MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY IN

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN SELECT

INSTITUTIONS AFFILIATED TO GBTU

(FORMERLY UPTU)

THESIS

SUBMITTED TO

THE UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION

SUBMITTED BY:

DEEPTI SHARMA

Under the supervision of

DR S. K. KAUSHAL

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

LUCKNOW 2014

Dedicated to my Parents, Husband

and

My loving son Aaradhya

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

Date:

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mrs. Deepti Sharma has carried out the research work presented in

this thesis entitled “Measuring Service quality in management education in select

institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU)” for the award of Doctor of

Philosophy from Lucknow University, Lucknow under my supervision. The thesis

embodies results of original work, and studies are carried out by the student herself and

the contents of the thesis do not form the basis for the award of any other degree to the

candidate or to anybody else from this or any other University/Institution.

Supervisor

Dr S.K Kaushal

Assistant Professor

Department of Business Administration

DECLARATION

I hereby affirm that my research work entitled “Measuring Service Quality in

Management Education in Select Institutions Affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU)”

for the award of Doctor of Philosophy from Lucknow University, Lucknow is my own

original work and has not been submitted for any assessment or degree/diploma or

award at the University of Lucknow or any other University/Institutions.

Deepti Sharma


COUNTERSIGNED

This is to certify that the above declaration by the candidate is true to the best of my

knowledge.

Supervisor

Dr. S.K. Kaushal

Assistant Professor


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to my supervisor

Dr.S.K.Kaushal , Assistant Professor of Business Administration, University of Lucknow,

for his valuable guidance, encouragement, continuous inspiration and helpful suggestion

throughout my research work. He had constantly encouraged me to complete the

research study. I am heavily indebted to him for imparted his priceless and meticulous

supervision at each and every phase of research work whenever needed. He inspired me

in innumerable ways in accomplishing this research work. Thanks are due to him not

only for the academic guidance but also for the moral support, consistent kindness and

never ending encouragement given by him.

I am highly grateful to Prof. A. Chatterjee, the present Head of Department of Business

Administration and Dean of Faculty of Commerce, University of Lucknow and Prof. J.K

Sharma, the former Head of Department of Business Administration for extending

infrastructural facilities and allowing me to undertake this study smoothly.

My sincere thanks are due to Mr. Sanjay Medhavi and Dr. Ritu Narang faculty member

of business administration for their co-operation, continuous encouragement and support

throughout my research work. I also express my thanks to all the faculty and staff

members of the business administration, University of Lucknow for their continuous

encouragement. Among them, Mr. M. Chandran deserves special thanks for his kind co-

operation in non-academic matters during the research work.

I am also deeply indebted to my friends Arvind kr Singh, Priya, Shambhavi and Mohit

Ahuja for giving me their time and attention. Dr. Vikram Bisen taught me to focus

relentlessly on the publishable papers out of research and I expect this will stand me in

good stead in the years to come.

I am obliged to Librarian and staff members of the Tagore library of Lucknow

University, library of the department of business administration, Library of IIM Lucknow,

SAMA library Lucknow, for their cooperation and support through the research work.

I am privileged to fulfill my parents ambition and greatly indebted to them for providing

me moral support and good wishes in the completion of research study.

I express an appreciation to my husband Gyan Prakash Sharma, son Aaradhya for their

understanding, patience and sustained me through the ups and downs inevitable in the

completion of a doctoral program. My In-laws and my sisters Anjali ,Reecha and Anshu,

younger brother were always around to cheer me up and to lend a helping hand .My

mother gave me confidence whenever it tended to flag-they seemed to more faith in my

abilities than I did.

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who are directly or indirectly assisted

me & whose help & cooperation made this research work accomplished.

(Deepti Sharma)


University of Lucknow

Lucknow

ABSTRACT

In today‟s world of competitive environment, rendering quality service is key competing

weapon for success. To gain competitive advantage, customer service and quality are the

two most driving forces for the service providers. In order to sustain in the business and

to retain their share and profitability it is imperative for the service providers to provide

quality service to their customers. Thus, service quality has become predominant part of

all advanced organization‟s strategic plan. Considering any other service, measuring

service quality is an important issue in management education. Management education is

one of the professional and higher education course. Higher education possesses all the

characteristics of service industry such as it has both the customer and service providers.

The main aim of this study was to examine the students‟ expectation and perception

towards the service quality in management education and also to understand how the

students perceive the quality service provided in the select management institutes

affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU). Therefore, based on the literature SERVQUAL

model has been widely used in the study of management education service in particular.

In 1988, the first service quality measurement model was developed by Parasuraman et

al. known as Service Quality (SERVQUAL).He developed five dimensions showing

significance to the measurement of service quality, namely (a) Tangibles (physical

facilities and equipment), (b) Reliability (performing the promised service), (c)

Responsiveness (willingness to help customers), (d) Assurance (courtesy of employees to

convey trust) and (d) Empathy (individualized attention provided to customers).This

demonstrates that „measuring service quality‟ plays a vital role in upholding the

standards in the process of delivering quality education. For the purpose of this study an

enhanced approach to using SERVQUAL is adopted for measuring service quality in

management education. The methodology has been applied in select management

institutes affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU).The proposed instrument was tested at

five management institutes of GBTU. Based on convenience sampling on 500 students

employing a survey instruments that measure five dimensions of quality attributes. An

analysis demonstrates the usefulness of the approach in gathering students‟ perception,

analyzing them and suggestions has been to put forward to the management institutes of

GBTU. Five quality dimensions viz., teaching, co-operation & support, facilities,

convenient and reliability are identified based on principal component factor analysis.

The result shows that students are satisfied with quality service on dimensions like

teachings, convenient, facilities, co-operation but least satisfied with the dimension

reliability. The empirical findings enables the management institutes to develop a

monitoring system for management education and also to take out guidelines on service

parameters where they could adopt in order to have competitive advantage over their

competitors.

Key words: Competitive Advantage; Management Education; Service Quality;

Expectations; Perceptions; .Customer satisfaction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgment i

Abstract iii

Table of Contents v

List of Figures ix

List of Tables x

List of Abbreviation xii

S. No. Page No.

1 Chapter 1: Introduction 1-33

1.1 Introduction 1 1.2

Theoretical Background 3

1.2.1 Overview of Indian Higher education and Service Quality 3

1.2.2 Concept of Quality 7

1.3 Concept of Management Education 8

1.3.1 Brief Scenario of Management Education 8

1.3.2 Growth of Management Education during Last Five Years 10

1.3.3 Present Management Education Scenario in India 13

1.3.4 Types of Business Schools in India 14

1.3.5 Importance of Management Education 14

1.4 Quality in Education Sector 15

1.4.1 Quality and Management Education 18

1.5 Systematic Issues of Management Education in India 19

1.5.1 The Nanda Committee 19

1.5.2 The Kurein Committee 20

1.5.3 The Ishwar Dayal Committee 21

1.5.4 The Management Education Review Committee 22

1.6 Brief Profile of Uttar Pradesh 24

1.6.1 Growth of Management Education in Uttar Pradesh 26

1.6.2 GBTU 28

1.6.2.1 Educational Streams 29

1.6.2.2 Facilities 29

1.6.2.3 History 29

1.62.4 Vision and Mission 30

1.7 Objective of the Study 31

1.8 Scope of the Study 32

1.9 Importance of Study 32

1.10 Organization of the Thesis 33

2 CHAPTER II: Literature Review 36-79

2.1 Introduction 36

2.2 Overview of the Quality Movement 36

2.3 Services 40

2.3.1 Understanding a Service Concept 41

2.3.2 Services versus Goods 43

2.4 Quality 46

2.4.1 Definitions of Quality 46

2.4.2 Dimensions of Quality 49

2.4.2.1 Product Dimensions 50

2.4.2.2 Software Quality Dimensions 52

2.5 Service Quality and Dimensions 54

2.5.1 Definition of Service Quality 54

2.5.2 Dimension of Service Quality 57

2.6 Measuring Service Quality 65

2.6.1 The GAP Model 67

2.6.2 Performance only Model 70

2.7 Service Quality in Education Industry 72

2.7.1 Customers of Education Industry 73

2.7.2 Expectations and Perceptions 75

2.7.3 The Disconfirmation Paradigm 75

2.8 Satisfaction 77

2.9 Relevance to Management Education 78

2.10 Conclusion 79

3 CHAPTER III: Research Methodology 81-88

3.1 Introduction 81

3.2 Research Design 81

3.3 Data Collection Method 83

3.3.1 Selection of Sample 84

3.3.2 Choice of Respondents 85

3.4 Measure Instrument 85

3.5 Testing of Questionnaire 87

3.6 Data Organization 87

3.7 Data Analysis Method 88

3.8 Formulation of Hypothesis 88

4 CHAPTER IV: Data Analysis and Interpretation 91-155

4.1 Introduction 91

4.2 Demographic profile of the respondents 92

4.3 Reliability Coefficient Discussion 97

4.4 Findings on overall Service Quality 98

4.5 The GAP Score Analysis 102

4.6 Overall Perceived Service Quality 103

4.7 Average Score of Expectations and Perceptions from all

Respondents 104

4.8 Expectations 105

4.9 Perceptions 106

4.10 Cross Tab Analysis 108

4.11 Findings on the hypothesis Testing 113

4.11.1 Hypothesis 1 113





4.12 Factor Analysis 118

4.13 ANOVA Test 130

4.14 Correlation Analysis 151

4.14.1 Pearson Correlation 151

4.15 Conclusion 155

5 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 157-164

5.1 Introduction 157

5.2 Summary of Findings 158

5.2.1 Effect of demographic factors 158

5.3 Recommendations to Improve Quality 160

5.4 Conclusion 162

5.5 Limitations 163

5.6 Scope for Future Research 164

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix A Original Questionnaire

LIST OF FIGURES

S.No. Particulars Page No.

Figure 2.1 The Perceived Service Quality Model 58

Figure 2.2 Gap Model Illustrations 68

Figure 2.3 Determinants of Perceived Service Quality 69

Figure 2.4 The Disconfirmation Model 76

Figure 4.1 Students Status 92

Figure 4.2 Gender 93

Figure 4.3 Age Group 94

Figure 4.4 Residential Area 95

Figure 4.5 Family Income 96

Figure 4.6 Student Status* Satisfaction CrossTabulation 108

Figure 4.7 Gender * Satisfaction CrossTabulation 109

Figure 4.8 Residential* Satisfaction CrossTabulation 110

Figure 4.9 Age * Satisfaction CrossTabulation 111

Figure 4.10 Family Income * Satisfaction 112

Figure 4.11 Scree Plot 129

LIST OF TABLES

S.No Particulars PageNo.

Table 1.1 Growth of AICTE Approved Technical

Institutions in Last Years 12

Table 1.2 Growth of Intake in AICTE Approved Institutions

in Last Years 12

Table 2.1 Service Quality Model 71

Table 4.2.1 Demographic profile of student status 92

Table 4.2.2 Demographic profile of student gender 93

Table 4.2.3 Demographic profile of student Age group 94

Table 4.2.4 Demographic profile of student Residential Area 95

Table 4.2.5 Demographic profile of student family Income 96

Table 4.3.1 Reliability Coefficient( Cronbach α) 97

Table 4.4.1 Mean Score (Standard deviations for

modified SERVQUAL dimensions) 98

Table 4.7.1 Average Score of Expectation and Perceptions

of all respondents 104

Table 4.8.1 Top Seven Expectations of the Students 106

Table 4.9.1 List of seven perception items which have disagreement

among students 107

Table 4.10.1 Student status * satisfaction crosstabulation 108

Table 4.10.2 Student gender * satisfaction crosstabulation 109

Table 4.10.3 Student residential area * satisfaction crosstabulation 110

Table 4.10.4 Student age group * satisfaction crosstabulation 111

Table 4.10.5 Student family income * satisfaction crosstabulation 112

Table 4.11.1 The result of a paired sample t-test for Hypothesis 1 113





Table 4.12.1 Factor analysis of total variance explained 120

Table 4.12.2 KMO & Bartlett‘s Test 122

Table 4.12.3 Extraction Method : Principal Component Analysis 124

Table 4.12.4 Factor loading Matrix 125

Table 4.12.5 Test for reliability of the scale using Cronbach‘s Alpha 128

Table 4.13.1 Anova Test by Gender 130

Table 4.13.2 Anova Test by Income 137

Table 4.13.3 Anova Test by Residential 144

Table 4.14.1 Correlation between dimension 154

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AICTE - All India Council of Technical Education

ANOVA - Analysis of Variance

EAC - Economic Advisory Council

GBTU - Gautam Buddha Technical University

GDP - Gross Domestic Product

HEDPERF - Higher Education Performance

IGNOU - Indira Gandhi National Open University

IIM - Indian Institute of Management

IPO - Input-Process-Output

ISEC - Institute of Social & Economic Change

MBA - Master of Business Administration

NBA - National Board of Accrediation

QC - Quality Circle

SPC - Statistical Process Control

SERVQUAL - Service Quality

SERVPERF - Service Performance

TQM - Total Quality Management

UPTU - Uttar Pradesh Technical University

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Business organization, be it banking, or an education institutions or hospitals are a part of

the society and placing more focus on service quality. Further, with increase in industrial

trade, the number of industries producing goods increased at a very fast pace and the

word ‗QUALITY‘ became a matter of concern for industrial organization. This was to

keep the firms competitive in the national and the global trade markets. Therefore,

service industries are increasingly playing an important role all over the world. As a

result of globalization and technological advancement, today, the competition has

peaked. In this environment, only those industries survive which offer the best services to

their customers. It has become a very hard job for the industries to attract customers

because these days they have many options available to them. In order to retain their

share in the world market in terms of quality and reliability of their products must

maintain quality of their goods and services. The term ‗quality‘ has, thus , taken a form of

quality revolution which each firm today is striving to aim at and if not, should aim at.

So, it is very important for the organization to possess knowledge about the customer

behavior and satisfaction in order to render quality service to its customers. Therefore,

service industries continue to grow significantly in the overall Indian economy such as

education, banking, hospital, hotel, and transportation. Thus, service quality has become

predominant part of all advanced organization‘s strategic plan. This study is focused on

education service industry and specially to measure the service quality in management

education in select institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU).

The service industry has emerged as the largest and fastest growing sectors in the world

economy, making higher contributions to the global output and employment. It is the

most dynamic part of the Indian economy both in terms of employment potential and

contribution to national income. In India, services sector, as a whole, contributed as much

as 68.6 percent of the overall average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) between

the years 2002-03 and 2006-071. The most important services in the Indian economy have

been health and education. They are one of the largest and most challenging sectors and

hold a key to the country‘s overall progress. The reason for choosing the measuring of

service quality in management education lies in the fact that in recent years there has

been a proliferation of educational institutions in our country. Education is primarily

considered as philanthropic service and it largely contribute on socio-economic

development of a developing country.

In particular, we have seen an unprecedented number of technical and management

institutions being set up since the early 1990‘s mostly through private capital. With this

all students have many options available to them; factors that enable management

education institutes to attract and retain students should be studied seriously. Moreover,

it is important to properly assess the service quality of management education imparted to

the students of the various institutions for proper decision-making regarding selection and

recruitment by potential employer. Thus there is a need for measuring service quality of

management education in select institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU). The

education industry can be described as the collection of organizations and business that

provide products and services aimed at enhancing the quality of education in society.

1 Business Portal of India : India & Services: Services Sector

1.2 Theoretical Background

1.2.1 Overview of Indian Higher Education Sector and Service Quality

Higher education, like most business and organizations today, is increasingly concerned

about the quality of its goods and services. Currently, the literature pertaining to service

quality in the higher education sector is significantly undeveloped. Traditionally, many

researchers have focused their efforts on commercial services (Sultan and Wong, 2010).

Considering any other services, management education institutes are additionally a novel

kind of service sector. In today‘s competitive educational environment like most business

schools is increasingly concerned about the importance of measuring service quality

(Gbadamosi, Gbolahan & De Jager Johan 2008). Management education has seen a

noteworthy growth in India within the recent years as mirrored within the steep rise

within the range of institutes providing postgraduate programmes in management

education. With the rise within the variety and kinds of business faculties, there are

growing concerns about maintaining the quality of management education among the

country. As ISO 9001-2000 serves the purpose of increasing consistency of a product or

enhancing service quality, the management institutions have to commit in fulfilling the

requirements of providing good quality education.

Berry and Parasuraman (1992) argue that the strategic success of a service organization

depends on the ability of service providers to enhance their images by consistently

meeting or exceeding customers‘ service expectations. In this context management

education institutions are a service provider and students are playing the role of

customers. It is the responsibility of the academics staff and faculty administrator to

adopt a policy of continuous improvement for students (customers) and to maintain the

quality of management education. All of them in the institutions play separate role in

ensuring service quality in management education.

In India, education is that the key to the task of nation-building. It is additionally a well

accepted undeniable fact that providing the right information and skills to the youth can

ensure the overall national progress and economic process. It is an essential element in

human resource development. The Indian education system acknowledges the role of

education in inculcation the values of doctrine, respect for democratic traditions and civil

liberties and go after justice. The ongoing demand to strengthen the Republic of Indian

education sector has displayed several avenues for individuals of India additionally as

non-residents of India to take a position in education sector that\'s why, Indian education

sector has been recognized as a ―Sunshine Sector‖ for investment in the recent past.

Education is such a prestigious and fruitful investment that it always rewards in multiple

ways. It has always been accorded an honored place in every economy. The strong and

effective educational system results in the economic growth, social transformation and

greater performance of the students. Thus, education industry plays an increasingly

important role in supporting public education by meeting the demand for products and

services that both complement basic education services and supplement their underlying

goals. The industry is defined by four main categories: Schools/Service Providers,

Supplemental Education Service Providers, Products and Education Service Businesses 2

. As a result of globalization, Indian economy strongly influences higher education to

improve quality of life.

2 Sectors in Education Industry- Techno Function

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 and technical

education, over the decades ever since independence. India‘s aspirations to establish a

knowledge society in the context of increasing globalization, is based on the assumption

that higher and technical education essentially empowers people with the requisite

competitive skills and knowledge. It has been realized that it is the quality of education

that prepares one for all pursuits of life and in the absence of an acceptable level of

quality, higher education becomes a mere formalism devoid of any purpose or substance.

As a result, from around the turn of the century, increasing attention has also been paid to

quality and excellence in higher education.

India‘s aspirations to establish a knowledge society in the context of increasing

globalization, is based on the assumption that higher and technical education essentially

empowers people with the requisite competitive skills and knowledge. It has been

realized that it is the quality of education that prepares one for all pursuits of life and in

the absence of an acceptable level of quality, higher education becomes a mere formalism

devoid of any purpose or substance. As a result, from around the turn of the century,

increasing attention has also been paid to quality and excellence in higher education.

Post-independence India has witnessed an above average growth in the number of higher

educational institutions vis-à-vis its population. While there were just about 20

Universities and 500 Colleges at the time of independence, today these numbers have

grown exponentially. Please find below a snapshot of the current higher education sector

in India:

• India has a total of 574 universities. 44 central universities, 286 state universities,

111state private universities, 129 deemed universities and 4 institutions established

through state legislation, 30 Institutions of National Importance3

• There are 45 technical institutes, 13 management institutes, 4 information technology

institutes, 6 science and research institutes and 3 planning and architecture institutes

• Currently, the Government spends around 3.8% of its GDP on education

• Less than 1% of the $38 bn of the Government spend on education was towards Capex

(2008-09)

• According to the 2011 census, the total literacy rate in India is 74.04% compared to the

world average of 83.4% (2008)

• The female literacy rate is 65.46 % and male literacy rate is 82.14 %

• FDI inflows in the education sector during May 2012 stood at $31.22 mn

It is imperative to understand how the student perceives the performance of quality

service and also the factors which influences service quality in management education

institutes. Students are considered to be a customer and also a product of the management

education institute. So, quality of education has to be monitored regularly because

students (customers) are directly involved in the education process.

3 (Source: UGC Annual Report 2010-2011- DGET; Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD)

Annual Report 2011-2012;IDFC SSKI 2010;DISE 2009-10 Flash Statistics; MHRD Statistics: Higher &

technical Education 2010; Planning Commission Midterm Review of XI Plan)

Higher education, like most business today, is increasingly concerned about the quality of

its goods and services. There is increased competition for a shrinking pool of students

and those students are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. While some

organizations make products that are tangible, higher education‘s product is largely

intangible. As a result, assurance of quality can be more difficult than in traditional

manufacturing industries. Further, unlike tangible goods, the higher education product

cannot be returned if customer is dissatisfied.

This research attempts to provide an overview of the quality issues associated with the

select management institutes affiliated to GBTU (formerly UPTU). It also tried to find

out the factors which are responsible for quality service in management education

institute from students (customers) point of view.

1.2.2 Concept of Quality

The term quality must be defined and discussed. Webster‘s dictionary defines quality

as not only the basic character or characteristic that makes something good or bad,

commendable or reprehensible, but also the degree of excellence a thing processes, or

superiority. Webster‘s goes on to define quality control or assurance as a system for

maintaining desired standards in a product. The two definitions comprise the most

simplistic basis for achieving quality assurance in any organization, including higher

education. Obviously an organization must define itself, as through a mission statement

and then set goals and objectives that will support that mission before it can hope to

measure its outcome against the stated goals. This is quality assurance.

Quality is everybody‘s job, part of our job requirements. You cannot create quality

without a quality culture in your organization. Change in culture starts from a change in

leadership culture and continues only with continuous measurement and feedback

(Lomas, 1999). Generally, quality studies in an organizational context aims at improving

quality, reducing cost, capturing the market and staying in business. Traditionally it is

believed that quality and productivity are of conflicting in nature but presently synergy

between quality and productivity is desirable for organizational success because both

leads to same goals.

In manufacturing industries, measurement and evaluation of product quality becomes

easy because quality is defined as the variation in predetermined specifications. The

process standards for manufacturing firms are relatively easy to specify and can be

analyzed using different quality improvement tools because manufacturing sector makes

products that are tangibles. On the other hand, service sectors have intangible

components associated with them. It co-ordinates both technical and human behavioral

aspects that are extremely difficult to quantify. The service component of a management

educator‘s job plays a critical role in professional development, in a faculty member‘s

level of visibility in an institution and the greater education industry, and contributes

significantly to the effectiveness of the various academic units. . At this juncture,

dynamic growth in the field of management education is taking place and it needs to be

discussed.

1.3 Concept of Management Education

1.3.1 Brief scenario of Management Education

The origin of management education dates back to ancient times. It is a unique art

developed by mankind along its evolution journey. Greeks, Chinese and Indian thinkers

contributed to this art of getting things done by others. Strategic decisions and art of

administration were adopted during the times of kautilya. Management education is an

offshoot of the industrial revolution which created the factory system, thereby providing

a ledge to the art of management. In the Indian subcontinent, management education has

come over a period of past 50 years, whereas Europeans are teachings this education

since last 400 years.

