Author

  • Jeevarathnam P Govender

    • Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
    • South Africa

  • Dayaneethie Veerasamy

    • Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
    • South Africa

  • Dion T Noel

    • Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
    • South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has recently seen a significant increase in international student enrolments in recent years. In order to be competitive, attention needs to be given to service quality with a view to being the institution of preference. This paper therefore seeks to assess international students’ expectations and perceptions of service quality. A census was conducted among the 215 international students, using the SERVQUAL model as the measuring instrument. The results indicate that there are gaps between international students’ expectations and perceptions on the five service quality dimensions. An analysis of variance was conducted to test for significant differences between three biographical variables viz. faculty of study, qualification enrolled for and region of residence versus the five dimensions of service quality, on both expectations and perceptions. Recommendations are presented on how the institution can enhance service quality among its international students.

Keywords

References

  • Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V. & Day, G.S. (2007). Marketing Research (9th Ed), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Arambewela, R. & Hall, J. (2006). A comparative analysis of international education satisfaction using SERVQUAL. Journal of Services Research, 6(7), 141-163.
  • Armstrong, G. & Kotler, P. (2006). Marketing: An introduction (8th Ed), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall International.
  • Blem, N. (2000). Service Please South Africa. Johannesburg: Creda Press.
  • Brink, A. & Berndt, A. (2010). Customer Relationship Management and Customer Service . Johannesburg: Juta.
  • Brown, T. J. & Suter, T. (2008). Marketing research . Mason: South Western-Cengage Learning
  • Coye, R. W. (2004). Managing customer expectations in the service encounter. International Journal of service industry management, 15(1), 54-71.
  • Dale, B. G., Van-der-Wiele, T. & Van-Iwaarden, J. (2007). Managing Quality (5th Ed), Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Dhurup, M., Singh, P. C. & Surujlal, J. (2006). Customer Service Quality at Commercial Health and Fitness Centres. South African Journal for Research in Sport, 28(2), 39-54.
  • Futrell, C. (2008). Fundamentals of Selling: Customers for Life through Service (10th Ed), NY: McGraw-Hill.
  • Gabbott, M. & Hogg, G. (2002). Consumers and Services . Cambridge: Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd.
  • Griffen, H., Norton, W. & Samuels, R. (2002). Best practice for consumer satisfaction in manufacturing firms. Sloan Management Review, 15(31), 308-329.
  • Harris, E. K. (2010). Customer Service: A Practical Approach (5th Ed), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Jain, R., Sinha, G. & Sahney, S. (2011). Conceptualising service quality in higher education. Asian Journal on Quality, 12(3), 296-314
  • Lovelock, C. & Wright, L. (2007). Principles of Service Marketing and Management (5th Ed), Englewood Cliffs NJ: Pearson.
  • Lovelock, C. & Wirtz, J. (2007). Services Marketing People Technology, Strategy, Englewood Cliffs NJ: Pearson.
  • Malhotra, N. K. (2007). Marketing research: An Applied Orientation (5th Ed), Englewood Cliffs NJ: Pearson.
  • Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. & Berry, L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and the implications for future research. Journal of Marketing , 49(2), 41-50.
  • Quinn, A., Lemay, G., Larsen, P. & Johnson, D. A. (2009). Service quality in higher education. Total Quality Management , 20(2), 139-152
  • Quintana, J. (2006). The greatest blind spot: Customer perception . Available at http:// www.mycustomer.com. [Accessed 10 June 2011].
  • Sekaran, U. (2003). Research Methods for Business: A Skill-Building Approach (4th Ed), NY: John Wiley.
  • Seymour, D. T. (1992). On Q: Causing Quality in Higher Education. NY: Macmillan Press.
  • Sharma, R. D. & Kaur, G. (2004). Globalisation of Indian higher education. Apeejay Business Review, 5(1), 73-78.
  • Silvestro, R. (2005). Applying gap analysis in the health service to inform the service improvement agenda. International journal of quality and reliability management, 22(3), 215-233.
  • Stone, G. (2005). An educational institution’s quest for service quality: Customers’ perspective. Quality Assurance in Education, 13(1), 201-225
  • Strydom, J. W., Jooste, C. J. & Cant, M. C. (2000). Marketing Management (4th Ed), Cape Town: Juta.
  • Wakefield, K. L. & Blodgett, J. G. (1999). Customer response to intangible and tangible service factors. Psychology & Marketing, 16(1), 1-18
  • World Education News and Reviews. (2004). International Enrolment Increases . Available at http://www.wes.org/eWENR/PF/04nov/pafafrica.-htm. [Accessed 9 June 2011].
  • Yeo, R. K. (2008). Brewing service quality in higher education. Quality assurance in education, 16(3), 266286.
  • Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J. & Gremler, D. D. (2006). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm (4th Ed), NY: McGraw-Hill.

Downloads

No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.

How to Cite

Govender, J. P., Veerasamy, D., & Noel, D. T. (2012). International Students’ Expectations and Perceptions of Service Quality: The Case of a Higher Education Institution in South Africa. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 4(10), 588-594. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v4i10.359

Share this article

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Jeevarathnam P Govender, Dayaneethie Veerasamy, Dion T Noel (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team  edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.

This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.

Keywords

Section

Research Paper

Published in

Vol. 4 No. 10 (2012) Markets, Education & Organizational Perception View issue contents

Published

2012-10-15

Submissions

Have research to publish? Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies welcomes submissions.

Make a Submission