profit making

organizations. However, the current economic climate, reduced government

funding, international competition and liberalization era have created a scenario

where higher education institutions are becoming business entities, competing for

resources and students, both in the local and global market. In India, higher

education has witnessed a sea change in the last decade. Today, the higher

education institutions have to meet the demands of the knowledge society, ever-

growing numbers of universities, budget cutbacks, and information and

communication technologies offering new opportunities for face-to-face and

distance service provision. These all force higher education institutions to

reexamine their structures, strategies and processes to adopt competitive strategies

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that allow them to differentiate their offerings on the basis of higher levels of

quality. Higher education institutions, which want to gain competitive edge in the

future, may need to begin searching for effective and creative ways to attract,

retain and foster stronger relationships with students. Moreover, overall quality

scenario of higher education in India does not match with the global quality

standards.

The enormous growth of students numbers, internationalization of

education, urgent need to reduce on government fund and increasing competitive

pressures have prompted higher education institutions to focus on quality student

service. Besides, the higher education institutions are beset by issues of quality in

many of its institutions due to chronic shortage of faculty, poor quality teaching,

outdated and rigid curricula and pedagogy, etc. The nation seems to be facing

serious hurdles as very few Indian institutions finds their place in the global

ranking. The most alarming indicator of this situation is however the

employability of the graduates. A vast majority of graduates are found to be

unemployable. Further, the increasing proliferation of private players has given

rise to cut throat competition in the higher education sector. Higher education

institutions can only be successful as long as their students are being offered

something that they wish to buy, at a quality they feel is acceptable.

As tough competition is going on all over the world especially in the field

of higher education, quality of service and student satisfaction plays a crucial role

for success. The student perception can act as an essential tool to enhance service

quality in higher education institutions. Students who are satisfied with the service
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quality of their institution will become a basis of competitive advantage. The

present study intends to find answers for the following questions: What are the

factors that influence the students to prefer particular higher education institution

for their study? To what extent are students satisfied with various services of the

higher education institutions? What is the level of perceived service quality by

the students in the higher education institutions? And to what extent do the

students have loyalty towards their higher education institutions? In this backdrop,

this study attempts to explore the aspects of service quality and the level of

satisfaction among the students of higher education institutions in Namakkal

district.

1.6. Objectives of the Study

The core objective of the present work is to examine the service quality in

the higher education institutions in Namakkal district. Besides, the study has the

following secondary objectives:

1. To find out the factors influencing the students to prefer a particular higher

education institution in Namakkal district.

2. To study the satisfaction level of students towards various services offered by

the higher education institutions in Namakkal district.

3. To find out the service quality gap in the higher education institutions in

Namakkal district.
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4. To ascertain the loyalty of students towards their higher education institutions

in Namakkal district.

5. To offer suitable suggestions to improve the service quality in the higher

education institutions based on the findings of the study.

1.7. Testing of Hypotheses

In order to examine the perception of the students towards service quality

in higher education institutions, the following null hypotheses have been

formulated.

H01: There is no significant relationship among the students belonging to different

demographic profiles towards various services offered by the higher education

institutions in Namakkal district.

H02: There is no significant relationship among the students belonging to different

demographic profiles towards perceived service quality in the higher education

institutions.

H03: There is no significant difference between the expected and perceived service

quality level of students in the higher education institutions.

H04: There is no significant relationship among the students belonging to different

demographic profiles towards loyalty with the higher education institutions.

1.8. Scope of the Study

The present research work attempts to study service quality in the higher
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education institutions in Namakkal district. The study is confined only to final

year undergraduate and postgraduate students of the higher education institutions.

In the present study, 6 dimensions of service quality, namely, learning outcomes,

academic staff, staff services, personal development, programs related aspects,

and group size only are studied. Further, the study is confined only to 4 arts and

science colleges, and 7 engineering colleges located in Namakkal district.

1.9. Operational Definitions of Concepts

Customers

A customer is an individual who is pursuing his studies in the higher

education institution. Thus, the term “customers” for the purpose of the study

includes final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students.

Student Satisfaction

Student satisfaction is an attitude derived from the evaluation of the

received education service.

HEdPERF

HEdPERF is a survey instrument used for evaluating the service quality of

higher education.

Academic Aspect

It includes items that describe responsibilities of academic staff.

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Non-academic Aspect

It relates to the duties carried out by non-academic staff.

Perceived Service Quality

The perceived service quality is defined as the quality of a service that a

student experiences after getting exposed to a certain service offered by his

institution.

Students’ Expectation

It is the perceived value that the students seek from the education services.

It also includes students’ needs and requirements.

Student Perception

It is the kind of services that the students are actually getting from the

higher education institutions.

Service Quality

Service quality is a measure of how well a delivered service matches the

student expectations in the higher education institutions.