Due to the slow rate of economic growth after independence till 1990 the opportunities

created by industry were too few. Globalization gave a big boost to the economy while

the service sector came to dominate other sectors. This has paved a way for increased

demand for management education. Process of liberalization, privatization and

globalization has not only transformed traditional approach of the system with a more

efficient professional approach; but also introduced new age courses which have more

economic value in today‘s time. The world is shrinking to a global village. With the

advancement in e-commerce, the way of doing business is also changing throughout the

world. India has witnessed a continuing growth in this sphere of education because of the

rising demand of trained management graduates.

Management education has become one of the most sought after education today as a

result of this; private sector has entered in Indian management scenario and invested an

immense amount for this which ultimately resulted in the mushrooming of the B-Schools.

Management programme seems to be so attractive and fascinating to the youth that there

is a flood of institutions and colleges offering it with their distinctive features, thus

adding an icing to the cake. However, every institution in the country is not providing the

quality education which is a very big concern for the future to come. There was a time

when such a professional programme was to be chosen after a well mediated study and

research, but today at times one can find students enrolling without a proper knowledge

or required awareness. These students need a proper counseling and guidance which can

give them some real good insights and tell them about the nuances of the field.

Management Education Worldwide‘ is a 20th century phenomenon, focusing on business

administration. At the end of the 20th century, management education also included the

management of government, management of public system, management of agriculture,

management of education system, etc. The purpose of management education since the

beginning of the 20th century has been to enable organizations to apply knowledge to

improve their efficiency and effectiveness.

The graduate business school—Harvard Business School—was established in 1910. In

South Asia, the 1st business school was established in 1954, the 9th by 1959, the 14th by

1969, the 81st by 1989, and the 743rd by 1998. These schools are located in five South

Asian countries. These schools adopted the curriculum and teaching styles from the US

B-schools and tried to deliver the same.

1.3.2 Growth of Management Education during Last Five Years

Today managers are in great demand in every sector of economy. India needs a huge

reservoir each year of people who are trained for business and for management and

demands is to last for coming years. But it is matter of concern whether the demand is for

what they have been taught. In management education, quality has become a necessity.

To make India an intellectual capital of the world, we have to create a dynamic

environment, which can encourage superior quality management Education colleges and

effort should be made to breathe life into management education. Government has taken

initiatives in this direction by giving node to 7 more IIMs taking the total number of the

premier management school to 14. India already has 11 functional IIMs in Ahmedabad,

Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode, Shillong, Tiruchirappalli, Ranchi,

Raipur and Rohtak remaining three are to setup in state of J&K, Uttarakhand and

Rajasthan. Apart from IIMs management education is offered by university's own

department in campus, affiliated colleges of universities in same place or the whole State,

now technical universities have been given this role. Moreover autonomous institutes

approved by AICTE, universities running distance education program and open mode

like IGNOU, Delhi University, Kurukshetra University, ICFAI and several others are also

offering courses in management. Some recognized institutes and universities are also

offering 3 years part time program in evening faculty for working executives. Foreign

universities having collaborations in India and those having students exchange program

with limited-time studies abroad are also imparting management education. New private

universities like ICFAI (a national brand), Amity and several others are now coming up.

According to annual report (2009-2010), published by Ministry of Human Resource

Development, there were 20 Universities and 500 Colleges at the time of independence.

At present, there are 504 Universities and university-level institutions (as on 31.12.2009)

243 State Universities, 53 State Private Universities, 40 Central Universities, 130

Deemed Universities,33 institutions of national importance established under Acts of

Parliament five Institutions established under various State legislations. There are 25,951

colleges of which, 7,362 are recognized under 2(f) and 5,997 colleges recognized under

section 2(f) and declared fit to receive grants under section 12(B) of the UGC Act, 1956).

Table 1.1: Growth of AICTE Approved Technical Institutions in Last Five Years4

Source: www.aicte.ernet.in

Table 1.2: Growth of Intake in AICTE Approved Institutions in Last Five Years

Year ENGG. MGMT. MCA PHAR

.

ARCH. HMCT TOTAL ADDED

IN YEAR

2005-06 499697 80464 55548 32708 4379 4435 677231 40691

2006-07 550986 94704 56805 39517 4543 4242 750797 73566

2007-08 653290 121867 70513 52334 4543 5257 907822 157025

4 Source: www.aicte.ernet.in

Year ENGG. MGMT. MCA PHAR

.

ARCH. HMCT TOTAL ADDED

IN YEAR

2005-06 1457 1052 976 629 118 70 4320 383

2006-07 1511 1132 1003 665 116 64 4491 171

2007-08 1668 1149 1017 854 116 81 4885 394

2008-09 2388 1523 1095 1021 116 87 6230 1345

2009-10 2972 1940 1169 1081 106 93 7361 1131

2008-09 841018 149555 73995 64211 4543 5794 1139116 231294

2009-10 107189

6

179561 78293 68537 4133 6387 1408807 2696915

Source:www.aicte.ernet.in

It can be inferred from the above table that there has been rapid growth of AICTE

approved technical institutes during last five years. In the year 2008-09 the number of

institutes increased at exceptional rate, thus in respect to establishment of institutes tis

year can be called as the golden year. In the last five years the number of AICTE

approved colleges has increased by almost 70% in total in various disciplines, whereas

number of management institutes has seen noteworthy growth of 90% in terms of number

of institutes and in terms of intake there has been growth of 123%.

1.3.3 Present Management Education Scenario in India

India has evolved as the global hub for management education in the recent times and has

often been described as a ‗mushrooming‘ growth. In particular, we have also seen an

unprecedented number of technical and management institutions being set up since the

early 1990's mostly through private capital. The students now have a vast choice

regarding the institutions in which they want to study. In the field of management

education India has more than 1200 institutions providing undergraduate and post-

graduate level courses. Since the management graduates and post-graduates produced by

5 Source:www.aicte.ernet.in

these institutions are primarily absorbed by industry, there is a growing need to match the

curriculum and structure of management education to better fit the needs of India and

sensitive to the changes in both in the industrial and services sectors within the country.

Moreover, it is important to properly assess the quality of management education

imparted to the students of the various institutions for proper decision-making regarding

selection and recruitment by potential employers. Thus there is a need of measuring

quality of the education provided by these mostly private organizations

1.3.4 Types of Business Schools in India

Business schools in India can be classified into six categories. These are as listed below:

• Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) set up by the Government of India.

• University Departments of management studies.

• Colleges (government or private) affiliated to universities.

• Private or government institutes approved by the All India Council for Technical

Education (AICTE).

• Private colleges or institutes not affiliated to any universities nor approved by

AICTE.

• Private colleges or institutes offering MBA courses in India in collaboration with

foreign universities, where the degree is awarded by the foreign university.6

6 Filling the skill gap: Economy _ India Today.

Institutes such as Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are imparting quality

management education to young and talented future managers of the country. Among the

six types of business schools in India, the highest rated in terms of quality are the Indian

Institutes of Management(IIMs).Here the research attempts to measure service quality in

select management institutes which are affiliated to GBTU( formerly UPTU).

1.3.5 Importance of Management Education

Management education is basically a service. Quality of a service is difficult to measure

in comparison to products due to the fact that services are intangible. The specific

characteristics of services such as intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and

perishability make it difficult to assess their quality. It means that the quality of

management education would largely depend on it s pedagogy. Quality enhancement in

management education would constitute the improvement in all facets of providing

management education. The quality of management education depends on the combined

efforts on the part of the educational system as a whole, the educational institutions and

the faculties. Management education can be upgraded only when all these three pillars of

education are equally strong. Nowadays, we find there is growing demand for the

programs in the domain of strategy and leadership development in management

education. There is a strong need to focus management education glocally (i.e. think

globally but act locally). When the course content is customized based on the market

needs then students will not face unemployability problem.

1.4 Quality in Education Sector

―Though in the current scenario, the education system is split between primary,

secondary, higher and professional systems, a thorough and joint participation from

parents, students, teachers, management and government will create a different and a

better education system that will be more effective for the young learners. Improving

higher education quality demands revising the curricula every three years and changing

the pedagogy to replace learning with more self-learning and creativity,‖ as observed by

Mr. Surendra L.Rao Chairman, Institute of Social and Economic Change(ISEC). He also

put it, access, concepts, creation application and services deserved better attention in

higher education.

―The education system has changed a great deal since the last century. The environment,

inputs, outputs are still changing, keeping in mind the change in lifestyle, technology.

Students nowadays crave for life- long education.‖ 7Today, many management

institutions and technical universities with various course structures compete with each

other as well as with foreign institutes for imparting quality education.

The concept of quality when applied to higher education is still not well defined.

Definitions of quality in education follow the general definitions of quality. For better

understanding the concept of quality applied in education, it is essential to look for a

suitable definition (Thomas H, 2003). The most broad and accepted (Houston, 2008;

Cartwright, 2007; Venkatraman, 2007; Srikanthan and Dalrymple,

2001,2004,2005,2007; Lomas, 2007,2002; Parri, 2006; UNESCO, 2006; Lagrossen et al,

7 Towards quality education system : The Hindu.

2004; Harvey, 2002 ) definition of quality in the field of education is that proposed by

Harvey and Green (1993) who developed a framework which consists of five definition

of quality, namely quality as exceptional, quality as perfection, quality as value for

money, quality as fitness for purpose and quality as transformation.

It is extremely difficult in posing a comprehensive definition of quality in education

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

From the point of view of service provider, educational services are intangible,

heterogeneous and inseparable, on the other hand, customers‘ (students) viewpoint of

educational services are variable and perishable. Due to so many options available in

regard to choosing management institutes the students have become more demanding in

their selection (Khan, 2007).

From a customer perspective, it is important to identify the needs of students as primary

customers and strives to meet their needs, it is also important to recognize the needs of

other customers of education (Hwarng and Teo, 2001). This is supported by Lagrosen et

al (2004) who suggest that further research in this area should be valuable taking into

account the view of other stakeholders. In the same stratum, Rowley (1997) states that all

stakeholders‘ perspectives should be taken into account when attempting to measure

service quality in education. In fact the all society is concerned about the quality of

education as pointed out by Nagel and Kvernbekk (1997) who stated that social groups

and society at large do have vested interests in education.

On the other hand, as observed by Cheng et al (2003), despite the fact that stakeholders

may be satisfied with educational services if education does not cater for the future needs

and challenges of the new millennium than it is still ineffective and ―useless‖ for the new

generation. The author, therefore conclude that ability for education to meet the needs of

the future both at individual and societal level is one of the critical elements of quality in

education. A more comprehensive approach to classify the quality attributes in higher

education was proposed by West et al (2000). This is called the Input-Process-

Output(IPO) 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 associate the quality improvements with the

operating system of any organization including those from the education sector.

1.4.1 Quality & Management Education

In India, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) is entrusted with the

responsibility of regulating, controlling & ensuring the quality of management education

in the country. The formation of National Board of Accreditation (NBA) & the of

workshops that it had organized have contributed substantially to widespread awareness

& concern for the quality of management education, but can the AICTE in all honesty,

claim that their approvals would result in quality management education of global

standard.

Modern education & development will be deprived of its élan vital (Creative, evaluations,

potential) when structured & delivered under a rigid regime of formalism, objectivity &

standardization. Quality relevance & effectiveness of management education &

development do not seem to depend upon formalism, structure & standardization. If

management profession & practice are reckoned & molded as an "art" rather than as

"science", its educational programming escapes the pitfalls of formalism, structure &

standardization; creativity, flexibility, subjectivity, & the informality replace the

conscripted mode of training & development in management. As the area change is

taking place in economic, political & technological environment the world over, new

opportunities are opening which are prepared to fight mediocrity & quality in every

aspect of life is becoming the essential for survival. So there is an urgent need to reform

the quality of management education for the creation of quality intellectual infrastructure

in India.

Requirement of well coordinated & flexible orchestration of the government's industrial

technology, trade, education, labor, rural development, infrastructure & economic

policies directed toward expansion & technological up gradation of all national economy

in an ongoing manner. Management of technology & innovation towards continual

strengthening of the country's & the companies technological capabilities through

innovation; technology acquisition, assimilation & development, skill formation & both

short & long-term collaborative development of nationally relevant core technologies.

Identification & creation of an easily accessible bank of best industry practices across the

world in all areas ranging from production & marketing to finance, logistics & R&D.

Enhancement of the nation-wide development & use of information technology for

development & use of information technology for accelerating towards break through

improvements in cost-reduction, speed, output, quality & performance.

1.5 SYSTEMETIC ISSUES OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN INDIA

COMMITTEES TO REVIEW THE MANGEMENT EDUCATION IN INDIA

A number of committees have looked into management education in India in the past.

This section attempts to discover the systematic issues faced by management education as

identified by the earlier committees.

1.5.1 THE NANDA COMMITTEE

Nanda Committee was the first committee that reviewed the working of the three

Management Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore, to make

recommendations for the promotion and development of management education in India.

The Nanda Committee suggested a series of measures in 1981 for strengthening

management education in India, viz.:

There is urgent necessity to develop expertise in international management and

offering of educational and training programme in international management.

Consultancy research should cover both basic and applied types, Adequate

funding for research to be provided without soliciting project funding.

IIMs should act as mother institutes and foster growth of other management

Institutions in the country.

Government control should be progressively reduced as each institute becomes

more and more self-reliant.

Management education has to be research based, and utility based, the institutes

should become self reliant and the government must relinquish control over the years.

1.5.2 THE KUREIN COMMITTEE

Government of India appointed a second review committee under the Chairmanship of

Mr. V Kurien in 1991, to look into the direction and functioning of the four institutes of

management the committee submitted its report in 1992. The salient recommendations

were:

The inter-relatedness of teaching, research and consultancy needs to be better

emphasized for greater synergy. Choices in approving research and consultancy

must be exercised to strengthen their interconnectedness and mutuality.

The mission of the Institutes of Management to strengthen management in

business, industry and commerce is still relevant. The mission statement however,

needs to be expanded to emphasize the IIMs‘ commitment to public service and

public management.

There should be a much greater emphasis on the development of relevant teaching

materials and research. Appropriate policies and rewards should be initiated to

strengthen this aspect of IIMs functioning.

The Government should take a flexible view in providing financial support to the

different IIMs and encourage the institutes to vigorously pursue revenue

generation, cost cutting, and fund raising efforts. The non plan maintenance grants

may be provided as Block Grant for a period of five years.

After the institutes have become financially self supporting with the creation of

the corpus fund and the package of measures for augmenting its internal resources

and cutting down cost, the government grants may be limited to programmes

considered high priority and of social relevance by government including the area

of public system management. IIMs reoriented their operations subsequent to this

report. They revised the fee structure and started raising resources through

industrial consulting. This helped the IIMs to become financially self-sufficient.

1.5.3 THE ISHWAR DAYAL COMMITTEE

Many management institutes came up between the years 1995 and 2000. Government of

India appointed another committee to develop future perspectives of management

education in the light of the fast changing economic, social and business environment.

The main challenge in management education has been triggered by globalization of

economies, rise of market economy, rapidly changing technology and developments in

communication. During 1950-1980, about 118 management institutions came up and

during the 1985-2000 periods 673 new institutions came up.

The teaching methodology shows inadequate concern for applying cumulative

knowledge in dealing with managerial problems.

Most institutions that were set up during the 90s did not follow conditions

prescribed by AICTE in respect of faculty strength, library, computer facilities

and the like.

They did not promote research, development of faculty or of the teaching

material.

Due to rapid expansion of teaching institutions, AICTE was unable to develop an

adequate mechanism for enforcing standards.

Among all the action areas, faculty development was considered the most critical. It was

proposed that 8 to 10 institutions should focus on this. Though the Committee gave its

report in 2001, there were no major initiatives from AICTE for faculty development or

development of teaching materials so far.

Most of the problems identified by the committees continue to be there as no major

corrective measures have been initiated, hence a revisit of the critical suggestions.

Subsequent to this, a committee was constituted by AICTE to review management

education in India.

1.5.4 THE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION REVIEW COMMITTEE

AICTE appointed a committee in 2003 to come up with a policy and action plan for the

development of management education in India, in the context of our current national

requirements and national trends. This committee suggested the following steps for

strengthening management education, viz.:

The admission of students in management schools should be only through

recognized tests organized on an all India basis and used for short listing

candidates for group discussions and interviews. The number of admission tests

could be progressively reduced, say to two or three tests.

Increase the focus on under managed sectors such as cooperatives, forestry, urban

management, infrastructure, rural development, education and legal systems.

Accreditation is one of the major means of assuring quality. Only 15 PGDM

programmes and 30 MBA programmes out of the 927 MBA/PGDBM

programmes approved by the AICTE have been accredited.

In order to have a better global exposure, to suit the requirements of industry

under globalization there is a pressing need for globalization of management

education.

Another element which is important for globalization would be to keep our

country open to the presence of foreign business schools and universities. It is

necessary for Indian Institutions to work out strategies to go abroad, and allowing

foreign universities to come to India, without too many obstacles.

That there is a severe shortage of faculty in the entire technical education system

is well recognized. In management education, the problem is more acute.

All the four committees have unequivocally indicated that management education

in India faces the following systemic problems:

Most of the management institutions have been neglecting research.

Shortage of faculty and quality of faculty are the most critical aspects that need to

remedy soon.

Management institutions did not develop interactions with industry and this acted

as a vicious circle giving merely non- practical education.

Management institutions invested very little for faculty development even though

most of the committees earlier had identified this as a major lacuna.

There has been very little attention provided for preparing course materials

specific to the Indian context.

Library and computer infrastructure has been poor, except in the top management

institutes.

1.6 Brief Profile of Uttar Pradesh

The region of Uttar Pradesh had an extended tradition of learning, though it had remained

principally confined to the elite category and also the spiritual institution. Sanskrit-based

education comprising the educational of Vedic-to-Gupta periods, not to mention the later

Pali corpus of data and a massive store of ancient-to-medieval learning in Persian/Arabic

languages has shaped the core of Hindu-Buddhist-Muslim education, till the increase of

British power. The current schools-to-university system of education owes its inception

and development here, as within the remainder of the country, to foreign Christian

missionaries and also the British colonial administration.

Uttar Pradesh has made significant contributions in the field of Education and Social

Welfare. The State has made major investments over the past few years at all levels of

education and has achieved significant success. U.P. has recognized & supported the

continuing critical-role of private- sector in the expansion of education in the State. It is

home to some of the most reputed educational institutes in the world. Like most of the

other developed states in India Uttar Pradesh too has contributed

significantly towards the education of the country. The standard of Uttar

Pradesh Education is ranked among the best in the country.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has made numerous investments at all the different levels

of education in the last few years. The Uttar Pradesh Government has also appreciated

and recognized the role of the private sector in enhancing the educational scenario of the

state.

Uttar Pradesh has a network of educational institutions. Currently, Uttar Pradesh has

more than 30 universities, including 4 central universities, 20 state universities, 8 deemed

universities, 2 IITs, 1 IIM in Lucknow, 1 NIT in Allahabad and several

polytechnics, engineering colleges and industrial training institutes. Prestigious institutes

like the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Institute of

Technology Kanpur, the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, the Indian

Institute of Management Lucknow, Indian Institute of Information

Technology, Allahabad, and the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology are

known worldwide for their quality education and research in their respective fields. The

presence of such institutions provides the students of the state with ample opportunities

for higher education. Other universities in the state include Banaras Hindu University,

Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Aligarh Muslim

University, University of Allahabad, Indian Veterinary Research Institute Bareilly, IMT

Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Technical University, M.J.P. Rohilkhand University,

Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology, Babasaheb Bhimrao

Ambedkar University, and King George‘s Medical University.

1.6.1 Growth of Management Education in UTTAR PRADESH

The growing Indian economy is in demand of high quality managers to oversee the

nation‘s growing businesses. In terms of growth, management education in India has

made India shining to keep pace with demand. Management practices have not been new

to India as their existence can be traced back to the first book on management titled

Arthashastra written centuries ago. If those basic principles in management could help

build the great Mauryan empire, those very principles can aid in modern day governance

of large corporations too. Education colleges and effort should be made to breathe life

into management education.

In the last 20 years, there has been a phenomenal growth of management education in

India. The first milestone in management education was achieved when the two Indian

Institutes of Management (IIMs)-Calcutta and Ahmedabad-were set up in 1961. In 1998,

there were 400 institutes and the number rose to nearly 800 by 2003. In 2008, the number

of business schools touched 1,700. Government has taken initiatives in this direction by

giving node to 7 more IIMs taking the total number of the premier management school to

14. India already has 11 functional IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow,

Indore, Kozhikode, Shillong, Tiruchirappalli, Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak remaining three

are to setup in state of J&K, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. Apart from IIMs management

education is offered by university's own department in campus, affiliated colleges of

universities in same place or the whole State, now technical universities have been given

this role. Moreover autonomous institutes approved by AICTE, universities running

distance education program and open mode like IGNOU, Delhi University, Kurukshetra

University, ICFAI and several others are also offering courses in management. The

business education market in India was pegged at about Rs.3,000 crore in 2008 (campus

and distance education), growing at 12 per cent CAGR in the last three years. All these

schools put together churn out one lakh management graduates every year.

Today, organizations look for professionals who can multitask yet provide support for

niche areas based on the individual's area of specialization, namely human resource,

operations management and the like. Also, with companies competing against each other

on a global platform, there is a need for professionals who have considerable amount of

industry experience, sound domain knowledge and knowledge of best international

practices.

If one were to describe an MBA degree, it is essentially a generalist qualification

designed to give students a holistic view of how a business is run and equip them with the

knowledge of all the major functions of a business as well as their interactions in practice.

Nowadays there are programmes available for senior professionals like the Executive

MBA that helps in maximizing their contribution to the role they play in an organization.

Contributing immensely to a developing country like ours are the successful small and

medium enterprises (SMEs) which are the primary engines of job creation, income

growth and poverty reduction. Young management graduates will contribute significantly

in the creation of new business models, overcoming many infrastructural and resource

constraints that the SMEs face.

In the next phase of growth, management graduates will add tremendous value to new

emerging sectors within India, including the social sector. They are vital contributors to

the success of India Inc. With more and more people taking up a management degree, it's

time to look out for the 21st century Chanakyas and witness the building of many more

successful empires.8

1.6.2 Gautam Buddha Technical University(Formerly UPTU) :

Gautam Buddha Technical University (Formerly UPTU) is a state university in Uttar

Pradesh, India. It is one of the biggest universities in number of affiliated colleges.

Gautam Buddha Technical University was formed on 1 May 2010 from the bifurcation of

the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh Technical University. It is headquartered in IET Campus at

8 Service Quality in the Education Sector moving towards a holistic & transformative Approach.

Sitapur Road in Lucknow. Owing to its size, number of colleges affiliated to it and

geographic dispersion, it has been sub-divided into five zones with 45-50 colleges in each

zone.

