Improving Service Quality in Higher Education

This literature review examines articles on improving service quality in higher education institutions. It discusses the importance of perceived service quality, trust, and satisfaction in enhancing the overall educational experience. The articles highlight the use of quality models and management tools to measure and improve service quality in higher education. The limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Service industry marketing
NAME OF STUDENT
NAME OF COLLEGE
AUTHORS NOTE

SERVICE INDUSTRY
Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Annotated Bibliography 1............................................................................................................2
Annotated Bibliography 2............................................................................................................3
Annotated Bibliography 3............................................................................................................4
Annotated Bibliography 4............................................................................................................5
Annotated Bibliography 5............................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Abstract
The education sector is considered as a service sector which provides educational services to the
students for enhancing their future. Unlike any other service sector, the improvement of the
quality of service offered by the education sector is of great importance as it helps in
empowering the knowledge of students and enhancing their future careers. There are various
quality models which can be applied such as the index model for measuring the service quality in
higher educational institutions. There are various trends which have been identified regarding the
quality of student education in context of higher education. There are also various quality
management tools which can be implemented for improving the service quality in context of
higher education.
Introduction
The main aim of the current literature review is to analyse various articles regarding increasing
service quality in educational institutions in higher educational context and improving the quality
of service in higher education context. The articles which were reviewed belonged between the
time periods of 2014-2019. The analysis of the literature review was carried out by identifying
the purpose of the research, identifying the theory of the research, analysing the findings of the
research and also identifying the limitations of the article along with scope for future research.
Discussion
Annotated Bibliography 1
Sultan, P., & Yin Wong, H. (2014). An integrated-process model of service quality,
institutional brand and behavioural intentions. Managing Service Quality, 24(5), 487-521.
Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1661349139?accountid=30552
The main purpose of the current article is to design and examine a combined process model also
known as the index model by including the predecessors and outcomes of service quality in
context of higher education. The research which has been conducted in the current article
employed qualitative as well as quantitative research methods. According to Sultan & Yin Wong
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(2014) the data regarding the research were collected from three focus groups at an Australian
University helped in generating vital themes and the relationship among the various themes. The
theoretical model used in the research was later tested by using the structural equation modelling
technique on a sample of 528 university students. The findings of the current article reflect that
information or marketing communication and previous experiences have emerged as the
predecessor of perceived service quality. The findings of the article also reveals that service
quality which is perceived is a construct of the second order which shows three dimensions
namely academic, administrative and facilities. The finding of the article also reveals that the
consequences of perceived service quality include trust, satisfaction, brand performance of
university and behavioural intentions. The finding of the article also suggests a good validity of
the index model and also the nine path co-efficients were also found significant in a statistical
manner. The main limitations of the current article include collection of data from a single
university, lack of capturing of real-time “prior enrolment” experience, the lack of good
citizenship and community engagement items in university brand construct and lack of
willingness to give construct in the behavioural intentions construct. The future research
direction which has been stated in the current article is that future research should focus on
analysing the generalisability of the measures and the model in the broader context of the higher
education sector by including country-wise education students, schools, programmes and
campuses and accordingly deciding and monitoring each of the university’s health checks.
Annotated Bibliography 2
Sultan, P., & Wong, H. Y. (2018). How service quality affects university brand
performance, university brand image and behavioural intention: the mediating effects of
satisfaction and trust and moderating roles of gender and study mode. Journal of Brand
Management
University brand is a comparatively new concept and therefore its theoretical modelling is to
some extent inadequate. The purpose of the current article is to examine how service quality
which is perceived affects performance of the University brands, image of university brand,
behavioural intentions. The current article by taking the help of an online survey obtained 528
usable responses. The conceptual model was validated by using structural equation modelling.
As stated by Sultan & Wong (2018).The current study makes a creative theoretical contribution
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by establishing a relationship among experience-centric brand performance and brand image, and
the predecessors and outcome of the link. In addition to that, satisfaction among students and
trust were demonstrated for mediating the connection between service quality which is
perceived, performance of brand, image of brand and behavioural intentions in context of higher
education. The result of the finding also demonstrated presence of no moderating effects of
gender or study mode on the model which helps in confirming that the model is invariant across
the variable. The current model also suggests that the vitality of experience-centric service
quality attributes and the way it affects the branding strategies of the university for sustained
positive intentions. The limitations associated with the current study are drawing of the samples
of the research from a single Australian university and low response rate among the samples. The
future research direction stated in the current article includes that future research should be
cautious regarding extrapolating the model across different universities, geographical and culture
contexts due to potential moderating effects of gender, study course, study mode, level of study,
ethnicity and maturity level in overall estimation of model.