1.10. Sampling Design

There are 20 Arts and Science Colleges and 35 Engineering Colleges in

Namakkal district as on March 2017. Thus, 55 colleges are considered the

universe of the study. In the present study, the sampling involves two stages. In
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the first stage, by adopting stratified random sampling, 20 per cent of the colleges

were selected from each category i.e. 4 Arts and Science Colleges, and 7

Engineering Colleges. In the second stage, by simple random sampling, from each

of the colleges selected, 10 per cent of the final year students pursuing under

graduate and postgraduate degrees were selected. Therefore, the sample size

consists of 559 undergraduate and 126 postgraduate students. The sampling

details are given in the following table.

TABLE 1.1

Sampling Distribution

Population Samples
Students

Students

Students

Students
College
UG

UG
PG

K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology 118 1315 PG

12 131

Muthayammal Engineering College 157 575 16 57

Annai Mathammal Sheela Engineering College 82 286 8 29

Paavai Engineering College 6 421 1 42

PGP College of Engineering and Technology 40 98 4 10

Gnanamani College of Technology 45 476 4 48

King College of Technology 125 227 12 23

Sengunthar College of Arts and Science 243 636 24 64

Selvamm Arts & Science College 210 491 21 49

Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College 119 687 12 69

Arignar Anna Government Arts College 120 375 12 37

Total 1265 5587 126 559

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1.11. Tools for Data Collection

The present study is empirical in character, based on survey method. As an

essential part of the study, the primary data were collected from 685 students.

Taking into consideration the objectives of the study, a questionnaire was

prepared after a perusal of available literature. Each question was improved for its

relevance and meaning by constant interaction with the experts in the areas. The

questionnaire consists of 54 service quality statements which fall under the

learning outcomes, academic staff, staff services, personal development, programs

related aspects, and group size dimensions of service quality. The questionnaire

was framed based on Likert scaling technique. Pre-testing of questionnaire was

done, involving 50 students to know the relevance of the questions. The

secondary data have been collected from journals, magazines, government reports

and books. The data so collected have been tabulated to arrive at useful

conclusions.

1.12. Period of Data Collection

As an essential part of the study, the primary data were collected for a

period of 6 months from July 2017 to December 2017.

1.13. Framework of Analysis

In order to study the perception of the students, analysis of variance,

student t test, paired t-test, analysis of co-efficient of variation, multiple regression

analysis, discriminant function analysis, path analysis and percentage analysis

have been employed. Analysis of variance and student t test are employed to find
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out the relationship among the students belonging to different demographic

profiles towards services of the select colleges. Co-efficient of variation is

employed to find out consistency in the satisfaction of students towards services

of the select colleges. Multiple regression analysis is employed to measure the

effect of personal variables on the students’ satisfaction towards services.

In addition, analysis of variance and student t-test were employed to

measure the relationship among the students belonging to different demographic

profiles towards perceived service quality. Co-efficient of variation was employed

to find out the consistency in perceived service quality. Discriminant function

analysis was applied to examine how the arts and science students differ from

those who are the students of engineering and technology on perceived service

quality. Discriminant function analysis was applied to examine how the

undergraduate students differ from those who are postgraduate students on

perceived service quality. Paired t test was employed to compare the expected and

perceived service quality levels. Multiple regression analysis has been used to

measure the effect of personal variables on the perceived service quality.

Moreover, analysis of variance and student t-test were employed to look at

the relationship among the students belonging to different demographic profiles

towards their loyalty. Co-efficient of variation was employed to find out the

consistency in the loyalty among the students of select colleges. Multiple regression

analysis has been used to measure the effect of personal variables on the loyalty of

the students. Path analysis was applied to understand the relationship between

service quality, satisfaction and loyalty of students along with their personal
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variables. Besides, comprehensive, descriptive and percentage analyses have been

employed in this study.

1.14. Limitations of the Study

The present study is concerned with the perception of students towards

service quality in the higher education institutions, rather than how it is reported

by the faculty members and management people. Besides, the study has the

following limitations:

1. The selection of a more representative sample would bring more illuminating

and comprehensive database for decision making. The present study has the

limitation of time and resources, usually faced by the researchers. It is

confined to only 11 colleges and a sample of 685 students in a single district.

Hence, the findings cannot be treated as representative of the entire higher

education sector.

2. Perception is highly subjective version of reality. In addition, in any study

having a bearing on attitude, incomplete and non-responses to some questions

could not be avoided. However, the researcher took maximum efforts to

minimize such errors.

1.15. Scheme of the Report

The thesis is presented in five chapters.

The first chapter “Introduction and Design of the Study” presents the

introduction, concept of service quality, service quality in higher education, higher

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education performance, statement of the problem, objectives of the study,

hypotheses, scope of the study, operational definitions of concepts, sampling

design, tools for data collection, framework of analysis, period of data collection,

limitations of the study and scheme of the report.

The second chapter “Review of Literature” reviews the earlier studies

related to the objectives of the present study.

The third chapter “Higher Education in India: An Overview” elaborates

the higher education system of India and the profile of select higher education

institutions.

The fourth chapter “Service Quality in Higher Education Institutions”

furnishes the profile of the sample students and analyses their perception towards

service quality in the higher education institutions.

The final chapter “Summary of Findings, Suggestions and Conclusion”

presents the summary of the findings of the present study and offers suitable

suggestions to improve service quality in the select higher education institutions.