1.6.2.1 Educational Streams

Regional zones of Uttar Pradesh Technical University work in tandem to ensure quality

teaching-learning processes. The University works to ensure uniform technical education

and research in its own premises as well as affiliating institutions. It has affiliated more

than 317 technical colleges and the numbers are still growing. The UPTU affiliated

colleges conduct technical programs such as BTech, , BArch, B Pharma, BHMCT,

MTech and PhD imparting graduate, postgraduate and doctoral level education. These

institutions, which include both the government and private, are located all over the state.

Professional education like Business Management is also offered by many of these

colleges affiliated to Uttar Pradesh Technical University.

1.6.2.2 Facilities

Being an affiliating University, UPTU ensures that all necessary facilitates are provided

by the affiliated colleges. It encourages the students to participate in co-curricular

activities conducted at the inter college, state and national level. It has a grievance cell

that tries to resolve the problems faced by the students. The University also ensures that

the students enrolled with it are placed successfully with renowned companies.

1.6.2.3 History

Uttar Pradesh Technical University was established by the Government of Uttar

Pradesh on 8th May 2000 vide Act No. 1248(2) XVII-V-I-I-19-2000 Uttar Pradesh

Adhiniyam Sankhya 23 of 2000. Under the University Act, 'Technical Education'

includes programmes of education, research and training in Engineering, Technology,

Architecture, Town Planning, Pharmacy, Applied Arts & Crafts and such other

programmes and areas that the central Government may in consultation with All India

Council for Technical Education (AICTE) by notification in Gazette declare.

The University is affiliating in nature and its jurisdiction spans the entire state of U.P. in

affiliating B.Tech. M.B.A., M.C.A., B.Arch., B. Pharma., B.H.M.C.T., M.Tech. and

Ph.D. programmes in 238 colleges/institutions imparting graduate, postgraduate and

doctoral level training in all government and private institutions located all over U.P. in

engineering, technology, architecture, pharmacy, hotel management and catering

technology as well as M.B.A. and M.C.A. programmes.

U.P. being the largest state of India with an area of around two lacs forty thousand square

kilometers and population of more than 165 million people makes UPTU as one of the

largest technical universities not only in India but perhaps in Asia. Because of its gigantic

size and number of colleges affiliated to it and geographic dispersion, it has been sub-

divided into five zones with 45-50 colleges in each zone for the ease of management and

facilitating inter-zonal comparison and possible internal competition to enhance quality

of teaching-learning processes.

UPTU envisions facilitating and nurturing the quality of technical education and research

in its own premises as well as all affiliating institutions. The total number of affiliated

colleges was 49 in the year 2000 which has now gone up to 238 and the University is still

growing. The task of the UPTU at the moment includes conducting the State level

Entrance Examination U.P.-S.E.E. for admission to various programs affiliated to UPTU.

Around 2, 15,000 aspirants to UPTU take these entrance examinations all over U.P. and

in parts of Uttrakhand and Delhi. The University conducts central examinations each

semester for all the affiliated colleges and institutions and declares results quickly using

technology-enabled systems. At present around 150,000 students are enrolled in its

various programmes. More than 50,000 students are admitted every year. Medium of

instructions and examinations is English.

1.6.2.4 Vision and Mission

As enshrined in the University Act, the University aims to provide and upgrade

education, training and research in fields of technical education, and to create

entrepreneurship and a conducive environment for pursuit of the technical education in

close co-operation with industries. Further, as a very distinguishing feature of its vision,

the University aims to make provisions for the advancement of technical education

amongst classes and communities which are educationally backward.

To fulfill the above broad vision, the University develops flexible and innovative

academic programmes and procedures that cater to a very broad range of students with

different background, and prepares them to compete at the national and international

levels.

In addition to transmission of knowledge through a very well thought teaching pedagogy,

the University lays a strong emphasis on knowledge creation through a well planned

research programme in emerging areas, and application of knowledge by undertaking

issues and problems from the industry.

Apart from academics, the University lays a very strong emphasis on the overall

development of a well rounded personality of its students with both professional and

emotional maturity to take up the challenges in their chosen profession, and to contribute

to the development of society.9

1.7 Objective

The service quality in education and management education was examined by Shahid

(2001); Gagandeep et al., (2006); Raju et al., (2004); Lim (2002); and Khan et al., (2007).

The previous studies tried to bring the important dimensions of service quality in

education. The studies related to the impact of service quality dimensions on the

customer satisfaction and the comparative study on the service quality of management

education in various group of institutes are rare. Hence the present study has made an

attempt to fill up these research gaps.

The specific objectives of the present study are:

a) To identify how applicable the SERVQUAL model in the context of management

education

b) To examine the students‘ expectations and perceptions of service quality in

management education and,

9 www.uptu.ac.in

c) To study the impact of service quality dimensions on the students‘ satisfaction.

1.8 Scope of study

The area of the study is measuring service quality in management education. It focus on

the measurement of service quality from students point of view because they are directly

involved in the education process. The study is conducted at select management

institutions affiliated to GBTU (formerly UPTU).The populations of this study were all

post graduate (full time) students of management institutions of GBTU.

1.9 Importance of study

Management education in India is in the phase of change. The two current developments

that are sweeping in India, namely liberalization and globalization, have had a

considerable impact on Indian management education. The sudden proliferation of

management institutions has lead to a considerable decline in the quality of education that

is being offered.

By the help of this research, management institutes may install quality in the management

education in India, business schools (B-schools) and other management institutions will

focus on quality assurance, qualified and competent faculty members, proper

infrastructure and the accountability of management institutes to provide quality

education to students.

This research will not only help in identifying the reasons for the proliferation of

management institutions but also creates the standards and specifications following which

the management institutions might be able to improve the existing management education

system. The outcome of the study will benefit the students as well. Quality management

education will help them to place in better professional positions in their near future.

1.10 Organization of the Thesis

The remaining part of the study is organized into four chapters. A summary of remaining

chapter of the thesis is given below:

Chapter II

This chapter presents the general review of the literature that is relevant to our study.

Review of literature concerning concepts such as service, quality, measuring service

quality, Expectations, Perception, Satisfaction and service quality in education industry

are discussed. Various approaches of quality movement proposed by different quality

gurus are briefly discussed. The various dimensions of the SERVQUAL model has been

covered. Various models of measuring service quality in higher education are also

discussed. The main aim of this chapter is to enhance our understanding of the main

theories involved in our study.

Chapter III

This chapter is concerned with methodology adopted in doing research. It contains a

description of the research setting, a description of the measurement tool/survey, the

research procedures, the statistical analyses and the definition of the research subjects.

This chapter mainly discusses how the study is being carried out, measurement of the

constructs, the way data is collected and coded. Education sector reveals multiple

stakeholders in different situations in which different stakeholders perceive different

opinions in regard to quality of education. Therefore, ‗SERVQUAL‘ an instrument for

measuring service quality has been considered. It consists of five dimensions comprising

forty-one relevant quality items. The reliability and validity of the instrument have been

tested.

Chapter IV

In this chapter, a methodology for measuring service quality in management institutes

using the students‘ expectation and perception has been discussed. It discusses the data

collected from the field. The data collected was mainly on respondents‘ expectations and

perceptions of the various items under the SERVQUAL model. A general description of

the students‘ expectations and perceptions of the various dimensions was done using

descriptive statistics. Also, gap score analysis was carried out based on the difference

between the expectations and perceptions(P-E) in order to measure service quality in

management education. Factor analysis was done in order to identify if the SERVQUAL

is good for measuring service quality in management institutes.

Chapter V

The main findings of this study have been discussed in this chapter. It presents the

summary of the conclusions, recommendations and scope for future work in the area of

quality measurement in service sectors. There are also some limitations in this study. Due

to short time frame and fund, research could not be executed among all the management

institutes affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU). Only Five management institutes of

GBTU (Formerly UPTU) have been taken for study. This chapter also discusses the

specific contributions made in the research work. The thesis ends with a list of references.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE

REVIEW

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides the general review of the relevant literature available on the quality

management background. The purpose of this study is to explore the service quality of

management education in select institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU) from

the perspectives of students. Literature related to definition of quality, the dimensions and

the approach in measuring service quality proposed by different quality gurus are briefly

discussed. It also presents a literature on the factors that influence the measurement of

service quality in management education. Therefore, there is need to review all the

relevant literatures concerning the concepts of quality management, its tools and

application in the area of quality in service sectors. It founded a strong basis for the

development of the research frame work and instrument.

2.2 Overview of the Quality Movement

In recent years, the subject of quality management has gained prominence in the literature

and in a growing number of manufacturing and service organizations. Quality has

become a very powerful tool in international competition. According to Tenner & De

Toro, earlier the Second World War, the idea of quality was based on the physical

characteristics of a product. At that time, quality was measured as the variation in the

product or service characteristics from a set of standard specifications. Any defects or

variations to the quality standards resulted in changes to the product to bring it up to

standard specifications. The origin of the U.S quality movement can be traced back to the

early 1920‘s to Walter Shewhart, father of the total quality movement, who invented the

statistical process control (SPC) chart to measure product variation and its associated

causes. Later on, quality measurement was refined by the two students of Shewhart, W.E

Deming and Joseph Juran by applying their quality insights within the U.S manufacturing

industry in the early 1940s.

Joseph M. Juran, considered the father of quality, was to incorporate the service quality

component into the human aspect of quality management, which he referred to as Total

Quality Management (TQM). In 1999 Juran & Godfrey defined quality as ―those product

features which meet the needs of customers and thereby provide satisfaction‖. His

contribution on the concept of the Pareto principle, managing for quality, the need for

widespread training in quality and producing products or services to meet the customer‘s

requirements was well attracted by the Japanese industry. Juran‘s principles of quality

effectively infused the ―voice of the customer‖ into all facets of production- through the

research and development, engineering, and product development stages of production.

W E Deming traveled to Japan to join Juran just after World War II to support the

reconstruction efforts. Deming was originally trained as a statistician and started teaching

process control(a method of measuring variation and continuously improving work

processes before the final inspection stage top prevent the production of flawed products)

in Japan shortly after World War II. He is recognized internationally as an important

contributor to Japanese quality improvement programmes. Deming advocates that the

way to achieve product quality is to continuously improve the design of a product and the

process used to manufacture it. According to Deming, top management has the primary

responsibility of achieving product quality. The Japanese hold Deming‘s statistical

quality control approach to measuring product and service quality by naming a national

quality award, the Deming Prize, to those manufacturers that provided world-class

quality products. The TQM effort which was being implemented in the U.S. was

criticized by Deming because they more concern on the methods rather than on the

customers. Then onwards the era of customer-defined quality was born.

In 1946, Dr. Deming led the formation of the American Society for Quality Control and

became a professor of statistics in the Graduate School of Business Administration at

New York University. Deming‘s quality methods centered on systematically tallying

product defects, analyzing their causes, correcting the causes, and recording the effects of

the correc5tions on subsequent product quality as defects were prevented. He taught that

it is less costly in the long run to get things done right the first time then fix them later.

When he died in December 1993 at the age of ninety-three, Deming had taught quality

and productivity improvement for more than fifty years. His Fourteen Points, system of

profound knowledge, and teachings on statistical control and process variability are

studied by people all over the world. His books include: Out of the Crisis (1986), The

New Economics (1993), and Statistical Adjustment of Data (1943).10

Deming‘s philosophy is summarized in his famous fourteen points, and it serves as a

framework for quality and productivity improvement. Instead of relying on inspection at

the end of the process to find flaws. Deming advocated a statistical analysis of the

manufacturing process and emphasized cooperation of workers and management to

achieve high-quality products.

10

Deming, W.E. (2000), The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education, Cambridge, MA:

MIT Press.

Philip Bayard Crosby joined the American Society for quality in 1952, where his early

concepts concerning Quality began to form. Crosby developed his ―Zero Defects‖

concepts, and published a book on Zero Defects , Quality Management Maturity Grid, 14

Quality Improvement Steps, Cost of Quality and cost of Non-Conformance. 11

Other book

he has written include Quality Without tears (1984) and completeness (1994).Crosby

espoused his basic theories about quality in four Absolutes of Quality Management as

follows:

1. Quality means conformance to requirements, not goodness.

2. The system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal.

3. The performance standard must be zero defects, not ―that‘s close enough.‖

4. The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance, not indexes.

Feigenbaum was the founding chairman of the International Academy for Quality and is

a past president of the American Society for Quality Control, which presented him its

Edwards Medal and Lancaster Award for his contributions to quality and productivity for

many organizations throughout the industrialized world.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa a student of Deming, was active in the quality movement in Japan,

and was a member of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. Ishikawa is

considered the Father of the Quality Circle Movement. He believed that quality

improvement initiatives must be organization-wide in order to be successful and

sustainable over the long term. He promoted the use of Quality Circles to: (1) Support

improvement; (2) Respect human relations in the workplace; (3) Increase job satisfaction;

and (4) More fully recognize employee capabilities and utilize their ideas. Quality Circles

11

Quality Gurus- References for Business.

are effective when management understands statistical techniques and act on

recommendations from members of the Quality Circles.

Dr. Genichi Taguchi was a Japanese engineer and statistician who defined what product

specification means and how this can be translated into cost effective production. He

developed a methodology for applying statistics to improve the quality of manufactured

goods. He focused on implementing quality earlier in the product lifecycle, in the design

phase rather than in the later manufacturing stage. He created an equation that quantified

perceived quality and costs. The technical details and benefits of Taguchi‘s statistical

methods are only now being studied in the west.

In the few years since the turn of the century, the quality movement seems to have

matured beyond Total Quality. Now quality systems have evolved from the foundations

of Deming, Juran and the early Japanese practitioners of quality, and quality has moved

beyond manufacturing into service, healthcare, education and government sectors.

2.3 SERVICES

During the last few years there has been very rapid growth of service sector in India.

According to the Prime Minister‘s Economic Advisory council (EAC), the growth rate of

service sector in the last few years (2007-2011) has been a robust 10 percent .This

substantial growth has been attributed to structural changes among major economies;

India is the fastest growing economies in the world after china. However, one aspect of

economic growth that sets India apart is the way in which the structural changes have

taken place.12

2.3.1 Understanding a Service Concept

Many definitions exist in regards to what constitutes a service. A uniform definition of

service has not been developed up to this day. Beside theoretical constructions, several

structures are accepted in the professional literature.

However, Palmer (2011, p. 2) defines a service as: ―The production of an essentially

intangible benefit, either in its own right or as a significant element of a tangible product,

which through some form of exchange, satisfies an identified need.‖13

According to Johns (1998) the word service has many meaning and he described service

as ‗intangible‘ and their output viewed as an activity rather than a tangible object which

is not clear because some service outputs have some tangible components like physical

facilities, equipments and personnel. He also stated that service is viewed differently by

both the provider and the consumer; for the provider, service is seen as a process which

contains elements of core delivery, service operation, personal attentiveness and

interpersonal performance which are managed differently in various industries. Though

customer views it as a phenomenon meaning he/she sees it as part of an experience of life

which consists of elements of core need, choice, and emotional content which are present

in different service outputs and encounters and affect each individual‘s experience

differently. However, factors that are common for both parties include; value (benefit at

the expense of cost), service quality and interaction.

12

Growth Trends in Service Sector M Saravanan. B. Chandrasekaran. 13

Palmer, A. (2011). Principles of service Marketiong. 6th

ed. Maiden head: McGraw Hill Education.

Alternatively, Lovelock and Wright (1999, p. 5) adopt a more informal approach,

defining a service as: ―Something that may be bought and sold but that cannot be dropped

on your foot.‖

Finally, Zeithaml et al. (2009, p. 4), state: ―…services are deeds, processes, and

performances provided or co-produced by one entity or person for another entity or

person.‖

According to Quinn, Gagnon, ‗Services are actually all those economic activities in

which the primary output is neither a product nor a construction, is generally consumed at

the time it is produced , and provides added value in forms (such as convenience,

amusement, timeliness, comfort or health) that are essentially intangible concerns of its

first purchaser.

Kotler and Keller (2007) defined service is ‗any activity or benefit that one party can

offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of

anything‘.

According to Edvardsson (1998), service to be viewed from the customer perspective as

it is them who determine the quality of the service provided. He points out the

participation of the customer in the service process since he/she is a co-producer of

service and the customer‘s outcome evaluated in terms of value added and quality

meaning the customer will prefer service offered to be of high value and quality.

Gronroos stated, ‗a service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible

nature that normally, but not necessarily, take place in interactions between the customer

and service employees and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as

solutions to customer problems‘.

According to VanLooy et al, ‗all those economic activities that are intangible and imply

interaction to be realized between service provider and consumer‘.

Each definition captures the intangible nature of services, illustrating the most

fundamental difference between a service and good. However, it is also evident that as

well as differences, similarities between services and goods also exist. Therefore, it is

appropriate to distinguish between the two to broaden the definition of a service.

2.3.2 Services versus Goods

Services have been differentiated from products in a number of ways. They are primarily

intangible (Judd, 1964; Mills & Margulies 1980).Service are those separately identifiable,

essentially intangible activities which provide want-satisfaction, and those that are not

necessarily tied to the sale of a product or another service. Services are basically the

interaction of two parties and it occurs between service provider and the customers.

Mostly, services in education sector are intangible in nature like institute environment,

caring and courteous staff but sometime it is a combination of intangibles and tangibles

and this bundle makes up the service products. Services are characterized into four

categories: intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability. These four

service characteristics were discussed in the early literature of service marketing (Regan,

1963; Shostack, 1977; Rathmell, 1966; Zeithaml et al. 1985).

The evaluation of service quality depends upon customers‘ and service providers‘

perception of quality (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & berry, 1985). The service concept has

two components: the degree to which customer needs are satisfied and the added value

that the customer receives (Dale 2003; Hsieh, Chou & Chen 2002). Deming (1986)

estimated that 44% of people in firms are looking after service functions. The

contribution of these people adds value to the quality of products and the firms‘

perception in the minds of consumers. Juran (1974) observed that main focus of user is

the service, even though he may seem to buy the product. Peter (1988) explained that

customer accords greater priority to the care and responsiveness of the organization than

the features of product.

Gronroos (1978) suggests that services should not be treated as physical goods.

Nonetheless, ambiguity still exists today, since services and goods share much of the

conceptual underpinning of quality (Palmer, 2011). Despite this, services tend to pose

much greater problems in the understanding of customers‘ needs and expectations than

goods, which form the basis for evaluation (Palmer, 2011)

Hill (1995) manages to differentiate between goods and services, suggesting that a

service is ephemeral and can only be consumed as long as the process continues.

However, due to the heterogeneity of services, an individual‘s time spent consuming a

service could be longer lasting, challenging the notion that services are short-lived

(Zeithaml et al, 2009). Notwithstanding this issue, Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that

the presence of tangible cues when purchasing goods (e.g. style, colour, feel and fit)

make it is easier for the customer to evaluate goods in comparison to services. This limits

the evaluation of a service to the service provider‘s physical facilities, equipment and

personnel.

There are four characteristics of service: Intangibility, Inseparability, Variability and

Perishability. According to Parasuraman et al. (1985), service has the following

characteristics that also influence the understanding and measurement of service quality.

Intangibility – The literature highlights as one of the key characteristics of

services. It means that service is an intangible activity, it cannot be generally seen,

it is hard to measure it the same way as product quality. This causes increase in

the uncertainty level and to reduce this factor, customers look for signals of

service quality. Other studies suggest that intangibility cannot be used to

distinguish clearly between all products and services. So it is very important for

the service provider to tangibilize the service in order for the service marketers to

suggest the quality of their intangible service (Kotler et al., 2005). One of the

researchers disagrees on the point of intangibility feature of service. According to

him intangibility is an important feature but tangibility feature plays more

important role in the service sector. (Santos, 2002).

Inseparability – a service cannot be separated; they are produced and consumed at

the same time. Thus, the quality occurs while a service is delivered, which

reduces managerial control over it and makes a consumer‘s input crucial to ensure

service quality. Inseparability is one of the characters that differentiate services

with products because of the simultaneous production and consumption (Sierra

and McQuitty, 2005).

Heterogeneity – The quality of the same service vary from time to time, from

customer to customer and from producer to producer. Thus, consistency of service

delivery is hard to achieve. According to Zeithaml et al 1985, heterogeneity

reflects the potential for high variability in service delivery. Wyckham et al

(1975) feels that heterogeneity can be introduced as a benefit and point of

differentiation.

Perishability- The fourth characteristics of services highlighted in the literature is

perishability. Services cannot be stored for later sales or use. Hartman and

Lindgren claim that the ―issue of perishability is primarily the concern of the

service provider‖ and that the consumer only becomes aware of the issue when

there is insufficient supply and they have to wait for the service.

2.4 QUALITY

We all are living in a quality age today and wish to possess quality products, be it a home

or a car or furniture or even consumables. The word ‗quality‘ is qualitative in nature and

has different meaning for different people. Few can define quality in measurable terms

that can be operationalized. When asked what differentiate their product or service, the

banker will answer ―service‖, health care worker will answer ―quality health care‖,

education service provider will answer ―student‘s satisfaction i.e. customer

satisfaction‖.14

When pressed to provide a specific definition and measurement, few can

do so. There is an old maxim in management that says, ―If you can‘t measure it, you can‘t

manage it‖, and so it is with quality. Quality implies a person‘s state of mind and is

associated with the following perceptions: a good product, sturdy, durable, easy to

operate and good in appearance etc.

2.4.1 Definition of Quality

14

Definition of Quality /Total Quality Management Aug.27,2009.

According to the American Society for Quality, ―quality ―can be defined in the following

ways:

Based on customer‘s perceptions of a product/service‘s design and how well the design

matches the original specifications.

The ability of a product/service to satisfy stated or implied needs.

Achieved by conforming to established requirements within an organization.15

Numerous researchers and experts have given various definitions on quality in particular

areas i.e. manufacturing of products and services. Harvard professor David Garvin (1984)

has summarized the definition of quality into five principal approaches. Those were

transcendent, product-based, user based, manufacturing-based, or value-based.

Transcendent means something that is intuitively understood but nearly impossible to

communicate. These definitions are subjective and related to concept. Product-based

means the quality in the components and attributes of a product. It can be measured and

have objective attributes. User-based means the customer satisfaction on the product.

Manufacturing-based means the product conformance to requirement. Value-based

means the good value for the price of the product. Many other researchers have defined

quality as fitness for use (Joseph Juran and Frank Gryna, 1988), ―the total composite

product and service characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacturing and

maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the expectation by

the customer‖(Feigenbaum); ―quality as a result of the interaction.‖(Shewhart); ―quality

is compliance with the requirements‖ (Crossby, 1979); Value to some person (Weinberg,

1994 ); ―quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the

15

Quality Management system

customer gets out and is willing to pay for‖ (Peter Drucker); ―conformance to

specification(Gilmore, 1974); ―meeting and/or exceeding customers‘ expectation(

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985); ―performance over expectation

(Besterfield,1999); products or services ability to perform to its intended function without

harmful effect (Taguchi, 1986) Japanese companies find the old suggestion of quality,

―the degree of conformance to a standard ―, too narrow and consequently , have started to

use a new definition of quality of ―customer satisfaction‖(Wayne , 1983)

According to Robert Peach, The ISO 9000 Handbook, Quality is the totality of

characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.