Annotated Bibliography 3
Tarí, J. J., & Dick, G. (2016). Trends in quality management research in higher education
institutions. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 26(3), 273-296. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1780452264?accountid=30552
The main purpose of the current article is to govern the condition of research regarding quality
management in context of higher education institutions grounded on a review of the academic
literature. The main aim of the current article is to facilitate higher education universities with
the best available evidences in order to inform their focus and models regarding improvement of
quality. As stated by Tarí & Dick (2016) despite the role of growing qualities in universities as
higher education universities tries to compete in a market which is underfunded in nature for
students and funds of research. The current article helps in demonstrating that the current review
is limited in volume and scope. In order to make sure of the greatest possible coverage in the
current literature review article, the current article uses three databases namely Science Direct,
Emerald and ABI/Inform. The findings of the current article reveals that the most common topic
in the article reviewed were issues regarding quality management implementation, tools and
techniques used in quality management and dimensions of quality management. The vital quality
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management dimensions which were found in the research were management of people,
management of process and information and analysis while the dimensions of the result is mainly
focussed on an understanding regarding the requirements of the stakeholders feedback of their
perceptions regarding performance. The findings of the article also reveal that the students are
discussed in the research as both end customers and graduates and also as participants involved
in the learning process who holds opinions regarding their experiences. The gaps which have
been identified in the current article includes absence of research regarding how quality
management dimensions can help the managers for facilitating continuous improvement and
accountability, the use of computer search grounded on three database. The future research
directions which have been proposed in the current article includes formalizing measurements
for each quality dimensions and examining their validity and reliability of scale across various
institutions, examining various levels of implementation of dimensions regarding quality
management in higher educational institutions and the consequence of a greater or smaller
internationalisation of quality management practices.
Annotated Bibliography 4
Berbegal-Mirabent, J., & Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2015). Behind league tables and ranking
systems. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 25(3), 242-266. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1768593131?accountid=30552
The main aim of the current article is to assess the role of university ranking system as
instruments for university quality assessments. There are various controversies which surrounds
the methodologies which are used to combine such instruments. Therefore, various compilers
have taken various methods for producing the ranking. According to Berbegal-Mirabent &
Ribeiro-Soriano (2015) the main aim of the current research paper is to analyse to what extent
the methodological diversity is currently converging in context of rankings in Spanish
universities. In order to carry out the research, an approach consisting of two-steps was adopted.
Firstly the indicators which were utilized in four Spanish rankings were analysed and secondly
empirical analysis were utilized for identifying variances among the rankings of the university.
The finding of the article helps in revealing that in spite of the large number and the kinds of
indicators, there has been observed positive and prominent relationship among the rankings and
therefore rankings of Spanish Universities therefore demonstrates limited degree of convergence.
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The main limitation which has been observed in the current article relates to the specific analysis
of the public higher education system of Spain and data limitations. The directions of future
research which has been stated in the current article includes including private universities
besides public higher education system for specific analysis and conducting similar examinations
of league tables in different countries to see to what level the construct of academic qualifiers
various from one country to the other.
Annotated Bibliography 5
Sim, M., Jodie, C., & Carolin, P. (2018). Engagement within a service system: A fuzzy set
analysis in a higher education setting. Journal of Service Management, 29(3), 422-442.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-08-2016-0232
The main purpose of the current article is to analyse the interdependence between engagements
in multiple basis in a setting of higher education by considering the multiple engagement basis
which exists within a service system. For the research purpose, 251 students were surveyed
regarding their level of engaging with a provider of service which can include lecturer, brand for
instance university and context of study. The analysis of data in the current research used fuzzy
set qualitative comparative analysis for identifying the unique combinations regarding casual
condition consistent with high engagement of students in the study context. As stated by Sim,
Jodie & Carolin (2018) the findings of the current article identified five solutions, each with a
unique constituent of discussions regarding engagement. The findings of the article demonstrate
that majority of solutions included engagement with the provider of service and the brand also
and cognitive processing came out as a key criteria for each identified solution which advices
that providers of educational services should try to captivate with their customers, mainly from a
perspective which is cognitive in nature and an idea of it will help in supporting engagement
with the study context. The limitations of the current article includes that the engagement of the
students were measured with three engagement basis with a sole focus on a higher education
service system setting. The direction for future research stated in the article includes considering
the effect of the engagement of the students by including a range of actors, further engagement
basis at various levels of aggression for yielding higher insights on engagement within a service
system and discovering the predecessors or understanding the motivations of the engagement of
the actors with the service provider.
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Conclusion
The findings of the above findings states that the improvement of the service quality in higher
education contexts depends on a various factors and in order to enhance the quality of service in
the education sector it is very vital both for the students and the education providers such as the
universities and other higher education system providers to work collaboratively in this regard.
From the analysis of the above articles it can be also stated that assessment of quality of the
service provided by the service providers cannot be measured by any fixed tools or techniques as
it depends on the context and also depends upon the effectiveness of the tool in measuring such
service quality. From the above research it can also be concluded that the service quality in
higher educational sectors should be measured in order to improve its quality.
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References
Berbegal-Mirabent, J., & Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2015). Behind league tables and ranking
systems. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 25(3), 242-266. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1768593131?accountid=30552
Sim, M., Jodie, C., & Carolin, P. (2018). Engagement within a service system: A fuzzy set
analysis in a higher education setting. Journal of Service Management, 29(3), 422-442.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-08-2016-0232
Sultan, P., & Wong, H. Y. (2018). How service quality affects university brand performance,
university brand image and behavioural intention: the mediating effects of satisfaction and
trust and moderating roles of gender and study mode. Journal of Brand Management
Sultan, P., & Yin Wong, H. (2014). An integrated-process model of service quality, institutional
brand and behavioural intentions. Managing Service Quality, 24(5), 487-521. Retrieved
from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1661349139?accountid=30552
Tarí, J. J., & Dick, G. (2016). Trends in quality management research in higher education
institutions. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 26(3), 273-296. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1780452264?accountid=30552
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