Service quality as a predictor for academic engagement, student performance, and student satisfaction

Abstract

Many factors have led to the focus on quality and services in higher education. With an increase in competition from other academic institutions, a reduction in state resources, and increased program and service demands, the value and quality of higher education has come under public scrutiny. This increased scrutiny provides an opportunity to examine more appropriate ways to effectively measure the professional delivery of service to students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between service quality in the classroom as a predictor of academic engagement, academic performance, and student satisfaction. This study was founded on the established model of service delivery and the work of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry. The adapted SERVQUAL instrument was used to access the relationship between the variables satisfaction, academic engagement, and academic performance. The research participants were undergraduate business students enrolled in a leadership and professional development class. Data were gathered from 174 undergraduate students enrolled in a college of business at public university in the spring of 2014. The results of the study were consistent with the literature published on the service delivery model and behavioral outcomes. Service quality in this study showed to have a significant positive relationship with satisfaction with the course satisfaction with the instructor and academic engagement. Likewise the service quality instrument SERVQUAL reported a significant positive relationship between each of the five dimensions and the two variables student satisfaction and academic engagement. The third variable academic performance had no significant relationship with service quality or any of the 5 dimensions of SERVQUAL. This study included various implications for academic administrators and instructors. These recommendations for instructors include improvement on the care, attention, and courtesy, ability to convey trust and confidence and their performance of instruction can increase student satisfaction. The same behavior changes that improve satisfaction along with improvements in timeliness of response and showing a willingness to help can increase a student's academic engagement. The recommendations for academic administrators included the use service quality measures independently or in combination with current student opinion of instruction. The study concluded with recommendations for future research.