Though quality is multi-dimensional concept and different definitions are appropriate

under different circumstances (Viswanadhan, 2006).

According to Geotsch and Davis (2003), with these common elements extracted, quality

can be defined as ― a dynamic state associated with products, services, people, processes,

and environments that meets or exceeds customer expectation‖.

A close examination of the above definitions of quality proves that quality is customer‘s

determination and not manufacturer‘s determination and the products should totally

satisfy the customer‘s needs and expectations, in every respect, on a continuous basis.

Thus the concept of quality in the area of education is gaining increasing importance in

the life of every individual. In the last few decades, the ongoing educational process has

become a lifestyle. There have been a number of attempts to define quality in higher

education, or even multiple models of quality. In the area of education, Cheng (1995)

defined education as follows: ―Education quality is the character of the set of elements in

the input, process, and output of the education system that provides services that

completely satisfy both internal and external strategic constituencies by meeting their

explicit and implicit expectations‖. In the academic setting, students, staff and faculty

members are the major customers of higher education( Sahney et al., 2004), of whom

students have attracted the most attention and are the main customers of universities

who receive a variety of educational services, including registration ,course selection and

other related services (Sirvanci, 2004, Kebriaei and Roudbari,2005). Since one of the

criteria of quality in university is to meet the students‘ expectations about the process of

educational services, by assessing the gap between expectations and perceptions of

students, an understanding of the quality level will be obtained; where fewer gaps

between expectations and perceptions denotes higher quality of educational services.

Hence, an essential step to compensate this gap is to identify the perceptions and

expectations of students about the quality of educational services to determine the

strengths and weaknesses of the system. This should be followed by adopting strategies

for reducing the quality gap and satisfying the students‘ expectations (Kebriaei and

Roudbari, 2005).In addition, Harvey and Green (1993) proposed five ways of thinking

about quality in education. First, quality is regarded in terms of excellence. Second,

quality is perfection or consistency. Third, quality is fitness for purpose. Fourth, quality is

value for money and finally, quality is transformation process which enhances the student

in some way.

2.4.2 Dimensions of Quality

Quality dimensions has been classified into few groups by previous researchers such as

Gronroos (1990) ; Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1991) ; Ghobadian et al (1994). Quality

dimension, according to Gronroos(1990), can be classified into three groups: technical

quality, functional quality and corporate image.16

This classification is similar to those

which are supported by Lehtinen and Lehtinen(1991) which are physical quality,

interactive quality and corporate quality. The dimensions associated with technical

quality are those that can be objectively be measured regardless of customers‘ opinion.

Functional quality is related to the interaction between the provider and recipient of the

service and is often perceived in a subjective manner. As a result corporate image

dimensions is the combination of both technical and functional quality dimension, which

concerned to the overall picture of an organization perceived by the customer.

Ghobadian et.al (1994) differentiates between those dimensions which are associated

with the quality of the final product or outcome of the service and those which relate to

internal processes within the organization; they are called ―outcome‖ and ―process‖

dimensions respectively. The importance of the process dimensions from the customers‘

point of view depends on the extent to which they participate in the process.

Quality, as we know so far, was originally developed in the manufacturing industry. In

the area of higher education, the adoption of quality control has been superficial and

diluted by the exercise of academic freedom (Largosen, et al, 2004). Education is a

complex business with many interacting dimensions of quality in many varied contexts.

The higher education is a part of service sector, so viewing higher education as a service

can facilitate generalizing service quality dimensions for this sector. More careful

generalization is required for the case of higher education regarding its complex

characteristics (Owlia, Aspinwal, 1996; Lentner, 2007; Staskeviciute, Ciutiene,

16

Service quality dimensions: an examination of Gronroos‘s Service quality model.

2008).The dimensions of quality in higher education are grouped into three categories

which are product, software and service (Owlia and Aspinwall, 1996).

2.4.2.1 Product Quality

According to Garvin (1987), there are eight dimensions, which can define both product

and service quality, although they seem to be more product-oriented. The dimensions that

proposed by Garvin are as follows:

1) Performance

2) Features

3) Reliability

4) Conformance

5) Durability

6) Serviceability

7) Aesthetic

8) Perceived quality.

Performance can be define as a primary knowledge or skills that are required for

graduate, while features are concerned to those characteristics that supplement the basic

performance functions such as offering courses in computer programming for the

meaning in higher education. The other dimension that proposed by Garvin is reliability.

It means the probability of the product working fault-free within a specified time period,

appears to be more relevant to goods than services. But, in the higher education view,

reliability can define as the degree to which the knowledge, information and skills

learned are correct, accurate and up to date. Besides, conformance refers to the extent to

which a product meets established standards or specifications (Garvin, 1987). In the

higher education, conformance can define as the degree to which the institution can

approve their promises to the client based on their educational standards.

Durability means the measurement of product life in the general context. But, in the

higher education context, it may mean the degree to which knowledge learned by the

students. Besides, serviceability can defined as a service for repairing the products. But,

in the area of higher education, it refers to how well the institution can handle the

complaints from students, staff or from outsiders.

Another dimensions that stated by the Garvin are aesthetics and perceived quality, which

are based on the customer‘s opinion. Aesthetics can be distinguished from performance,

as it is a matter of personal judgment, while perceived quality concerned with the

reputation that influenced the image of the corporation.

2.4.2.2 Software quality dimensions

According to Owlia and Aspinwall (1996), the characteristics of software are felt tobe

more consistent with higher education because it is an intangible product. The factors for

software quality that widely used in software engineering (Watts, 1987) together with the

definitions and interpretation for higher education of each factor are as follows:

(1) Correctness

(2) Reliability

(3) Efficiency

(4) Integrity

(5) Usability

(6) Maintainability

(7) Testability

(8) Expandability

(9) Portability

(10) Reusability

(11) Interoperability

Correctness can be defined as the extent to which a programme or course complies with

the specified requirement. Another factor that proposed by McCall et al. is reliability

which means the degree to which knowledge or skills learned from the institution are

correct, accurate, suitability and also up to date.

According to McCall et al. efficiency can defined as the extent of knowledge and skills

that applied by the graduates in their future career, while integrity means the extent to

which personal information is secure from unauthorized access (Watts, 1987).

Besides, another factor for software quality that proposed by McCall et al. is usability.

Here, usability is defined as the ease of learning and the degree of communicativeness in

the classroom. The interpretation of maintainability commonly used in higher education

is the way an institution handles the complaints from the customer in improving their

performance.

Testability is concern to the extent to which the knowledge is examinable. In higher

education, quality of software can measure on how well the results shown in the

examinations. Besides, expandability that proposed by the researchers means suitability

of the knowledge in the different applicable in other fields, while portability and

reusability can define as the degree of knowledge or skills learned are related in other

application. According to the definition by the researchers, interoperability relates to the

effort required to couple one program to another (Owlia and Aspinwall, 1996).

2.5 Service Quality and Dimensions

2.5.1 Definition of Service Quality

A definition of ‗service quality‘ is person dependent and has different meaning for

different people. Most definitions of service quality are customer –centered (Galloway &

Wearn, 1988), with customer satisfaction being seen as functions of perceived quality

(Anderson & Sullivan, 1993), or perceived quality being a function of customer

satisfaction (Parasuraman et al., 1988). There has been a significant interest on service

quality during the past few decades. According to some researchers, interest in service

quality is based on its contribution in reducing costs, customer loyalty and profitability

(Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Gammie, 1992; Guru, 2003; Hallowell, 1996; Newman, 2001).It

is the customer who decides the quality of service not the provider. As a result, if an

organization regularly provides service at a level that exceeds customer expectations, the

service will be evaluated as high quality. In contrast, if an organization fails to meet

customer expectations, the service will be judge as poor quality (Zammuto et al., 1996).

Parasuraman et al. defined service quality as perceived by customers and items from a

comparison on their expectations of the services they will receive with their perceptions

of the performance of the service provider. Expectations are the wants of customers, i.e.,

what they feel a service provider should offer, while perceptions refer to the customers‘

evaluation of the service provider. They formulated a service quality model that

highlights the main requirements for delivering the expected service quality. They noted

the properties of service as follow:

1. Search properties that can only be done before consumption

2. Experience properties that can only be evaluated during or after consumption.

3. Credence properties that can‘t be directly evaluated before or after consumption.

According to Johnson and Siriikit, (1993, p. 694) ―service quality is an attitude that result

s from comparison of expected service level from perceived performance.‖

According to Nitecki et al (2000), ―service quality is meeting or exceeding customer

expectations, or as the difference between customer perceptions and expectations of

service‖.

For decades, various researchers have developed a service perspective (Zeithaml, 2009,

Ramsaran and Fowdar, 2007). Gefan defined service quality as the subjective comparison

that customers make between the quality of the service that they want to receive and what

they actually get.

According to Woodside et al., service quality is represented by answers to the questions

(i) Is the service delivered to customer what they expected or different from that? (ii)

Was the service they received approximately what they expected or better or worse than

expected? Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1990) mention that service quality is an

extrinsically perceived attribution based on the customers‘ experience about the service

that the customer perceived through the service encounter.

Lewis and Booms (1983) were the first to define service quality as ‗a measure of how

well the service level matches customers‘ expectations‘. Gronroos perceived service

quality as a result of what customers received it. Service quality is defined by Bolton and

Drew (1991) as the customer‘s assessment of the overall excellence or superiority of the

service.

Lehtinen and Lehtinen‘s (1982) basic premise is that service quality is produced in the

interaction between a customer and elements in the service organization. Morre (1987)

identified that concentration on service quality leads to differentiation that enhance the

competitive position of the organization for long term benefits. Service quality and

customer satisfaction became core issues for the successful survival of any service

organization.

Kordupleski, Rust & Zahorik (1993, p. 85) defined service quality as the ―extent to which

the service, the service process and the service organization can satisfy the expectations

of the user.‖

Chang (2008) describes the concept of service quality should be generally approached

from the customer‘s point of view because they may have different values, different

ground of assessment, and different circumstances. According to the work of Kumra

(2008), service quality is not only involved in the final product and service, but also

involved in the production and delivery process, thus employee involvement in process

redesign and commitment is important to produce final tourism products or services.

Service quality is considered very important indicator towards customer satisfaction

(Spreng and Machoy, 1996). Service quality got popularity among professionals and

academia due to increased competition. It constitutes a lot to gain competitive advantage

to maintain long-term relationship with customers (Zeithmal et al.2000)

According to Gronroos (1982) , the total service quality as customer‘s perception of

difference between the expected service and the perceived service. He then defined the

concept of perceived service quality as the outcome an evaluation process, where the

consumer compares his expectations with the service he perceives or has received (ibid).

Hanson (2000) suggested that service quality shows the organization‘s ability to meet

customers‘ desires and needs. So organization must improve their services to meet

customers‘ wants and requirements. It is found that customers‘ perception of service

quality is very important for managers to compete in the market (Hoffman and Bateson,

2002).

Asubonteng et al. defined service quality as the difference between customers‘

expectations for service performance prior to the service encounter and their perceptions

of the service received.

According to Athiyaman (1997), service quality is a representative indicator of

satisfaction and performance. Negative disconfirmation between what customers

expected and perceived service quality results in dissatisfaction.

2.5.2 Dimensions of service quality:

Several general service aspects that customers might use to assess service quality are

conceptualized earlier.

Gronroos (1983) used a two-dimension model of service quality:

Technical quality, and

Functional quality

Figure 2.1 : The Perceived Service Quality Model

Source: Gronroos (1984)17

17 The Perceived Service Quality Model Source: Gronroos (1984)

Technical quality involves what customers actually receive from the service provider (i.e.

the outcome of the service) and functional quality includes the manner in which

customers received the service (i.e., the process of service delivery).

Many researchers argue that functional service quality may be seen by the customer as

the most important factor in a service transaction due to their frequent inability to judge

technical quality of service (Asuboteng et al., 1996). Because it may be difficult for

consumer to assess technical quality, they tend to rely on the ―how‖ of service delivery,

and attributes such as empathy, reliability, responsiveness associated with the service

encounter become critical (Babakus and Mangol, 1992; Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988).

Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) discussed three kinds of service quality: physical quality,

involving physical aspects associated with the service such as equipment or building;

corporate quality, involving a service firm‘s image or reputation; and interactive quality,

involving interactions between service personnel and customers, as well as among

customers.

Hedvall and Paltschik‘s (1989) described two dimensions-willingness and ability to

serve and physical and psychological access; Leblanc‘s and Nguyen‘s (1988) five

components – corporate image, internal organization , physical support of the service

producing system, staff/ customer interaction, and the level of customer satisfaction.

Garvin‘s (1988) nine dimensions: performance , features, conformance, reliability,

durability, service, response, aesthetics, and reputation; Similarly Oliver and Rust‘s

(1994)suggested three dimensions of service quality which includes functional quality,

technical quality and environment quality.

(Juran, 1979), has shown that the measurement of service quality in a service

organization has two dimensions:

1. Internal, and

2. External dimensions

According to his research, internal measurement is to measure the internal process; on the

other hand the external measurement is to measure the quality of the products or services

based on customer satisfaction.

Parasuraman et al (1988) identified ten determinants such as tangibles, reliability,

responsiveness, communication, access, competence, courtesy, credibility, security and

understanding/Knowledge of customer through studies. Later these ten dimensions were

further regrouped into five dimensions usually used by customer to assess service quality.

They named the measuring instrument as ‗SERVQUAL‘.

1. Tangibles - Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication

materials.

2. Reliability - Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

3. Responsiveness - Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

4. Assurance - Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and

confidence.

5. Empathy - The service dimension of quality is probably more akin to the educational

processes.

Services can‘t be stored and are perishable. The consumer is also an integral part of the

service process. Thus, in Higher education, this framework is more applicable as the

teaching learning situations are more like a service. y - The firm provides care and

individualized attention to its customers.

Johnston provides eighteen service quality dimensions: attentiveness/helpfulness,

responsiveness, care, availability, reliability, integrity, friendliness, courtesy,

communication, competence, functionality, commitment, access, flexibility, aesthetics,

cleanliness/tidiness, comfort and security. Sasser, Olsen ,& Wyckoff (1978), listed seven

attributes which they believe adequately embrace the concept of service quality. These

include: security, consistency, attitude, completeness, condition, availability and training

of service providers.

Brandy and Cronin (2001) presented a three- factor model describing service quality,

ambient conditions, facility design and social factors. They outline that service

environment are parts of the service delivery methods and it appears best to incorporate

them as parts of the useful dimension.

Rust and Oliver (1994) suggested that service quality is a function of three components

viz., Service Product, Service Delivery and Service Environment. The service product is

the outcome and the consumer‘s perception of the service. The service delivery is the

consumption process and any relevant events that occur during the service act. The

service environment is the internal and external atmosphere. The service environment is

important because it is viewed as an integral role in consumer service perception

development (Bitner, 1992).

Carney (1994) proposed comprehensive nineteen variables/attributes in studying a

college's image i.e. student qualification (academic), student qualities (personal), faculty-

student interaction, quality instruction (faculty), variety of courses, academic reputation,

class size, career preparation, athletic programs, student activities (social life),

community service, facilities and equipment, location, physical appearance (campus), on

campus residence, friendly, caring atmosphere, religious atmosphere, safe campus,

cost/financial aid. Although the variables were developed under the context of college

image, most of the variables noted are highly relevant to the measurement of service

quality.

Athiyaman (1997) used eight characteristics to examine university education services

namely, teaching students well, availability of staff for student consultation, library

services, computing facilities, recreational facilities, class sizes, level and difficulty of

subject content and student workload. The author further noted that ―consumer

satisfaction is similar to attitude, but it is short-term and results from an evaluation of a

specific consumption experience.‖

Lee et al (2000) explained that the two of the total quality experience variables ‗overall

impression of the school‘ and ‗overall impression of the education quality‘ are the

determinant variables in predicting the overall satisfaction.

Brooks (2005) stated that the measurement of quality should encompass more university

activities. The author recommends the following criteria to assess a quality of a

university:-

i. Reputation

ii. Faculty Research Productivity

iii. Student Educational Experiences and Outcomes

Program Characteristics: Counts of degree issued; financial support; fellowship

grant support; teaching assistantship

Program Effectiveness: Timeline of their ptogramme; proportion of students;

completing their intended degree programme

Student Satisfaction: Classroom; co-curricular activities; interaction with faculty

and peers; instructions; campus life

Student Outcome: Assessment of learning and career outcomes of educational

programs

Sangeeta et al (2004) noted that it is necessary to identify customers‘ requirements and

the design characteristics that make up an educational system. The authors also have

highlighted the importance to compare the perceptions of the customers relating to those

requirements and characteristics with their expectations and thus, determine the service

quality.

As far as customer requirements were concerned, the tests for validity and reliability

identified a total of 26 items, which were grouped under five factors/constructs

i. Competence: Appropriate physical facilities/infrastructure, faculty‘s expertise, faculty‘s

teaching ability and skills, sufficient faculty/support staff

ii. Attitude: Effective problem solving, orientation towards achievement, healthy

competitive and collegial environment

iii. Content: Learn to apply, clarity of course objectives, relevance of curriculum to future

needs, flexibility of knowledge being cross disciplinary

iv. Delivery: Ease of contract/access to teachers and administrative staff, effective

Hadikoemoro (2002) captured thirty five items of service quality after two focus group

interviews conducted at private and public universities. A total of twenty eight items were

identified through factor analysis using varimax rotation. Based on a second factor

analysis, those items were categorized into five dimensions as follows:-

i. Academic services: ability of the university to perform service dependably and

accurately, and the completeness of academic-support facilities.

ii. Readiness and attentiveness: university willingness and attentiveness to help

students, and provide prompt service.

iii. Fair and impartial: ability to implement democratic campus regulation and

apply discipline to all members.

iv. Tangible: appearance of the university based on complete and modern

equipments, physical facilities and neat appearing employees.

v. General attitudes: fairness of grading and courteous handling of students

problems.

Owlia and Aspinwall (1996) developed 30 attributes called ―quality characteristics‖ after

conducting thorough literature reviews on service quality research papers. Based on the

Similarities, the service quality attributes were grouped into six dimensions as follows:-

i. Tangibles: Sufficient equipment/facilities, modern equipment/facilities;

ease of access; visually appealing environment; support services

(accommodation, sports,)

ii. Competence: Sufficient (academic) staff; theoretical knowledge,

qualifications; practical knowledge; up to date; teaching expertise,

communication

iii. Attitude: Understanding student‘s needs; willingness to help; availability

for guidance and advisory; giving personal attention; emotion, courtesy

iv. Content: Relevance of curriculum to the future jobs of students;

effectiveness; containing primary knowledge skills; completeness, use of

computer; communication skills and team working; flexibility of

knowledge, being cross disciplinary

v. Delivery: Effective presentation; sequencing, timeliness; consistency;

fairness of examinations; feedback from students; encouraging students

vi. Reliability: Trustworthiness; giving valid award; keeping promises,

match to the goals; handling complaints and solving problems

The authors re-grouped the dimensions into seven dimensions after conducting factor

analysis. Following are the dimensions developed under the new groupings namely

academic resources, support services, competence, attitude, delivery, content and

reliability.

The authors conducted three validity tests on the seven dimensions in which they found

three dimensions were not sufficiently valid to be included in the framework of quality

measurement. Finally, they recommended academic resources, competence, attitude and

64

content to be used as a framework for quality measurement. (Owlia and Aspinwall ,

1996).

2.6 Measuring Service Quality

In order for something to be quantifiably improved, it must be able to be measured and to

achieve quality as perceived by the customer, proactive organizational commitment is

required. Berry (1995) suggests that service plays an important role in enhancing value,

and can positively influence a firm‘s success. From a customer perspective, a service

provider‘s can help to offset potential burdens, like frustration, reputation, high price etc.

As a result, understanding and measuring customer expectations and performance are

therefore an essential component that can be used to enhance organization‘s service

provision.

In analyzing service from the customer‘s perspective, researches by Parasuraman et al.

(1988) yielded the most widely used technique for measuring service quality is the

SERVQUAL model. This instrument was comprised of five different gaps and due to this

reason this is also known as gap model and later this model was refined by Parasuraman

et al (1991) and SERVQUAL instrument was based on gap 5. SERVQUAL based on gap

5, comprised of five service quality dimensions based on 22 items; tangible (4 items),

reliability (4 items), responsiveness (4 items), assurance (5 items) and empathy (5 items).

When developing their framework further, extensive statistical analysis revealed

significant correlations between certain dimensions depicted in the original concept, and

this led to the regrouping of the original ten items into five subsequent dimensions

(tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) were labeled as the

SERVQUAL scale. The instrument represents a multi-item scale that since its

development has been widely used for measuring consumer expectations and perceptions

of service quality. It consists of 22 parallel expectation (E) and perception (P) statements

on five service quality dimensions.

In order to obtain view for the statement, consumers are required to select a response on 7

point Likert scales that range from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

This then allows for the difference in scores for each dimension which has been

calculated. The difference (P-E = Q) represents the measure of service quality (Q). Where

Q is negative, a service gap exists. However, if Q is positive, customer expectations are

being exceeded.

2.6.1 The Gap Model

One of the purposes of the SERVQUAL instrument is to ascertain the level of service

quality based on the five key dimensions and to identify where gaps in service exist and

to what extent. Service quality is a function of the differences between expectation and

performance along the quality dimension. Parasuraman et al (1985) research revealed that

service quality stems from a comparison of the customers‘ expectations or desires from

the service providers with their perceptions of the actual service performance. Ten

dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, credibility, security,

competence, courtesy, understanding/knowing the customer, and access) were extracted

from their research in terms of customer perceived service quality. Based on their

findings they developed a service quality model based on gap analysis which is illustrated

66

in Figure 1 – GAP model illustration (Parasuraman et al, 1985). The gaps are generally

defined as:

Gap 1 (positioning gap) – pertains to managers‘ perception of consumers‘

expectations and the relative importance consumers attach to the quality

dimensions.

Gap 2 (specification gap) - is concerned with the difference between what

management believes the consumers expect the business to provide.

Gap 3(delivery gap) - is concerned with the difference between the service

provided by the employee of the business and specifications set by management.

Gap 4 (perception gap) – exists when the promises communicated by the business

to the consumer do not match the consumers‘ expectations of those external

promises.

Gap 5 (perception gap) – is the difference between the consumer internal

perception and expectation of the services (Zeithaml et al., 1990).

67

Figure 2.2 – Gap model illustration (Parasuraman et al , 1985)18

The lower the mean score, the larger the gap in service quality and conversely the higher

the mean score, the smaller the gap. Gaps 1 to 4 are within the control of an organization

and need to be analyzed to determine the cause or causes and changes to be implemented

which can reduce or even eliminate Gap 5. The surveying of employees can help to

measure the extent of Gap 2 to 4 (Zeithaml et al., 1990). This may reveal a difference in

perception as to what creates possible gaps.

18

Gap model illustration (Parasuraman et al , 1985)

Parasuraman et al. (1988, p.23) shows that the model incorporates five dimensions:

Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

Empathy: The caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust

and confidence.

Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel.

Figure 2.3 : Determinants of perceived Service quality

Source : Parasuraman et al. (1988)19

Parasuraman et al. (1988) assert that the SERVQUAL instrument could be applied to

most service organization. The use of a SERVQUAL instrument is particularly relevant

in the context of higher education. In the present research an instrument was designed

which provides the measurement of the relative importance associated with each

dimension on management education. After the mean for each dimension has been

calculated, the relative importance score and weighted average score was calculated for

each dimension. The instrument was developed with the intention that it could be applied

19

Determinants of perceived Service quality Source : Parasuraman et al. (1988)

in measuring the quality of services of management education in the broad framework of

research investigations. By measuring customer expectations and perceived

performance, the SERVQUAL method identifies gaps that can be targeted for

improvement.

2.6.2 Performance only Model

Cronin and Taylor investigated the conceptualization and measurement of service quality

and its relationship with consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. According to

them perceptions are the only better predictors of service quality and concluded by

comparing the computed difference scores with perception. They argued on the

framework of Parasuraman et al. with respect to conceptualization and measurement of

service quality. This leads to develop performance only measurement of service quality

called ‗SERVPERF‘. They illustrated that service quality is a form of consumer attitude

and the performance only measure of service quality is an enhanced means of measuring

service quality.[] The argument says that ‗SERVQUAL‘ confounds satisfaction and

attitude. Service quality can be conceptualized as ―similar to an attitude‖ and can be

operationalized by the adequacy-importance model. In particular, they argued that

‗Performance‘ instead of ―Performance- Expectation‖ determines service quality.

Service quality is evaluated by perceptions- only without expectations and importance

weights as follows.

SQ = 𝑃ij𝑘𝑗=1

Where:

SQ = overall service quality;

K= the number of attributes;

Pij = performance perception of stimulus i with respect to attribute j.

A study conducted by Nitin Seth et al., (2005), reported 19 service quality models used

till now to measure the service quality. These models are given in the given table below.

Table: 2.1 Service Quality Model

SERVICE QUALITY MODEL AUTHOR

Technical and functional model Gronroos, 1984

GAP model Parasuraman et al., 1985

Attribute service quality model Haywood- farmer, 1988

Synthesized model of service quality Brogowicz et al., 1990

Performance only model(SERVPERF) Cronin and Taylor, 1992

Ideal value model of service quality Mattsson, 1992

Evaluated performance and normed

quality model

Teas, 1993

IT alignment model Berkley and Gupta, 1994

Attribute and overall affect model Dabholkar, 1996

Model of perceived service quality and

satisfaction

Spreng and Mackoy, 1996

PCP attribute model Philip and hazlett,1997

Retail service quality and perceived value

model

Sweeney et al., 1997

Service quality , customer value and

customer satisfaction model

Oh, 1999

Antecedents and mediator model Dabholkar et al., 2000

Internal service quality model Frost and kumar, 2000

Internal service quality DEA model Soteriou and Stavrinides, 2000

Internet banking model Broderick and Vachirapornpuk, 2002

IT-based model Zhuet et al., 2002

Model of e-service quality (Santos, 2003) Santos, 2003

Source: Nitin Seth et al. (2005)20

However, in almost all the service organizations (Riadh Lidhari, 2009; Smith etal., 2007;

Lee & Tai, 2008; Brochado, 2009) the most commonly used SERVQUAL model

developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988) had been widely used.

2.7 SERVICE QUALITY IN EDUCATION INDUSTRY

20

Source: Nitin Seth et al. (2005)

The service quality in higher education was measured by HEDPERF (Higher Education

Performance). This concept was propounded by Firdaus (2004). He used 41 items

instrument to measure the service quality in higher education institutions. According to

him students are the main customers of the service. Likewise, twenty statements to

measure the service quality in technical institutes were used by Khan et al., (2007). The

thirty-nine service quality variables to measure quality of higher education in engineering

education has been listed out by Owlia and Aspinwall (1997).

Harvey and Green (1993) asserted that there is a lack of proper definition of quality in

higher education and the concept of service quality in education industry is

comprehensive. There are number of ways to define quality in higher education and it

holds its own criterion and perspective in defining the term and is regarded as

‗stakeholder relative‘ (Harvey and Green, 1993).Considering the student as the primary

stakeholder, (DeShields et al. 2005) argue that in order to succeed in a competitive

environment, the higher education sector needs to continue to deliver a high quality

service and satisfy students. Service quality in higher education industry when compared

to that of the commercial sector is relatively new research in this area (Sultan and Wong

2010).In today‘s competitive environment and with a significant changes taking place it

has become imperative for higher education institutions to realize it to maintain the

quality of education service. Accordingly, many higher education institutions are

beginning to understand this and are contending for students, both in the national and

international market (Paswan and Ganesh, 2009).Furthermore, Most Higher education

institutions are striving hard to achieve quality and it has become the most important goal

for them.(Abdullah, 2006b).

2.7.1 Customers of Education Industry

According to Griffin (1996), a customer is anyone who pays money to acquire an

organization‘s products or services. Stanton, Etzel, and Walker (1994) suggested that

customer is the individual or organization that actually makes a purchase decision, while

a consumer is the individual or organizational unit that uses or consumes a product. In the

parlance of education, students are customers who come to contact with service providers

of an educational institution for the purpose of acquiring goods or services. Hill (1995)

refers that as a primary customer of higher education services, the student should focus

on expectation. Waugh (2002), however, suggested that viewing students as customers

created some tensions in universities by making universities seem to be too aligned with

businesses. Some researchers also view academic faculties as customers of university

administration. Pitman (2000) examined the extent to which university staff perceived

students and academics as customers in Australia.

Although the primary participant in the service of education is the student, there is also a

strong underlying assumption that the ―customer‖ of education includes industry, parents,

Government, and even society as a whole. The link between satisfaction, payment, and

repeat custom is much less direct in education industry, and the simple approach of only

considering the bottom line is not available even if it were acceptable.

Over a past 25 years measuring service quality due to its intangible nature has always

been a subject to a large number of investigations by the academician and practitioner.

(Prabha et al, 2010). Prabha et al. (2010) further explored that study on measuring the

service quality of educational institutions has also been the focus of increased attentions

73

during the last couple of years due to the tough competition among the educational

institutions and the demand for excellence in education. The present study used 41

statements drawn from the reviews and experts in the relevant field to measure the

service quality in management institutes of GBTU (Formerly UPTU).

2.7.2 Expectations and Perceptions

A major debate within the services marketing literature concerns the customer

expectations and perception should be used, or whether it is suitable to use purely

perceptions to form the judgments. Zeithaml et al. (1990) in his study hold the view that

personal needs, external communication, word of mouth communications from the

service provider, price and past experiences of the service plays a pivotal role in

influencing the customer‘s expectations. Furthermore, he proposed that for delivering

good service quality it is an essential to know what the customer expects. This reveals

that in order to develop and manage service quality it is significant to understand the

customers‘ expectations. In the study by Hill (1995), students‘ expectations of higher

education are informed by their experiences at high school leading to a potential

mismatch between expectation and perceived service quality.

Despite the debate surrounding the relevance of expectations, it is appropriate to discuss

the disconfirmation paradigm, as this provides a basis for understanding the relationship

between student expectations and student satisfaction (Appleton-Knapp and Krentler,

2006).

2.7.3 The Disconfirmation Paradigm

Traditionally, the disconfirmation paradigm has been used extensively to determine

satisfaction. However, the disconfirmation paradigm is a flexible model that is also useful

for the measurement of quality in services (see e.g. Gronroos, 1982). The paradigm is

useful for understanding the relationship between a consumer‘s expectations and actual

perceptions (Figure 2.1).The four important constructs in the model are : expectations,

performance, disconfirmation, and satisfaction (Smith and Houston, 1982, cited in

Parasuraman et al., 1985). Expectations reflect anticipated behavior (Churchill and

Suprenant,1982). They are predictive, indicating expected product attributes at some

point in the future (Spreng et al.1996). Expectations serve as the comparison standard in

ECT (Expectation-Confirmation Theory) - what consumers use to evaluate performance

and form a disconfirmation judgment (Halstead, 1999). Disconfirmation is hypothesized

to affect satisfaction, with positive disconfirmation leading to satisfaction and negative

disconfirmation leading to dissatisfaction.

The Disconfirmation Model

Figure 2.4 The Disconfirmation Model Source: Walker (1995)21

Expectations are predictions of performance and their comparison with perceived

performance leads to three possible outcomes:

Confirmation: Occurs when actual performance is as expected.

Positive disconfirmation: Occurs when actual performance is greater than expectation

Negative disconfirmation: Occurs when actual performance is less than expectations.

Positive disconfirmation produces satisfaction, whereas negative disconfirmation

produces dissatisfaction (Buttle, 1995). Moreover, when the expected and perceived

21

Figure 2.4 The Disconfirmation Model Source: Walker (1995)

performance is the same, the customer is neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (Buttle, 1996).

This paradigm has been studied and tested by many researchers and serves as the basis

for the vast majority of satisfaction studies (Appleton-Knapp and Krentler, 2006).

2.8 SATISFACTION

Several studies seem to conclude that satisfaction is an effective construct rather than a

cognitive construct (Oliver, 1997; Olsen, 2002). Rust and Oliver (1994) further defined

satisfaction as the ―customers‟ fulfillment response‖, which is an evaluation as well as an

emotion-based response to a service. Cronin et al., (2000) assessed service satisfaction by

using items that include interest, enjoyment, surprise, wise choice and doing the right

things. For marketers, the best measure of quality is customer satisfaction. According to

Kotler, (1995) ‗satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and expectations‘.

Customer satisfaction was viewed in two ways. The first measure consists of responses to

a single question on the customer-satisfaction questionnaire. The second indicator of

customer satisfaction rests on the satisfaction with the service and the respective price.

According to Oliver (1997), satisfaction is a pleasurable fulfillment which means that

competition of services was according to their needs and wants and thus fulfillment

causes pleasure. It may be consumer sense about the consumption of services according

to customer parameters against pleasure versus displeasure (Oliver, 1999). Yi (1990),

Heskett et al., (1994) and Roger (1996) suggested that a single overall satisfaction

measure is more reasonably valid than others.

With the expansion of the education sector, there is a growing concern about quality and

also of ‗consumerism‘ of higher education, there has been a significant growth of, and

sophistication in, process designed to collect views from students. Feedback taken from

students can be considered as the variables of customer satisfaction. According to Elliott

and Shin (2002. p : 198), student satisfaction is defined as; ― the favorability of a

student‘s subjective evaluation of the various outcomes and experiences associated with

education. Student satisfaction is shaped continually by repeated experiences in campus

life‖.

2.9 Relevance to Management education

The education service providers are facing with an increasing competition as more new

programs offered, new delivery means of the existing program are introduced, and new

institutions are established. With this, service quality perceived by students becomes one

of the key success factors.

Although the relevance of the five dimensions to the education service may be examined

and reestablished through qualitative research, a guiding framework of quality attributes

could be developed based on the SERVQUAL model. The five attributes of the model,

however, may be redefined to enhance its relevance to the education service: Reliability:

the institutional arrangements (e.g. policy and structure) to deliver the services

promised; Assurance: the capability of the academic and support staff; Responsiveness:

the ability to update, adjust or customize the contents and delivery within a particular

context; Empathy: a caring and student centered soft environment; Tangible: appropriate

physical infrastructure.

The SERVQUAL model compares the two static statuses (expectation and perception).

The quality generation and assurance of education service is, however, a more dynamic

process. The five attributes of service quality may therefore be integrated into an input -

process-output framework. The quality of the output depends on the quality of input and

the quality control of the process by the educational institution.

2.10 Conclusion

In this section, a detailed analysis of literature review has been carried out to measure the

current research activities. The overview of quality movement from the point of view of

various quality gurus, concepts such as service, quality, service quality, satisfaction has

been discussed to have insight of the subject. The trend of current literature suggests that

potential exists for research in the area of service quality management, particularly

measurement and evaluation of service quality. Since service quality is a composition of

intangibility and behavioral aspects, it is not only difficult to assess but also the

measuring instruments vary widely across industry type. It is concluded that various

authors suggested different dimensions for measuring service quality. A proper

explanation of the most widely used instrument for measuring service quality i.e.

‗SERVQUAL‘ model is outlined in this chapter. It has been found that ‗Gap model‘ is

largely popular among the researchers because of easiness in expressing service quality in

terms of expectations and perceptions by the customers. Therefore, literature enhances

our understanding of the main theories involved in our study.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The following chapter reveals the information on methodology plan for the present study.

This research is a systematic investigation into and study used for measuring service

quality in select management institutions affiliated to GBTU. This chapter contains a

description of the research design, population and sample, a description of the

measurement tool/survey, data collection procedures, the statistical analyses and the data

analysis methods used in the study.

3.2 Research Design

A research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data. The

research design used for this study is descriptive and a quantitative research. The

sampling technique used Convenience Sampling with the subgroups identified as a

representative of the entire population. In 1989, Weisberg & Krosnick describes that

statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population.

The study was carried out in Lucknow city, an excellent site for such a study, as the city

is capital of Uttar Pradesh which is a home to some of the most reputed educational

institutes in the world. Like most of the other developed states in India Uttar Pradesh too

has contributed significantly towards the education of the country. Management

education has become one of the most sought after education today as a result of this;

private sector has entered in Indian management scenario and invested an immense

amount for this which ultimately resulted in the proliferation of the management

institutes. However, every management institutions in the country are not providing the

quality education which is a matter of concern in near future. One of the purposes of this

study is to improve the service quality of management education.

This research describes a study undertaken to understand the service quality of

management education in select institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU).In this

study, subjects were students of management institutions who were specifically asked

about the service quality of the management education institutions. ‗SERVQUAL‘ is the

most extensively used service quality measurement instrument because of easiness to use,

possession of simple structure and capabilities of generalization. Since the service quality

largely depends on the human behavior, the quality dimensions of a measuring

instrument vary with service settings. Therefore, quality of service is much difficult to

define precisely because service provider generally provides utility, not objects as in case

of manufacturing sector. In education sector, persistence of intangibility and lack of

physical evidence of service makes perceptions of service quality a complex composition

and its analysis becomes difficult. Normally, two approaches such as quantitative and

qualitative are adopted for conducting a scientific research. According to Holme &

Solvang (1997), both methods have advantages and disadvantages where selection should

be based on the purpose of the study. A quantitative method is formalized and structured

by surround information that can be measured and valued numerically. A quantitative

approach is usually applied when the purpose is to verify existing theories or test

hypotheses developed based on previous research. On the other hand, qualitative

research methods are well suited to the characteristics of services because they fit into

gathering data on dynamic, experiential processes. It also been recognized that services

are difficult to study through traditional research methodologies as they exist only while

being rendered and they are living processes that cannot be disassembled. According to

Gilmore et al (1996), qualitative methods also allow the experience and involvement of

the researcher in a fast-changing and fluid environment. To understand the full potential

of the different methods, it is necessary to understand their possibilities and constraints.

One method is not better than the other, it depends on the situation, whether qualitative or

the quantitative method is more suitable. The main disadvantage includes the subjectivity

and narrative nature of the argument, which feeds into the belief that validity and

reliability are difficult to address. A quantitative method on the other hand has its main

advantage for gaining an objective and precise assessment of the social phenomenon or

human behavior. Whether such complex phenomenon as human behavior can correctly

be measured using numbers is unclear. Both methods have a week side, which is why

Holme and Solvang (1997) recommend combining the two methods. Due to time

constraints both types of research were not applied. To identify non-financial

measurements would require a method that is designed to recognize human deceptions

and to get a wide range of data, thus a quantitative research method was conducted.

3.3 Data Collection Method

According to Arbnor & Bjerke,(1994 ),data sources are classified as being either primary

sources or secondary sources. Throughout the study, both primary and secondary data

sources were used. Primary sources are directly related to the study purpose. A primary

data consists of all the data collected throughout the study that directly can be related to

the study purpose, both personally gathered as well as data from a third party that has

been collected with equivalent purpose. Primary data will mainly be obtained through

the administering of questionnaire regarding measuring service quality in management

education institutes while a source is secondary if one organization or individual has

compiled the data to be used by another organization or individual. Thus, secondary data

contains relevant data that been collected with a different purpose, but from which

conclusions is valuable for the purpose. The secondary sources like past studies and

archives will be accessed from various databases like books and articles in order to obtain

some reliable literature and empirical findings that can be applied in order to have better

understanding the service quality construct and how the SERVQUAL model can be used

to measure it. In this study, primary sources were used to analyze the data gathered.

3.3.1 Selection of Sample

Our Study is being carried in an academic year 2012/2013 to all- year post graduate

management students and we are interested to find out about how students from the

management institutes perceive service quality. This means our sample is from the

students of the management institutes affiliated to GBTU. Students were given verbal and

written instructions, and completed the questionnaires in twenty minutes. We solicited

anonymous response to questionnaire given to management students of management

institutes. Of the 650 students surveyed for this study, 500 returned usable questionnaire.

Any doubts that the respondents might have regarding any questions were to be clarified

on the spot. The respondents were permitted to ask the researchers for further

clarification if they encountered difficulties in understanding the questions. Since the

numbers of the respondents in each class were about 40 to 70 students, we manage to get

a 100% response rate. This was considered an adequate sample size, since other scale

developers in the marketing area had used a sample size of 200 to analyze group data

(Parasuraman et al., 1986).

3.3.2 Choice of respondents

As it has been mentioned earlier that our study is focused on the students of management

institutes affiliated to GBTU. The sampling technique used Convenience sampling with

the subgroups identified as a representative of the entire population. According to

Bryman & Bell, 2007 convenience sampling technique refers to a technique that goes for

the sample that is available in the light of easy access. We have chosen this technique

because it is actually impossible for us to carry on a probability sampling because there is

no point in time during which all the students are around due to variation in programs

during which could collect data without bias. Also, it is not possible to contact everyone

who may be sampled and expect a respondent rate of up to 50%. Considering the time,

accessibility and effort it will be needed to put in place to do a probability sample it is not

going to be possible for us to use a probability sampling technique.

3.4 Measure Instrument

Questionnaires were designed according to the SERVQUAL model of measuring service

quality expectations and perceptions (Parasuraman et al., 1988). The survey instrument

used is a structured questionnaire consisted of three sections namely A, B, C section.

Section A contained demographic data about the respondents. While question of section

B and C are the main parts of the questionnaire that comprises of 41 questions each

aimed at finding the respondents‘ opinions pertaining to the expectations and perceptions

of service quality in management education. Section B is aimed at measuring the

expectations of the students. The statements are coined in such a way that they show their

expectations about institutions offering education services. Section C seeks to measure

perceptions. These are the statements relate to the feeling about management institute for

which respondents are expected to rank these statements. It consisted of 41 perception

item extracted from the original Servqual scale and modified to fit into management

education context.

These statements were developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988). We have not changed

the original SERVQUAL instrument but we have however rephrased the statements to be

context relevant so as to maintain validity as elaborated below. The first part of the

questionnaire seeks to measure demographic variables. We have employed two

statements to measure this dimension; statement 23 and 24. Statements 1 to 12 seeks to

measure the tangibility aspect of the management institutes. The reliability dimension is

measured in statements 13 to 23, while the responsiveness dimension is measured in

statement 24 to 30. The assurance and empathy dimensions are measured in statements

31 to 36 and 37 to 41 respectively. All the questions are multiple-choice and close-ended

questions. Because of being closed- ended and multiple-choice in nature the results of the

questions are easy to compare, tabulate and analyze easier. Closed questions offer

efficiencies to researchers. They are certainly easier to analyze and are usually quicker to

administer and ask. Thus, they are often used in large samples and in self-completion

interviews. The consistency in the response categories allows trends to be tracked over

time if the same questions

The scale has a total 41 statements in final SERVQUAL scale. All the items in Section B

and C were presented as statements on the questionnaire, with the same rating scale used

throughout, and measured on a 5 point, Likert type scale that varied from 1 strongly

disagree to 5 strongly agree. The SERVQUAL instrument is based on the premise that

students who rate expectations higher than perceived services will experience service

quality that is less than adequate. Conversely, students who perceive performance as

higher than their expectations will rate the service as higher quality. Likewise, students

who rate expectations and perceptions with similar scores are satisfied. In short,

perceived quality involves the subjective response of students and is therefore highly

relativistic. It is a form of attitude related but not equivalent to satisfaction, and results

from a comparison of expectations with perceptions of performance (Parasuraman et al.).

This instrument has been utilized to measure the service quality of management

education in select institutions affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU).

3.5 Testing of the questionnaire

The questionnaire is tested to identify whether the questionnaire is able to capture the

required data as expected by the researchers. The test was conducted mainly to find out

whether our questionnaire was easily-understandable as well as whether there were any

vague and confusing questions in the questionnaire. The validation of survey instrument

was checked through pilot testing of 30 respondents and variables were finalized after

ensuring the balanced approach and objectivity of the survey. All the respondents

reported that they had no difficulty in answering the questions. However, we received

one general comment from two students that some of the questions were a bit wordy and

long. Accordingly, necessary changes were made. Collected data were processed in the

statistical software package of SPSS-20.

3.6 Data Organization

A codebook was built describing each independent and dependent variable in the

analysis. The responses to the variables were entered into the statistical application

software package SPSS 20 for analysis.

3.7 Data Analysis Methods

We are carrying out a quantitative research and this will involve some quantitative

analyses with the use of statistical tools (descriptive and inferential). There are several

software packages for the analysis of quantitative data some of which are broader in

scope and user friendly like the SPSS. The data were analyzed through various statistical

tools, account of which has been given below: Tabular analysis was carried out to study

the student‘s demographic profile and various service encounters experienced by the

students of different institutes. Mean scores were used to rank the respondents

satisfaction level towards the twenty two attributes accessing the satisfaction level of

students towards the quality of technical education imparted by the respective institutes.

For prioritizing the different dimensions of SERVQUAL, each of the five dimensions

were weighted according to customer importance, and the score for each dimension

multiplied by the weighting. Following this, the Gap Score for each dimension was

calculated by subtracting the Expectation score from the Perception score. A negative

Gap score indicated that the actual service (the Perceived score) was less than what was

expected (the Expectation score). Thus, the Gap score was an indication of each of the

five dimensions of service quality.

3.8 Formulation of Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated and tested:

H1: There is no significant difference between students‘ expectations and their

perceptions of tangibility


perceptions of reliability


perceptions of responsiveness


perceptions of assurance


perceptions of empathy

H6: There is no significant difference in satisfaction level related to Quality of education

services when compared between Male & Female


services when compared among various income groups


services when compared between residential area

H9: There is no correlation between tangibility and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

H10: There is no correlation between reliability and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

H11: There is no correlation between responsiveness and student satisfaction of

management institutes.

H12: There is no correlation between assurance and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

H13: There is no correlation between empathy and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS

AND

INTERPRETATION

CHAPTER-4

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter was to examine results of the study of management education

student satisfaction with the management institutes services. This chapter contains the

data collected from the survey of management students, the statistical treatment, and

analysis of the data. The statistical package SPSS (20.0) was used to analyze the data

received from the questionnaire. To enable ease of data entry, questions were pre-coded

beforehand. This also confirmed that the design of the questionnaire was suitable for such

analysis. Each questionnaire was individually numbered, with first variable on the SPSS

package reflecting this. This enabled the successful identification of errors, which when

they did occur, were easy to correct. The analyses were obtained using both preliminary

analysis and main analysis. In preliminary analysis, descriptive statistics was involved in

which we explore the data to understand the nature and demographic characteristics of

the respondents. It helps the researchers in selecting and using the appropriate analyses or

procedures in hypothesis testing. On the other hand, the main analysis was used to

calculate factor analysis whose aim was to find out if the SERVQUAL is applicable in

the context of management institutes and the gap score analysis. The frequencies and

percentages of the various support services used by management student respondents

were calculated. Students indicated whether or not they had used the institutes‘ services

and programs on a five point Likert scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied.

4.2 Demographic and Profile of the Respondents

There was a sample of 500 management students of five different management institutes

of GBTU, comprising in the below given Tables which shows the demographic profile

of the respondents and it included student status, gender, age group, residential area and

family income.

Table 4.2.1 Demographic Profile of Student Status

Student status(N=500)

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid

1st year

student 198 39.6 39.6 39.6

2nd year

student 302 60.4 60.4 100.0

Total 500 100.0 100.0

Figure 4.1, Students Status

Interpretation

1st year

Student

2nd year

Student

The above table reveals that education wise it was discernible that the largest majority of

the respondents (60.4%) were of MBA 2nd year and 39.6% of the students were from

MBA 1st year.

Table.4.2.2 Demographic Profile of Student Gender

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Male 278 55.6 55.6 55.6

Female 222 44.4 44.4 100.0

Total 500 100.0 100.0

Figure.4.2 Gender

Interpretation

The above chart shows that the percentages of male and female respondents were 55.6 %

and 44.4%. This shows that largest majority of the sample respondents were male.

Male Female

Table.4.2.3 Demographic Profile of Student Age Group

Age Group

Frequenc

y

Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Below 20

years 38 7.6 7.6 7.6

21-23 years 393 78.6 78.6 86.2

24-26 years 55 11.0 11.0 97.2

26 years

above 14 2.8 2.8 100.0

Total 500 100.0 100.0

Figure 4.3 Age Group

21-23 years

24-26

years

2

6

y

e

a

rs

Below

20

years

Interpretation: The largest majority of the sample respondents i.e. 78.6% were in the age

group of 21-23 years which was followed in by the age group of 24-26 years (11.0%),

further followed in by the age group of below 20 years (7.6%) and above 26 years (2.8

%).

Table.4.2.4 Demographic Profile of Student residential Area

Residential Area

Frequenc

y

Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Urban 383 76.6 76.6 76.6

Rural 117 23.4 23.4 100.0

Total 500 100.0 100.0

Rural

Urban

Figure.4.4 Residential Area

Interpretation

The above chart shows that 76.6% of the respondents belong to urban areas and 23.4% of

the respondents belong to rural areas.

Table: 4.2.5Demographic Profile of Student Family Income

Family Income

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Less than 30000 261 52.2 52.2 52.2

30,000-50,000 49 9.8 9.8 62.0

50,000-1,00,000 42 8.4 8.4 70.4

More than

1,00,000 148 29.6 29.6 100.0

Total 500 100.0 100.0

Figure.4.5 Family Income

Interpretation

The above chart shows that in the whole sample 52.2% of the respondents fell in the

income group of below RS. 30000 per month, 9.8% in the income range of 30,000-

50,000, 8.4 % in the range of 50,000-1, 00,000, and 29.6 % in the range of more than 1,

00,000.

Less than 30000

30,000-

50,0000

50,000-

1,00,00

0

More than

1,00,000

4.3 Reliability Coefficient Discussion

Table 4.3.1 : Reliability Coeffecient ( Crobach α)

Dimensions Cronbach α

1. Tangibles

12 items

0.849

2. Reliability

11 items

0.880

3. Responsiveness

7 items

0.790

4. Assurance

6 items

0.760

5. Empathy

5 items

0.793

Interpretation

From the above table 4.3.1,it can be inferred that the reliability of findings obtained using

the survey instrument was assessed by computing the total reliability scale. The total

reliability scale for the study is 0.95. According to Nunnally (1978), the Cronbach alpha

procedure is an estimate of reliability based on the average correlation between items

within each factor where 0.6 is sufficient. According to Sekaran, 1992 the score of over

0.8 is considered to be good. This reliability value for our study is substantial considering

the fact that the highest reliability that can be obtained is 1.0 and this is an indication that

the items of the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model are accepted for analysis. The

result of the analysis indicated that no values of coefficient α were less than 0.6 as

reported in the above Table 4.3.1.

4.4 Findings on Overall Service Quality

The next step of education service evaluation was to collect the results of the modified

SERVQUAL questionnaire, and adopt various statistical methods to analyze the data.

Table-4.4.1.: Mean score (Standard deviation) for modified SERVQUAL

dimensions

S. No. Items Perception(P)

(Std. D)

Expectation(E)

(Std. D)

P-E(Gap

Scores) Tangibility

1. The facilities should be

visually appealing 3.48(1.136) 3.69(1.159) -0.21

2. The institute have modern,

up-to-date infrastructure 3.66(1.025) 3.88(.999) -0.22

3 Employees have neat

appearance 3.79(.988) 3.86(.963) -0.07

4 Well-equipped and up-to-

date library 3.58(1.071) 3.95(.943) -0.37

5 Wide range of books and

periodicals 3.61(1.063) 3.99(.931) -0.38

6 Materials associated with

services of lectures should 3.69(1.033) 3.91(.942) -0.22

be visually appealing.

7 Plenty of sports facilities with

modern equipment 3.16(1.230) 3.63(1.107) -0.47

8 Hygiene canteens 3.14(1.242) 3.83(1.069) -0.69

9 Printer and Xerox Facilities 3.22(1.221) 3.83(.986) -0.61

10 Up-to-date teaching support 3.76(.984) 3.97(.989) -0.21

11 Sufficient hostel facilities with

proper security 3.61(1.048) 3.98(.894) -0.37

12 Adequate parking areas. 3.52(1.065) 4.02(.883) -0.50

Reliability

13 Teaching and learning process

should be up-to-date as what

was promised

3.74(.978) 3.71(1.141) -0.03

14 Sincere interest in solving

students problem 3.83(.978) 3.96(.968) -0.13

15 Perform the service right the

first time 3.88(.940) 3.91(.975) -0.03

16 Presentation should be

effectively delivered 3.89(.898) 4.02(.937) -0.13

17 Error-Free records of student

marks should be kept 3.91(.973) 3.94(.947) -0.03

18 Complaints of students should

be solved 3.83(.973) 3.98(.891) -0.15

19 Upgrade the syllabus from time

to time 3.93(.975) 4.06(.935) -0.13

20 Design of course structure

should be based on job

requirement

3.45(1.209) 4.01(.924) -0.56

21 MBA programme structure

should enable to be an

employable post-graduate.

3.78(.966) 3.99(.953) -0.21

22 Tie- up with the companies 3.63(1.111) 3.952(.997) -0.32

23 Useful information related to

scholarship should be accurately

provided.

3.69(1.026) 3.83(1.014) -0.14

Responsiveness

24 Prompt service 3.77(.978) 3.89(.913) -0.12

25 Willingness to solve problem 3.80(.951) 3.92(.9199) -0.12

26 Never be too busy to respond to

your request 3.77(1.011) 3.93(.983) -0.16

27 Adequate facilities to render

service 3.73(.967) 3.87(1.004) -0.14

28 Sufficient time to give directions

and suggestions 3.80(1.012) 3.97(.937) -0.17

29 Encourage teamwork and

communication skill 3.87(1.028) 4.00(.953) -0.13

30 Transparency of official

procedure, norms and rules. 3.75(1.004) 3.99(.916) -0.24

Assurance

31 Faculties should instill

confidence in students 3.80(.903) 3.90(.915) -0.10

32 Transaction should be safe with

your institute 3.85(.921) 4.04(.845) -0.19

33 Lecturers should dealt in with

caring and courteous manner. 3.87(.923) 3.93(.934) -0.06

34 The department should employ

academic staff in whom students

have confidence

3.73(.971) 3.85(.927) -0.12

35 Lecturers should have

knowledge to answer students

question

3.82(1.052) 4.06(.927) -0.24

36 The academic staff should have

high research productivity 3.79(1.082) 4.18(.842) -0.32

Empathy

37 Individual attention to students 3.80(1.030) 4.14(.882) -0.34

38 Best interest at heart 3.85(.974) 4.06(.909) -0.21

39 Working hours of department

must convenient 3.78(.957) 4.09(.994) -0.31

40 Staff be consistently courteous 3.86(.959) 4.03(.927) -0.17

41 Accessibility be easy from city 3.95(.948) 4.15(.961) -0.20

SERVQUAL TOTAL 152.42 160.21 -7.85

SERVQUAL AVERAGE 3.717560 3.907560 -0.1914

Interpretation

In the above Table - 4.4.1, the expectation and perception items were measured using a

five point Likert scale, from 1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree, with three

serving as a mid point/neutral opinion on the scale. The mean scores of each statement

are given. For each statement, the three column shows the mean Expectation ( E) values,

the mean Perception (P) values, along with a service quality value from the formula Q=P-

E( Parasuraman et al., 1988).According to Parasuraman et al ., (1988, p.30) it is however

common for consumer‘s expectation to exceed the actual service perceived and this

signifies that there is always need for improvement. The above table also shows the

overall SERVQUAL results and average

SERVQUAL results. Where the gap scores (P-E) is negative, this refers to perceptions of

the management institutes falling short against initial students‘ expectations, and the

presence of service quality gaps. There is not much difference between the scores of

perceptions but are generally lower than expectations. The more perceptions are close to

expectations, the higher the perceived level of quality. The findings suggest a short fall

on all the items measured. Mean scores greater than three identify a tendency for

respondents to agree with a particular statement, whereas means of less than three

indicate disagreement.

4.5 The Gap Score Analysis

The Gap score analysis is to enable us to find out how students perceive service quality in

management institutes and try to identify what dimensions of service quality they are

satisfied with. According to Parasuraman et al., (1985, p.48) the higher (more positive)

the perception (P) minus expectation (E) score, the higher perceived service quality and

thereby leading to a higher level of customer satisfaction. In this regard, the gap scores

were calculated based on difference between the students‘ perceptions and expectations

of services offered by the management institutes. In particular, it was found that,

students‘ perceptions of service quality offered by management institutes did not meet

their expectations (all gap scores are negative). There is not much difference between the

scores of perceptions but are generally lower than expectations .The more perceptions are

close to expectations, the higher the perceived level of quality. But still, dimensions that

accounted larger mean gaps were tangibility (-0.36), empathy (-0.25), reliability (-0.17)

and assurance (-0.17) while smaller mean gaps were from responsiveness (-

0.15). These values reveals that the perception of performance in management institutes

is less than the expected level of service quality.

4.6 Overall Perceived Service Quality

From the above table, it can be inferred that all the students expect more from

management institutes. This is evident from the negative mean of -7.85 showing that

expectations exceed perceptions in management institutes. Looking at the individual

dimensions we realize that students expect a lot from the empathy dimension with a score

of 4.09.Management institutes therefore have to pay a lot of attention to the quality

service. This reveals that this dimension is important when measuring service quality in

management institutes. The assurance and reliability also have more or less same scores

of 3.99 and 3.94. Students are very sensitive to how assuring and reliable is in providing

good service quality to the management institutes. The gap score as a means to measure

service quality and it had been identified quality as a determinant of service quality was

introduced by Parasuraman et al., (1985,1988).We have been able to measure the gap

between perception and expectations for our sample. The expectations are higher than the

perceptions. This leads to have negative gap specifying that students expect more from

the management institutes. In true sense, students‘ perceive service quality in

management institutes to be poor since it is lower than expectations and hence they are

not satisfied. All the dimensions demonstrate a gap between expected service and

perceived service and this therefore means that management institutes need to make

improvements in all dimensions in order to close gaps that could lead to increase student

satisfaction.

4.7 Average Score of Expectations and Perceptions from all respondents

Table 4.7.1: Average score of Expectation and Perception of all respondents

Dimension Average mean score of

Expectation

Average mean

score of Perception

Tangibles(1-12) 3.87 3.51

Reliability(13-23) 3.94 3.77

Responsiveness(24-

30)

3.93 3.78

Assurance(31-36) 3.99 3.81

Empathy(37-41) 4.09 3.85

Total 3.96 3.74

Interpretation :

The above result shows that the averages mean scores of service quality in management

education dimensions are between 3.0 and 4.0 and the average score of total expectations

are 3.96 and the overall perception score is 3.74. The score shows a -0.22 difference. That

means that the expectations are higher than the perceived service quality. The customers

(students) have the highest expectations about the individual attention (empathy) at an

average point of 4.09 followed by the knowledge

and behavior of the personnel (assurance) at an average point of 3.99 and are followed by

the ability to provide good services at the time it is promised (reliability) 3.94, the

willingness to help and give good information (responsiveness) 3.93, and at last physical

aspects (tangibles) 3.87.Empathy is therefore considered the most important dimension of

service quality and tangible is the least important dimensions.

When it comes to perceptions we can see that here also the empathy dimension has the

highest score with an average of 3.85.Assurances has the second highest score with an

average of 3.81.They are followed by responsiveness 3.78, reliability 3.77 and the

dimension that has the lowest perceptions is tangibles with an average score of 3.51.

4.8 Expectations (E)

As can be seen in Table- 4.3 and it can be concluded that expectation (E) values among

the management students were high (means ranging from 4.02 to 4.11). Seven statements

(12,16,20,29,32,35,36) illustrate mean scores of 4.11.This suggests that management

institute students really have high expectations in terms of a need for adequate parking

areas, lectures and presentations be given effectively, design of course structure be based

on job requirements, teamwork and communication skill among students be encouraged,

Feel safe in transaction with the institute, Lectures have knowledge to answer students

question and academic staff have high research productivity.

Table-4.8.1 Top seven expectations of the students

Adequate parking areas

Lectures and presentation be given effectively

Design of course structure be based on job requirement

teamwork and communication skill among students be encouraged

Feel safe in transaction with the institute

Lectures have knowledge to answer students question

Academic staff have high research productivity

4.9 PERCEPTIONS (P)

Overall seven perception items (1, 7, 8, 9, 11, 20, 22) are below the mid- point 3 on the

scale, suggesting there is some disagreement among students in terms of the management

institutes visually appealing of exterior, sport facilities, hygienic canteens, adequate

printer and Xerox facilities, hostel facilities , course structure on job requirements, tie-up

with companies for placement. Meanwhile 3 items (17, 19, 25) exceeded 3.5, suggesting

that the sample had a tendency to agree that institute have error-free records, upgraded

syllabus, ability to solve students problem. The remainder of the perception scores fell

close to the mid-point, somewhere between two and three to be precise.

Table – 4.9.1 List of Seven Perception items which have disagreement among

students

visually appealing of exterior

sport facilities

hygienic canteens,

adequate printer and Xerox facilities

course structure on job requirements

hostel facilities ,

tie-up with companies for placement

4.10 CROSS TAB ANALYSIS

Table: 4.10.1 Status* Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Figure 4.6 Student status* Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Interpretation

It can be inferred from the above figure that 8% students were strongly dissatisfied while

17 % students were very satisfied with the services provided by the management

SATISFACTION

Student

status

Strongly

Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral

Satisf

ied

Very

Satisfied Total

1st year

student 17 77 38 33 33 198

2nd year

student 22 89 55 77 59 302

Total 39 166 93 110 92 500

institutes on the whole. This proves that students were more satisfied keeping in mind

their low expectations.

Table:4.10.2 Gender * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

SATISFACTION

Gender Strongly

Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied

Very

Satisfied Total

Male 20 95 55 62 46 278

Female 19 71 38 48 46 222

Total 39 166 93 110 92 500

Figure 4.7 Gender * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Interpretation

It was found that out of total of 500 respondents, in most cases both the gender groups

males were more dissatisfied than the females. The females were satisfied keeping in

mind their low expectations.

Table: 4.10.3 Residential Area * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

SATISFACTION

Residential

Area

Strongly


Very

Satisfied Total

Urban 25 125 75 82 76 383

Rural 14 41 18 28 16 117

Total 39 166 93 110 92 500

Figure 4.8 Residential* Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Interpretation

It can be inferred from the above figure that students from urban areas were very satisfied

while students from rural areas were not very satisfied with the services provided by the

management institutes on the whole. This proves that students from rural areas were more

dissatisfied keeping in mind their high expectations.

Table 4.10.4 Age Group * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

SATISFACTION

Age Group Strongly


Very

Satisfied Total

Below 20

years 2 18 6 6 6 38

21-23 years 30 118 75 89 81 393

24-26 years 6 21 12 13 3 55

26 years

above 1 9 0 2 2 14

Total 39 166 93 110 92 500

Figure 4.9 Age* Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Interpretation

It was found that out of total of 500 respondents, in most cases among all the age groups

students were more dissatisfied on the whole.

Table 4.10.5 Family Income*Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Figure 4.10 Family Income * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Interpretation

SATISFACTION

Family

Income

Strongly


Very

Satisfied Total

Less than

30000 19 75 45 73 49 261

30,000-50,000 2 18 10 8 11 49

50,000-

1,00,000 4 19 6 7 6 42

More than

1,00,000 14 54 32 22 26 148

Total 39 166 93 110 92 500

It was found that out of a total of 500 respondents , in most cases among all the income

groups students having an income less than 30,000 were more satisfied on the whole

signaling their high expectations.

4.11 Findings on the hypothesis testing

4.11.1 Hypothesis 1

Ho: There is no significant difference between students’ expectations and their


HA: There is significant difference between students’ expectations and their


The results of analyses are shown in table 4.8, which includes t-test and the p value.

Paired sample statistics (paired samples t-test) was used to compare the service

statements and to see if there is any significant difference among them.

Table 4.11.1: The result of a paired sample test for hypothesis 1

S. No. Items t-test p-value

Tangibility

1. The facilities should be visually

appealing 4.28 .000

2. The institute have modern, up-

to-date infrastructure 4.14 .000

3 Employees have neat

appearance 8.28 .000

4 Well-equipped and up-to-date

library 6.51 .000

5 Wide range of books and

periodicals 6.62 .000

6 Materials associated with

services of lectures should be

visually appealing.

4.08 .000

7 Plenty of sports facilities with

modern equipment 7.00 .000

8 Hygiene canteens 10.23 .000

9 Printer and Xerox Facilities 9.55 .000

10 Up-to-date teaching support 3.66 .000

11 Sufficient hostel facilities with

proper security 7.03 .000

12 Adequate parking areas. 8.50 .000

The result shows that the p value in each of the tangible dimensions was recorded to be

less than 0.05 and hence the null hypothesis Ho was rejected that there are no significant

difference between students‘ expectations and their perceptions of tangibility. Because

the overall t-test was significant, this depicted that the service quality rendered by the

students were lower than their expectations. The management institutes are performing

below the students‘ expectations.

4.11.2 Hypothesis 2


perceptions of reliability

HA: There is a significant difference between students’ expectations and their

perceptions of reliability.

Table 4.11.2: The result of a paired sample test for hypothesis 2

Reliabilty

13 Teaching and learning process

should be up-to-date as what was

promised

4.24 .000

14 Sincere interest in solving

students problem 2.50 .013

15 Perform the service right the first

time 5.66 .000

16 Presentation should be effectively

delivered 2.57 .010

17 Error-Free records of student

marks should be kept -3.30 .001

18 Complaints of students should be

solved 2.88 .004

19 Upgrade the syllabus from time to

time -2.59 .010

20 Design of course structure should

be based on job requirement 10.24 .000

21 MBA programme structure should

enable to be an employable post-

4.02 .000

graduate.

22 Tie- up with the companies 5.49 .000

23 Useful information related to


provided.

2.37 .018

The result of paired sample test in table 4.9.2, shows that the p- value = 0.018 which is

less than 0.05. Therefore we reject the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that there is

no significant difference between students‘ expectations and their perceptions of

reliability.

4.11.3 Hypothesis 3


perceptions of responsiveness


perceptions of responsiveness.

Table 4.11.3 : The result of a paired sample test for hypothesis 3

Responsiveness

24 Prompt service 2.21 .027

25 Willingness to solve problem 2.48 .013

26 Never be too busy to respond to 2.97 .003

your request

27 Adequate facilities to render

service 2.65 .008

28 Sufficient time to give directions

and suggestions 3.51 .000

29 Encourage teamwork and

communication skill 2.47 .013

30 Transparency of official

procedure, norms and rules. 4.48 .000

The results of analysis are shown in table 4.11.3, the t-test is significant with p-value less

than α, 0.05.Therefore we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no

significant difference between students‘ expectations and their perceptions of

responsiveness.

4.11.4 Hypothesis 4


perceptions of assurance


perceptions of assurance.


Assurance

31 Faculties should instill

confidence in students 3.47 .001

32 Transaction should be safe with

your institute 3.69 .000

33 Lecturers should dealt in with

caring and courteous manner. -3.68 .000

34 The department should employ

academic staff in whom students

have confidence

2.36 .018

35 Lecturers should have


question

4.64 .000

36 The academic staff should have

high research productivity 6.06 .000

The results of analysis are shown in table 4.11.4 the t-test is significant with p-value less

than α, 0.05.Therefore we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no

significant difference between students‘ expectations and their perceptions of assurance.

4.11.5 Hypothesis 5






Empathy

37 Individual attention to students -4.28 .000

38 Best interest at heart 4.12 .000

39 Working hours of department must

convenient 6.06 .000

40 Staff be consistently courteous 3.18 .002

41 Accessibility be easy from city 3.52 .000

The results of analysis are shown in table 4.12, the t-test is significant with p-value less

than α, 0.05.Therefore we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a

significant difference between students‘ expectations and their perceptions of empathy.

This depicted that the service quality rendered by the students were lower than their

expectations. The management institutes are performing below the students‘

expectations.

Paired sample t-test were also undertaken on the perception and expectation mean items,

in order to identify whether or not statistically significant service quality gaps were

apparent .Findings from data presented in table 14 demonstrate significant differences

between management institutes students‘ perceptions and expectations of service on all

41 statements. It can be concluded here that there is a significant difference between the

students‘ expectations and perceptions at the 95% confidence level. This represents

service quality gap.

4.12 FACTOR ANALYSIS

Factor analysis is a class of procedures used for reducing and summarizing data. It is

based on a matrix of correlation between the variables. The appropriateness of the

correlation matrix for factor analysis can be statistically tested. The two basic approaches

to factor analysis are principal component analysis and common factor analysis. In

principal component analysis, the total variance in the data is considered. It is

recommended when the researcher‘s primary concern is to determine the minimum

number of factors. On the other hand, in common factor analysis, the factors are

estimated based only on the common variance. This method is also known as principal

axis factoring. This method is appropriate when the primary concern is to identify the

underlying dimension, and the common variance is of interest. In the present study, we

are using the principal component analysis because the number of dimensions is already

known.

The 41 proposed service quality variables test for quantitative validity was conducted by

factor analysis to determine the existence of underlying dimensions of expected service

quality. A principal component analysis followed by orthogonal varimax rotation was

conducted to ensure that they are important and suitable for the model using SPSS 20.0

software.

The purpose of the analysis was to summarize the information contained in the original

41 variables into smaller sets of explanatory composite factors which define the

fundamental constructs assumed to underline the original variables. Factors with an

eigenvalue equal to or greater than 1 were chosen for interpretation. Only variables with

factor loading coefficients of 0.50 were considered; that is, items with less than 0.45 were

excluded.

Results

The study‘s findings are presented in the following order: (1) students‘ expectations, (2)

identification of expected service quality dimensions, and (3) reliability of the modified

version of the SERVQUAL scale.

Factor analysis was applied to 41 statements on expectations of management education

services, with responses on a 5-point Likert scale. Principal component analysis with

varimax rotation was used in the analysis. The suitability of factor analysis was

determined by correlation and alpha reliability. The criteria for the number of extracted

factors were based on the characteristic value, variance percentage, factor importance and

factor structure. Significant factors were considered to be those with characteristic value

equaling or exceeding one. All factors with a value less than 1 will be considered

insignificant and should be disregarded. The result amounting to at least 52.856 per cent

of the total cumulative variance was considered a satisfactory solution. It is considered

that a variable has practical importance and that it can be included in a factor when its

correlation degree equals or exceeds 0.50 (Nunnally, 1967).

Table : 4.12.1 Total Variance Explained

Initial Eigenvaluesa

Total % of Variance Cumulative %

1 15.670 36.843 36.843

2 2.852 6.706 43.549

3 1.402 3.297 46.846

4 1.263 2.969 49.815

5 1.179 2.771 52.586

6 1.069 2.514 55.100

7 1.008 2.371 57.471

8 .952 2.238 59.709

9 .912 2.145 61.854

10 .881 2.072 63.926

11 .844 1.985 65.912

12 .823 1.936 67.848

13 .795 1.868 69.716

14 .734 1.726 71.442

15 .714 1.679 73.121

16 .679 1.598 74.719

17 .661 1.553 76.272

18 .634 1.491 77.763

19 .631 1.484 79.246

20 .592 1.393 80.639

21 .589 1.384 82.023

22 .541 1.273 83.296

23 .529 1.243 84.539

24 .507 1.192 85.731

25 .488 1.148 86.879

26 .469 1.102 87.981

27 .451 1.059 89.040

28 .419 .985 90.026

29 .410 .965 90.990

30 .395 .928 91.918

31 .379 .891 92.809

32 .360 .847 93.657

33 .357 .839 94.495

34 .350 .824 95.319

35 .318 .748 96.067

36 .311 .730 96.798

37 .300 .705 97.503

38 .279 .655 98.158

39 .275 .648 98.806

40 .262 .615 99.421

41 .246 .579 100.000

Table :4.12.2 KMO and Bartlett's Testa

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .954

Bartlett's Test of

Sphericity

Approx. Chi-Square 9831.691

Df 820

Sig. 0.000

The above table–4.12.2 shows that data appropriateness for factor analysis was

determined by checking the correlation matrix, which showed that the variables

correlated fairly well with all others. Also important was the Bartlett‘s test of sphericity

which showed that the correlation matrix had significant correlations at the significance

level of 0.000.

The Keiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy showed similar results as its

level was 0.954. The results are given in Table 4.12.2. This indicates that the factor

analysis test has proceeded correctly and the sample used is adequate because the

minimum acceptable value of KMO is 0.5.Therefore, it can be concluded that the matrix

did not suffer from multicollinearity or singularity. The results of Bartlett test of

Sphericity shows highly significant (sig. = 0.000) implicating correctness and suitability

of factor analysis processes for testing multidimensionality.

Total Variance Explained

Compo

nent

Initial Eigenvaluesa Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings

Total

% of

Variance

Cumulati

ve % Total

% of

Variance

Cumulative

%

1 15.670 36.843 36.843 5.141 12.088 12.088

2 2.852 6.706 43.549 4.786 11.252 23.340

3 1.402 3.297 46.846 4.443 10.447 33.787

4 1.263 2.969 49.815 4.926 11.583 45.370

5 1.179 2.771 52.586 3.069 7.216 52.586

6 1.069 2.514 55.100

7 1.008 2.371 57.471

8 .952 2.238 59.709

9 .912 2.145 61.854

10 .881 2.072 63.926

11 .844 1.985 65.912

12 .823 1.936 67.848

13 .795 1.868 69.716

14 .734 1.726 71.442

15 .714 1.679 73.121

16 .679 1.598 74.719

17 .661 1.553 76.272

18 .634 1.491 77.763

19 .631 1.484 79.246

20 .592 1.393 80.639

21 .589 1.384 82.023

22 .541 1.273 83.296

23 .529 1.243 84.539

24 .507 1.192 85.731

25 .488 1.148 86.879

26 .469 1.102 87.981

27 .451 1.059 89.040

28 .419 .985 90.026

29 .410 .965 90.990

30 .395 .928 91.918

31 .379 .891 92.809

32 .360 .847 93.657

33 .357 .839 94.495

34 .350 .824 95.319

35 .318 .748 96.067

36 .311 .730 96.798

37 .300 .705 97.503

38 .279 .655 98.158

39 .275 .648 98.806

40 .262 .615 99.421

41 .246 .579 100.000

Table 4.12.3 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

The above table signifies how much of the total data fit into the five factors and this

carried using variance. The total variance percentage accumulated in the five factors is

52.586% and the factor 1 carries 36.843% of data specifying that most of the data fits into

that factor. The other four factors carry below 10% each and show relatively low fit of

data in the factors.

Table: 4.12.4 Factor Loading Matrix

Dimension

s

Items

F1 F2 F3 F4 F5

Teaching

1.Individual attention to students

2.The academic staff should

have high research productivity

3.Best interest at heart

4.Lecturers should have


question

5.Working hours of department

must convenient

6.Staff gives personal attention

.782

.747

.579

.621

.563

.534

Co-

operation

& Support

1.Sufficient time to give

directions and suggestions

2.Adequate facilities to render

service

3.Encourage teamwork and

communication skill

4.Materials associated with

services of lectures should be

visually appealing.

.625

.587

.547

.531

Facilities 1.The facilities should be

visually appealing

2.Design of course structure

.842

.776

should be based on job

requirement

3.The institute have modern, up-

to-date infrastructure

4.Wide range of books and

periodicals

.600

.520

Convenien

t

1.Hygiene canteens

2.Plenty of sports facilities with

modern equipment

3Printer and Xerox Facilities

4Employees have neat

appearance

.802

.976

.963

.538

Reliabilty 1. Useful information related to


provided.

2.Tie- up with the companies

.606

.652

Note:(1) F1: Teachings, F2 : Co-operation and Support , F3: Facilities, F4: Convenient, F5:

Reliability (2) Figure under each column represent loading factors for items.

The above table shows the factor loadings for each item in relation to the various factors.

These values in the table show the weight and correlation each item has to factor or

component. All values below 0.50 are cut off from this table because they are not good

for analysis. However, 21 statements are deleted from the expectations scale because

their factor loadings were less than 0.50. Most of the deleted statements are new

statements included in SERVQUAL scale. From the above table, it can be understood

that items from different dimensions are regrouped under the same factor and some item

items from one dimension are found to fall in more than factor which is not taken into

consideration because they are not significant for analysis. This factor analysis proves

that SERVQUAL model is not a good measure of service quality in management

institutes because this confirms that the factors overlapped the most, and that they were

not independently structured. The results of factor analysis and reliability analysis are

presented in given below Table 4.12.6. On the basis of varimax rotation 5 significant

factors were defined on the SERVQUAL scale. Factor analysis results indicate factor

structure with relatively high factor coefficients on the corresponding factors. High factor

coefficients indicate correlation of variables with the factors they define. After the

number of extracted factors is decided, the next task is to interpret and name the factors.

This is done by the process of identifying the factors that are associated with each of the

original variables. This is why rotated component matrix is used.

4.12.4 Defining the resultant empirical factor

The five factors have been given appropriate names according to the variables that have

been loaded on each factor. The resultant empirical factor structure indicated that the

teachings items combined to form a first factor while some other factors co-operation and

support, facilities, convenient & reliability formed the second, third, fourth and fifth

factor respectively.

Factor 1 – The first factor, teaching, accounted for the largest proportion, that is,

36.843% of the total explained variance. This factor shows 6 items and was primarily

related to the high research productivity, knowledge and skills of the teaching staff

providing the service.

Factor 2 – The second factor is loaded with variables pertaining to co-operation and

support. This dimension explained 6.706% of the variance and was constructed by four

scale items and includes variables linked to giving direction, render service, encourage

teamwork & communication skill, material associated with services.

Factor 3 - The third factor, facilities, is loaded with items describing the tangible cue

associated with management institutes service delivery system. Factor–3 explained 3.297

% of the variance and was constructed by four scale items, which were primarily

associated with concept of providing facilities to customers, namely, the visually

appealing facilities of the institutes, modern up-to-date infrastructure, wide range of

books and periodicals.

Factor 4 - The fourth factor, convenience, explained 2.969 of the variance and was

constructed by four scale items. It is related to the convenience and hygiene of the

institutes‘ hostels and canteens and recreational facilities provided.

Factor 5 – Finally, the fifth factor reliability includes items related to the information

should be accurately provided. It explained 2.771% of the variance and was constructed

by two scale items.

Table: 4.12.5 Test for reliability of the scale using Cronbach’s Alpha

Service quality Factors Alpha for each dimension Alpha for total survey data

1. Teachings .830

.920

2. Co-operation and

support

.761

3. Facilities .788

4. Convenient .795

5. Reliability .688

In addition, reliability analysis was conducted to measure the inside of each of the

factors. The results indicate that all factors exceed the recommended level of 0.50 (hair et

al., 1995). The Cronbach‘s alphas for all the five dimensions were well above the

recommended lower limit of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). The relatively high alpha values

indicate good internal consistency among the statements, and the relatively high alpha

value for the overall scale indicates that the SERVQUAL instrument is reliable and

applicable. The further scale purification was done, using Cronbach‘s alpha for the new

defined service quality dimensions (factors). The results of the analysis are presented in

the above table 4.12.6. The SERVQUAL model provided a satisfactory level of overall

reliability (0.92) which is almost same to Parasuraman et al., (1988) study on

SERVQUAL but the reliability dimension did not show enough reliability in this study

meaning that some items were not cohesive in forming the dimension. Thus it is

concluded from the results that the instrument consists of twenty items classified into five

dimensions. This is done by the process of identifying the factors that are associated with

each of the original variables. This is why rotated component matrix is used but it is clear

that SERVQUAL model is not a good instrument to measure service quality in


Figure 4.11 Number of Factors Filtered= 5

4.13 ANOVA TEST

4.131.1 H6 : There is no significant difference in satisfaction level related to Quality

of education services when compared between Male & Female

ANOVA is applied on the data to check whether difference exists in service quality

perceived between males and females among all dimensions. It was found among all the

dimensions, wide range of books and periodicals, design of course structure based on job

requirements, feel safe in transaction with the institute are the dimensions along which p

value was lower than 0.05 pointing out the need to reject the hypothesis H6. Hence

difference exists among males and females when services such as wide range of books

and periodicals, design of course structure based on job requirements are provided.

Table 4.13.1 ANOVA BY GENDER

ANOVA BY GENDER

Sum of

Squares df

Mean

Square F Sig.

Facilities

visually

appealing

Between

Groups

1.465 1 1.465 1.134 .287

Within

Groups

643.407 498 1.292

Total 644.872 499

Modern up-

to-date

infrastructure

Between

Groups

1.896 1 1.896 1.805 .180

Within

Groups

522.992 498 1.050

Total 524.888 499

Neat

appearance

Between

Groups

.367 1 .367 .375 .540

Within

Groups

487.415 498 .979

Total 487.782 499

Well-

equipped

library

Between

Groups

3.954 1 3.954 3.459 .064

Within

Groups

569.348 498 1.143

Total 573.302 499

Wide range of

books

Between

Groups

6.750 1 6.750 6.024 .014

Within

Groups

557.978 498 1.120

Total 564.728 499

Materials Between 1.578 1 1.578 1.478 .225

visually

appealing

Groups

Within

Groups

531.820 498 1.068

Total 533.398 499

Sports

facilities

Between

Groups

4.871 1 4.871 3.233 .073

Within

Groups

750.329 498 1.507

Total 755.200 499

Hygiene

canteens

Between

Groups

3.753 1 3.753 2.436 .119

Within

Groups

767.165 498 1.540

Total 770.918 499

Printers and

Xerox

facilities

Between

Groups

.749 1 .749 .502 .479

Within

Groups

743.259 498 1.492

Total 744.008 499

Up-to-date

teaching

support

Between

Groups

1.092 1 1.092 1.121 .290

Within

Groups

485.060 498 .974

Total 486.152 499

Hostel

facilities

Between

Groups

.089 1 .089 .081 .777

Within

Groups

548.413 498 1.101

Total 548.502 499

Adequate

parking areas

Between

Groups

.116 1 .116 .102 .750

Within

Groups

566.492 498 1.138

Total 566.608 499

Keeping

promise

Between

Groups

.784 1 .784 .790 .374

Within

Groups

493.894 498 .992

Total 494.678 499

Problem

solving

Between

Groups

1.656 1 1.656 1.731 .189

Within

Groups

476.232 498 .956

Total 477.888 499

Services right

the first time

Between

Groups

.183 1 .183 .207 .650

Within

Groups

441.089 498 .886

Total 441.272 499

Presentation

effectively

delivered

Between

Groups

.104 1 .104 .128 .720

Within

Groups

402.846 498 .809

Total 402.950 499

Error free

records

Between

Groups

.022 1 .022 .029 .864

Within

Groups

367.810 498 .739

Total 367.832 499

Complaints of

students to be

solved

Between

Groups

.380 1 .380 .401 .527

Within 472.842 498 .949

Groups

Total 473.222 499

Upgraded

syllabus

Between

Groups

2.779 1 2.779 3.456 .064

Within

Groups

400.421 498 .804

Total 403.200 499

Course

structure

Between

Groups

7.405 1 7.405 5.103 .024

Within

Groups

722.627 498 1.451

Total 730.032 499

Employability Between

Groups

1.403 1 1.403 1.505 .221

Within

Groups

464.397 498 .933

Total 465.800 499

Tie up with

companies

Between

Groups

1.434 1 1.434 1.161 .282

Within

Groups

614.854 498 1.235

Total 616.288 499

Information

accurately

provided

Between

Groups

.199 1 .199 .189 .664

Within

Groups

525.199 498 1.055

Total 525.398 499

Prompt

service

Between

Groups

.027 1 .027 .028 .867

Within

Groups

477.435 498 .959

Total 477.462 499

Willingness

to solve

problem

Between

Groups

.208 1 .208 .229 .632

Within

Groups

451.974 498 .908

Total 452.182 499

Never too

busy

Between

Groups

.800 1 .800 .782 .377

Within

Groups

509.750 498 1.024

Total 510.550 499

Adequate

facilities to

render service

Between

Groups

.046 1 .046 .049 .824

Within

Groups

467.106 498 .938

Total 467.152 499

Directions

and

suggestions

Between

Groups

.071 1 .071 .069 .793

Within

Groups

511.327 498 1.027

Total 511.398 499

Encourage

teamwork

Between

Groups

.047 1 .047 .045 .833

Within

Groups

527.761 498 1.060

Total 527.808 499

Transparency

of official

procedure

Between

Groups

.819 1 .819 .812 .368

Within

Groups

502.429 498 1.009

Total 503.248 499

Instill

confidence

Between

Groups

.020 1 .020 .025 .875

Within

Groups

402.412 498 .808

Total 402.432 499

Safe

transactions

Between

Groups

4.398 1 4.398 5.223 .023

Within

Groups

419.352 498 .842

Total 423.750 499

Caring and

courteous

manner

Between

Groups

1.172 1 1.172 1.578 .210

Within

Groups

369.890 498 .743

Total 371.062 499

Students

confidence

towards

academic

staff

Between

Groups

.276 1 .276 .292 .589

Within

Groups

470.402 498 .945

Total 470.678 499

Lecturers

having

knowledge

Between

Groups

3.856 1 3.856 3.495 .062

Within

Groups

549.352 498 1.103

Total 553.208 499

High research

productivity

Between

Groups

.953 1 .953 .813 .368

Within

Groups

583.645 498 1.172

Total 584.598 499

Individual Between .043 1 .043 .040 .841

attention Groups

Within

Groups

529.707 498 1.064

Total 529.750 499

Best interest

at heart

Between

Groups

.878 1 .878 .924 .337

Within

Groups

473.464 498 .951

Total 474.342 499

Convenient

working

hours

Between

Groups

.276 1 .276 .301 .584

Within

Groups

457.524 498 .919

Total 457.800 499

Friendliness

and courteous

manner

Between

Groups

1.506 1 1.506 1.638 .201

Within

Groups

457.972 498 .920

Total 459.478 499

Easy

accessibility

Between

Groups

.371 1 .371 .412 .521

Within

Groups

448.661 498 .901

Total 449.032 499

4.13.2 H7: There is no significant difference in satisfaction level related to Quality of

education services when compared among various income groups.


perceived among various income groups in all the dimensions. It was found that among

all the dimensions, well-equipped and up-to-date library, hostel facilities, up-to-date

teaching and learning process, encouragement of teamwork and communication skills

and courteous behavior towards students are the dimensions along which p value was

lower than 0.05 pointing out the need to reject the hypothesis H7. Hence difference exists

among various income groups when services such as well-equipped and up-to-date

library, hostel facilities, up-to-date teaching and learning process are perceived.

Table :4.13.2 ANOVA BY INCOME

ANOVA BY INCOME

Sum of

Squares df

Mean

Square F Sig.

Facilities

visually

appealing

Between

Groups

4.019 3 1.340 1.037 .376

Within

Groups

640.853 496 1.292

Total 644.872 499

Modern up-

to-date

infrastructure

Between

Groups

1.647 3 .549 .520 .668

Within

Groups

523.241 496 1.055

Total 524.888 499

Neat

appearance

Between

Groups

4.543 3 1.514 1.554 .200

Within

Groups

483.239 496 .974

Total 487.782 499

Well-

equipped

library

Between

Groups

20.913 3 6.971 6.259 .000

Within

Groups

552.389 496 1.114

Total 573.302 499

Wide range of

books

Between

Groups

23.874 3 7.958 7.298 .000

Within

Groups

540.854 496 1.090

Total 564.728 499

Materials

visually

appealing

Between

Groups

16.620 3 5.540 5.317 .001

Within

Groups

516.778 496 1.042

Total 533.398 499

Sports

facilities

Between

Groups

43.578 3 14.526 10.125 .000

Within

Groups

711.622 496 1.435

Total 755.200 499

Hygiene

canteens

Between

Groups

24.693 3 8.231 5.471 .001

Within

Groups

746.225 496 1.504

Total 770.918 499

Printers and

Xerox

facilities

Between

Groups

41.337 3 13.779 9.726 .000

Within

Groups

702.671 496 1.417

Total 744.008 499

Up-to-date Between 2.736 3 .912 .936 .423

teaching

support

Groups

Within

Groups

483.416 496 .975

Total 486.152 499

Hostel

facilities

Between

Groups

12.796 3 4.265 3.949 .008

Within

Groups

535.706 496 1.080

Total 548.502 499

Adequate

parking areas

Between

Groups

39.988 3 13.329 12.554 .000

Within

Groups

526.620 496 1.062

Total 566.608 499

Keeping

promise

Between

Groups

13.785 3 4.595 4.739 .003

Within

Groups

480.893 496 .970

Total 494.678 499

Problem

solving

Between

Groups

3.339 3 1.113 1.163 .323

Within

Groups

474.549 496 .957

Total 477.888 499

Services right

the first time

Between

Groups

2.724 3 .908 1.027 .380

Within

Groups

438.548 496 .884

Total 441.272 499

Presentation

effectively

Between

Groups

.700 3 .233 .288 .834

delivered Within

Groups

402.250 496 .811

Total 402.950 499

Error free

records

Between

Groups

3.732 3 1.244 1.695 .167

Within

Groups

364.100 496 .734

Total 367.832 499

Complaints of

students to be

solved

Between

Groups

.553 3 .184 .194 .901

Within

Groups

472.669 496 .953

Total 473.222 499

Upgraded

syllabus

Between

Groups

1.583 3 .528 .652 .582

Within

Groups

401.617 496 .810

Total 403.200 499

Course

structure

Between

Groups

13.820 3 4.607 3.190 .023

Within

Groups

716.212 496 1.444

Total 730.032 499


Groups

3.101 3 1.034 1.108 .345

Within

Groups

462.699 496 .933

Total 465.800 499

Tie up with

companies

Between

Groups

5.047 3 1.682 1.365 .253

Within 611.241 496 1.232

Groups

Total 616.288 499

Information

accurately

provided

Between

Groups

2.504 3 .835 .792 .499

Within

Groups

522.894 496 1.054

Total 525.398 499

Prompt

service

Between

Groups

2.186 3 .729 .760 .517

Within

Groups

475.276 496 .958

Total 477.462 499

Willingness

to solve

problem

Between

Groups

2.739 3 .913 1.008 .389

Within

Groups

449.443 496 .906

Total 452.182 499

Never too

busy

Between

Groups

5.028 3 1.676 1.644 .178

Within

Groups

505.522 496 1.019

Total 510.550 499

Adequate

facilities to

render service

Between

Groups

5.576 3 1.859 1.997 .113

Within

Groups

461.576 496 .931

Total 467.152 499

Directions

and

suggestions

Between

Groups

5.603 3 1.868 1.832 .140

Within

Groups

505.795 496 1.020

Total 511.398 499

Encourage

teamwork

Between

Groups

8.831 3 2.944 2.813 .039

Within

Groups

518.977 496 1.046

Total 527.808 499

Transparency

of official

procedure

Between

Groups

5.301 3 1.767 1.760 .154

Within

Groups

497.947 496 1.004

Total 503.248 499

Instill

confidence

Between

Groups

1.816 3 .605 .749 .523

Within

Groups

400.616 496 .808

Total 402.432 499

Safe

transactions

Between

Groups

3.617 3 1.206 1.424 .235

Within

Groups

420.133 496 .847

Total 423.750 499

Caring and

courteous

manner

Between

Groups

1.125 3 .375 .503 .680

Within

Groups

369.937 496 .746

Total 371.062 499

Students

confidence

towards

academic

staff

Between

Groups

3.200 3 1.067 1.132 .336

Within

Groups

467.478 496 .942

Total 470.678 499

Lecturers

having

knowledge

Between

Groups

4.035 3 1.345 1.215 .304

Within

Groups

549.173 496 1.107

Total 553.208 499

High research

productivity

Between

Groups

7.585 3 2.528 2.173 .090

Within

Groups

577.013 496 1.163

Total 584.598 499

Individual

attention

Between

Groups

4.385 3 1.462 1.380 .248

Within

Groups

525.365 496 1.059

Total 529.750 499

Best interest

at heart

Between

Groups

6.486 3 2.162 2.292 .077

Within

Groups

467.856 496 .943

Total 474.342 499

Convenient

working

hours

Between

Groups

3.583 3 1.194 1.304 .272

Within

Groups

454.217 496 .916

Total 457.800 499

Friendliness

and courteous

manner

Between

Groups

8.434 3 2.811 3.092 .027

Within

Groups

451.044 496 .909

Total 459.478 499

Easy

accessibility

Between

Groups

6.760 3 2.253 2.527 .057

Within

Groups

442.272 496 .892

Total 449.032 499

4.13.3 H8: There is no significant difference in satisfaction level related to Quality of

education services when compared between residential areas


perceived among various residential areas in all the dimensions. It was found that among

all the dimensions, sports facilities, hygienic canteens, adequate printer and Xerox

facilities, willingness to solve students problem, administrative staff never too busy are

the dimensions along which p value was lower than 0.05 pointing out the need to reject

the hypothesis H8. Hence difference exists among various residential areas when services

such as hygienic canteens, adequate printer and Xerox facilities, willingness to solve

student‘s problem are perceived.

Table: 4.13.3 ANOVA BY RESIDENTIAL

ANOVA BY RESIDENTIAL

Sum of

Squares df

Mean

Square F Sig.

Facilities

visually

appealing

Between

Groups

1.260 1 1.260 .975 .324

Within

Groups

643.612 498 1.292

Total 644.872 499

Modern up-

to-date

infrastructure

Between

Groups

.935 1 .935 .889 .346

Within

Groups

523.953 498 1.052

Total 524.888 499

Neat

appearance

Between

Groups

.094 1 .094 .096 .757

Within

Groups

487.688 498 .979

Total 487.782 499

Well-

equipped

library

Between

Groups

.027 1 .027 .024 .878

Within

Groups

573.275 498 1.151

Total 573.302 499

Wide range

of books

Between

Groups

.129 1 .129 .114 .736

Within

Groups

564.599 498 1.134

Total 564.728 499

Materials

visually

appealing

Between

Groups

.005 1 .005 .005 .946

Within

Groups

533.393 498 1.071

Total 533.398 499

Sports

facilities

Between

Groups

19.946 1 19.946 13.510 .000

Within

Groups

735.254 498 1.476

Total 755.200 499

Hygiene

canteens

Between

Groups

14.773 1 14.773 9.729 .002

Within

Groups

756.145 498 1.518

Total 770.918 499

Printers and

Xerox

facilities

Between

Groups

11.658 1 11.658 7.928 .005

Within

Groups

732.350 498 1.471

Total 744.008 499

Up-to-date

teaching

support

Between

Groups

.029 1 .029 .030 .863

Within

Groups

486.123 498 .976

Total 486.152 499

Hostel

facilities

Between

Groups

.112 1 .112 .101 .750

Within

Groups

548.390 498 1.101

Total 548.502 499

Adequate

parking areas

Between

Groups

1.166 1 1.166 1.027 .311

Within

Groups

565.442 498 1.135

Total 566.608 499

Keeping

promise

Between

Groups

1.388 1 1.388 1.401 .237

Within

Groups

493.290 498 .991

Total 494.678 499

Problem Between .211 1 .211 .220 .640

solving Groups

Within

Groups

477.677 498 .959

Total 477.888 499

Services right

the first time

Between

Groups

2.323 1 2.323 2.635 .105

Within

Groups

438.949 498 .881

Total 441.272 499

Presentations

effectively

delivered

Between

Groups

2.228 1 2.228 2.769 .097

Within

Groups

400.722 498 .805

Total 402.950 499

Error free

records

Between

Groups

.118 1 .118 .160 .690

Within

Groups

367.714 498 .738

Total 367.832 499

Complaints of

students to be

solved

Between

Groups

.347 1 .347 .366 .546

Within

Groups

472.875 498 .950

Total 473.222 499

Upgraded

syllabus

Between

Groups

.311 1 .311 .385 .535

Within

Groups

402.889 498 .809

Total 403.200 499

Course

structure

Between

Groups

5.575 1 5.575 3.832 .051

Within

Groups

724.457 498 1.455

Total 730.032 499


Groups

.001 1 .001 .001 .977

Within

Groups

465.799 498 .935

Total 465.800 499

Tie up with

companies

Between

Groups

.174 1 .174 .140 .708

Within

Groups

616.114 498 1.237

Total 616.288 499

Information

accurately

provided

Between

Groups

.656 1 .656 .622 .431

Within

Groups

524.742 498 1.054

Total 525.398 499

Prompt

service

Between

Groups

.817 1 .817 .854 .356

Within

Groups

476.645 498 .957

Total 477.462 499

Willingness

to solve

problem

Between

Groups

3.738 1 3.738 4.151 .042

Within

Groups

448.444 498 .900

Total 452.182 499

Never too

busy

Between

Groups

7.024 1 7.024 6.947 .009

Within 503.526 498 1.011

Groups

Total 510.550 499

Adequate

facilities to

render

service

Between

Groups

.189 1 .189 .201 .654

Within

Groups

466.963 498 .938

Total 467.152 499

Directions

and

suggestions

Between

Groups

2.135 1 2.135 2.088 .149

Within

Groups

509.263 498 1.023

Total 511.398 499

Encourage

teamwork

Between

Groups

.102 1 .102 .096 .756

Within

Groups

527.706 498 1.060

Total 527.808 499

Transparency

of official

procedures

Between

Groups

.177 1 .177 .175 .676

Within

Groups

503.071 498 1.010

Total 503.248 499

Instill

confidence

Between

Groups

.003 1 .003 .004 .948

Within

Groups

402.429 498 .808

Total 402.432 499

Safe Between 3.019 1 3.019 3.574 .059

transactions Groups

Within

Groups

420.731 498 .845

Total 423.750 499

Caring and

courteous

manner

Between

Groups

2.107 1 2.107 2.844 .092

Within

Groups

368.955 498 .741

Total 371.062 499

Students

confidence

towards

academic

staff

Between

Groups

1.436 1 1.436 1.524 .218

Within

Groups

469.242 498 .942

Total 470.678 499

Lecturers

having

knowledge

Between

Groups

3.566 1 3.566 3.231 .073

Within

Groups

549.642 498 1.104

Total 553.208 499

High

research

productivity

Between

Groups

2.989 1 2.989 2.559 .110

Within

Groups

581.609 498 1.168

Total 584.598 499

Individual

attention

Between

Groups

.027 1 .027 .025 .874

Within

Groups

529.723 498 1.064

Total 529.750 499

Best interest

at heart

Between

Groups

3.582 1 3.582 3.790 .052

Within

Groups

470.760 498 .945

Total 474.342 499

Convenient

working

hours

Between

Groups

.507 1 .507 .552 .458

Within

Groups

457.293 498 .918

Total 457.800 499

Friendliness

and

courteous

manner

Between

Groups

2.142 1 2.142 2.332 .127

Within

Groups

457.336 498 .918

Total 459.478 499

Easy

accessability

Between

Groups

2.233 1 2.233 2.489 .115

Within

Groups

446.799 498 .897

Total 449.032 499

4.14 Correlation Analysis

4.14.1 Pearson Correlation

A correlation coefficient is a very useful way to summarize the relationship between two

variables with a single number that falls between -1 and +1 (Welkowitz et al., 2006).

Morgan et al. (2004) stated that:

-1.0 (a perfect negative correlation)

0.0 (no correlation)

+1.0 (a perfect positive correlation)

Pallant (2001) suggested the following interpretation of r-value [cited from Cohen,

1988]. This value will indicate the strength of the relationship between two variables.

r = .10 to .29 or r = -.10 to -.29 Small

r = .30 to .49 or r = -.30 to -.49 Medium

r = .50 to 1.0 or r = -.50 to -1.0 Large

The Pearson correlation analysis obtained for the three intervals scaled variables in the

table above. The sample size (N) is 150 and the significant level is 0.01 (p#0.01).

The hypotheses will examine the correlation between the service quality attributes and

student satisfaction of management institutes.

The hypotheses are as follows:

4.14.2 Tangibility

4.14.2.1 Hypothesis 9

H9: There is no correlation between tangibility and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

In the table, it can be seen that the correlation (r) of tangibles is 0.491 and the significant

level is 0.01 (p#.01).

The table shows that the p-value is 0.000, which is less than 0.01. We therefore reject the

null hypothesis, and concluded that there is a medium positive (r = .491) relationship

between tangibles and student satisfaction of management institutes.

4.14.3 Reliability


H10: There is no correlation between reliability and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

The table shows that the correlation (r) is 0.488 for reliability and the p-value is 0.000,

which is less than the significant level (0.01). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected

and concluded that reliability and student satisfaction is positively (medium) related in

the management institutes.

4.14.4 Responsiveness


H11: There is no correlation between responsiveness and student satisfaction of


It can be observed in the table that the correlation (r) of responsiveness is 0.493 and the

p-value is 0.000, which is less than 0.01. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and it

can be concluded that responsiveness is positively (medium) related to student

satisfaction in management institutes.

4.14.5 Assurance


H12: There is no correlation between assurance and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

The table shows that there is a large positive correlation between assurance and student

satisfaction of management institutes where p#0.01 (p=0.000) and r=0.526. So, the null

hypothesis is rejected.

4.14.6 Empathy


H13: There is no correlation between empathy and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

According to the table, the strongest predictor of student satisfaction is empathy. The

result indicates that the correlation (r) of empathy is 0.545 and the p-value is 0.000,

which is less than 0.01. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and concluded that there

is a large positive correlation between empathy and student satisfaction of management

institutes.

Table:4.14.1 Correlation between dimensions

S S Tangibil

ity

Reliabi

lity

resposi

veness

assur

ance

Empa

thy

Student

Satisfaction

( S S)

Pearson

coefficient

1.000 0.491 0.488 0.728 0.637 0.578

sigma

(1- tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Tangibility Pearson

coefficient

0.491 1.000 0.747 0.728 0.637 0.578

sigma (1-

tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Relibility Pearson

coefficient

0.488 0.747 1.000 0.757 0.708 0.624

sigma (1-

tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Responsive

ness

Pearson

coefficient

0.493 0.728 0.757 1.000 0.739 0.681

sigma (1-

tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Assurance Pearson

coefficient

0525 0.637 0.708 0.739 1.000 0.646

sigma (1-

tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Empathy Pearson

coefficient

0.545 0.578 0.624 0.681 0646 1.000

sigma (1-

tailed)

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

4.15 Conclusion

It is extremely difficult to measure service quality due to involvement of human behavior

of stakeholders and association of intangible factors. In this chapter, an attempt is made

to measure service quality in management education and the instruments were designed

for measuring service quality keeping in mind the responses from the most important

stakeholders such as students. The responses are collected through questionnaire

containing forty-one service quality items relevant to an educational system. The

collected data were analyzed through factor analysis and after that, twenty quality items

loaded more than 0.5 with five factors. The twenty service quality classified into five

items viz., Teachings, Co-operation & support, facilities, convenient, reliability. The

actual survey data are further analyzed statistically and the average responses of the

students are considered for examining the perceptions of the service quality in

management institutes. The factor analysis tries to say that all the five extracted factors

are explaining the service quality in management education institutions up to a certain

extent. Thus it can be interpreted that service quality of management education

institutions can be explained through these factors. All these factors are definitely

important. But in certain cases, out of these factors two factors are not directly

responsible for overall perceived service quality. The analysis will definitely help the

authority of the management education institutes and also the set of students who have

their expectations towards a better service quality from their institutions.

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction

This chapter discussed on the overall summary of the work done through the study, its

findings, recommendation and scope for future research in this area. Delivering service

quality has become an important goal for most management institutes. This study

represents an important starting point in the development of valid and reliable measures

of service quality in management institutes. It contributes to the marketing and

educational literature by introducing a new measure that provides both researchers and

practitioners with more specific information concerning service quality‘s effect on

students‘ satisfaction with management education services. The study aimed to

investigate the students‘ perception of service quality at the management institutes

affiliated to GBTU (Formerly UPTU). It sought to analyze what students perceived to be

most important and quality of service provided by the management institutes.

Overall, this study has shown that the service quality at the management institutes was

moderate from the perspectives of students. The study provides empirical evidence that

there is a need for continuous improvement in the areas of academics and non-academics

activities such as learning and teaching, sports and social activities. It attempts to help the

management institutes to better understand the need of service quality and how it can

improve the level of service quality.

5.2 Summary of Findings

The major findings of this research work are summarized as follows:

There were 222 Female students (44.4%) and 278 Male students (55.6%).Most of the

respondents were aged between 21-23 years with 78.6%.This was followed by the age

group 24-26 years (11.0%), Below 20 years (7.6%) and the age above 26 years (2.8%).

The majority of the students were from urban areas i.e. 383 (76.6%) while rest of the

students were from rural areas i.e. 117 (23.4%).Most of the respondents were 2nd

year

students i.e. 302 (60.4%) and 198 (39.6%) of the respondents were from MBA 1st year.

The reliability of findings was obtained using the survey instrument and was assessed.

The result of the analysis indicated that no values of coefficient α were less than 0.6. The

score of over 0.8 is considered to be good.

5.2.1 Effects of demographic factors.

Mean score of each statement were analyzed to compare the perception and expectation

of students towards the service quality of management education. It reveals that there was

a negative service gap in all the dimensions. Empathy is therefore considered the most

important dimension of service quality and tangible is the least important dimensions. A

low mean score implies a more positive perception; on the other hand, a higher score

means a less positive perception. Result suggested that there was difference which

existed in perceptions among males and females along all the dimensions. The students

perceived least for the dimensions tangibility and responsiveness indicating that there is a

need to concentrate on these dimensions to improve the service quality in management

institutes. From the gap score analysis carried out, it was found that that, the overall

service quality is low as perceived by management students of management institutes and

hence no students satisfaction. Students have higher expectations than what they actually

receive from the management institutes even though the difference is not so wide. Thus,

the overall perceived service quality is low as expectations exceed perceptions signifying

students desired more than what was offered to them. As a result of this gap, it is clear

that students were not satisfied. It can be seen by assessing the perceptions and

expectations of students that no dimension of service quality brings student satisfaction.

On the basis of the findings of this research work it is recommended to the policy makers

that to narrow the service quality gap the management institutes should take care of what

student perceive service quality means not the management understanding of service

quality and the policy makers should improve its physical aspect which is very necessary

to provide a quality service at the same time it is necessary to provide superior service

quality to students. Management Institutes should narrow the loopholes of its system.

Further, the lack of fit of data collected using the modified SERVQUAL model were

analyzed through principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation resulting in

twenty items with five dimensions. However, some items from different dimensions load

into one single factor. The tangible dimension which was renamed as facilities had all its

items fall under the same factor. Also the satisfactory level of overall reliability (0.92)

which is almost same to Parasuraman et al., (1988) provided a satisfactory level but one

dimension did not show enough reliability in this study meaning some items were not

consistent in forming some dimensions. This study demonstrates lack of support of

support of SERVQUAL which is reflected in the factor analysis. From the

abovementioned findings, it is clear that the SERVQUAL model is not a good instrument

to measure service quality in management institutes. The actual survey data are further

analyzed statistically and the average responses of the students are considered for

examining the perceptions of the service quality in management institutes. It is interesting

to find that all the students emphasize to improve the service quality items in teachings

dimension highlighting the importance of core area. It was also found that each of the

dimensions had an effect on the overall satisfaction of the students. Management

institutes should take necessary action to improve on each sub factors associated with

dimensions of service quality resulted in factor analysis.

These findings have demonstrated that the SERVQUAL model is not a good instrument

to measure service quality in management institutes and it is advised to the service

provider of management institutes that they formulate such service strategies so that they

meet students‘ expectations. It has also presented further challenges to SERVQUAL

methodology for measuring students‘ expectations and perceptions of service quality.

5.3 Recommendations to Improve Quality

Few recommendations are given below:

1. There should be proper consideration to be given to the development of

infrastructure in the management institutes like classrooms should be well

equipped with modern teaching equipments like OHP, LCD, and podium.

Management institutes should also provide hygienic canteens to their students.

Well furnished building with improved working conditions would provide

motivation to teachers and good atmosphere of education to students.

2. There is a need to introduce independent audit committees for managing the

management institutes. Mandatory disclosures on faculty qualification,

information related to books and journals in library, placement records, and

computer labs should be included in corporate governance. This information

should be provided to the students.

3. There should be sufficient number of well qualified faculty members in the

institutes. Institutes must design and plan its own strategy to sustained motivation

for quality teaching. Recruitment policies should be designed in such a way so

that good faculty members are retained for a long time.

4. There is a need to encourage research activities and consultancy services by

faculties. A research culture in management institutes should be inculcated in

such a way that could change the mind setup on the side of management.

5. Management institutes bring some curricular reforms and development for its

survival. The survival of any management institutes depends on three factors:

Ability to adopt changes, enhancing the relevance of its course to new setup and

maintain of high order of quality in the course curriculum.

6. Personality development programmes should be conducted for the students so that

they can build up their personality for future managerial roles. From time to time

experts, academicians and industrialist should be invited so that they can share

their experience with the students and proper guidance to be given to the students.

7. The management institutes must also inculcate entrepreneurial quality among

students by focusing such quality like initiatives, persistency, problem solving

approach, risk taking ability, innovativeness, etc.

8. Institutes must build an image by making an active effort to get some Government

consultancy jobs even if those are at a loss.

9. Management Institutes should also provide a good library and well equipped

computer lab facilities to their students. In the library book bank facilities to be

provided and proper books of each subject provided to the students so that they

can take the advantage of these books.

10. Each management institutes should open a proper placement cell and experienced

placement co-coordinator should be appointed and he should be assigned sole

responsibility of developing relations between institute and the industry.

11. Institutes must also consider offering new courses in banking/ insurance

management, disaster management, and logistics apart from traditional courses

12. Institutes should sponsor programs in all the commercial clubs in the city where

students can participate in the games/competitions of these associations that will

give the acquaintances and jobs. This will also help to make the institute invisible

to the industry.

5.4 Conclusion

This study represents an important starting point in the development of valid and

reliable measures. Overall, this study has shown that the delivering quality service

by the management institutes was moderate from the students‘ perspective. This

means that there is a continuous improvement for service quality. Therefore, it is

very imperative for the management institutes to monitor their services on a

regular basis so as to survive in the market. Because these days it is very difficult

to trace the human mind (expectations and perceptions) of a consumer i.e.

students are getting unpredictable in choosing the right institutions. Thus it would

be a challenge for the management institutes to maintain their standards and

quality in providing good education service to the students. The proliferation of

management institutes has raised the issue of maintaining the quality of education

in Uttar Pradesh. The various measures to be adopted by the management and

staff of the faculty must be in the areas of teaching and learning first, second on

the quality of the physical aspects and academic infrastructure, third on the

quality of the faculty and the most important factor is to maintain the quality of

the incoming students. Accordingly service providers have to perform better. This

study tries to find out students perceptions towards the service quality factors in

management education institutions. The study will definitely help the authority of

the management education institutions and also the set of students who have their

expectations towards a better service quality from their institutions.

5.5 Limitations:

Like other studies, this study also has some limitations that need to be discussed.

It is primarily due to the recollect the research design and the problems inherent in

studying perceptions. The limitations of the study are:

1. Firstly, the results obtained from this study cannot be generalized to a wide range

of similar situations concerning to select management institutes of GBTU

(Formerly UPTU) because of the non-probability sampling technique used even

though the methodology applied to these similar situations.

2. The SERVQUAL instrument only measures the satisfaction of respondents

through quantitative data. Therefore, there should have an addition of open-ended

and space for comments after each question or use of more qualitative approach

might yield more site specific information about size and nature of the service

quality gaps.

3. This study has concentrated on the students‘ perception of service quality. It

should focus on the perception of service quality from other stakeholders (such as

internal customer, government, industries, etc.). A comprehensive study would

help the service provider to review its overall service quality in the education

sector.

4. The result was limited by the validity and reliability of the survey instrument and

the time frame in which data was gathered.

5. The data for this study were collected using an online, self reported survey

questionnaire.

6. Respondents had the option to participate, or not to participate in the

questionnaire.

5.6 Scope for future research

There are several opportunities to extend this study. Further studies on measuring service

quality must focus on issues of how different socio-demographic variables affect service

quality dimensions. Future research can be conducted, taking into account how the

various dimensions are changing. In future research , customers may reveal new aspects

of service quality in management education that are important to them, and these would

have to be incorporated in the scale so as to further explore the concept of service quality

in the management education arena. Another area for future research is the perception of

service quality from other stakeholders (e.g., employers, government, students‘ parents

and internal customers to name a few). This study has concentrated on the student

customer only; however, it is recognized that a management education has other

stakeholders which might be satisfied.

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APPENDICES

Appendix A

QUESTIONNAIRE S.No……………

PART A: STUDENTS’ PROFILE

Instruction: Please tick(√) at the appropriate box

1. Students Status

2. Gender

1st year student

2nd year student

Male

Female

3. Age Group

4.Residential Area

Urban

Rural

5.Income

Less than 30,000

30,000 – 50,000

50,000 -1,00,000

More than 1,00,000

Below 20years

21-23 years

24-26 years

26 years above

PART –B: EXPECTATION

This survey deals with your expectations from the management institute. Please show the extent

to which you think your institute should posses the following features. What we are interested in

here is a number that best shows your expectations about institutions offering education services.

Statements Strongly

Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Agree Tangibles

E1 The exterior of your institute should

be visually appealing

1 2 3 4 5

E2 The institute should have modern,

up-to-date infrastructure

1 2 3 4 5

E3 Employees of your institute should

have neat appearance

1 2 3 4 5

E4 There should be well-equipped and

up-to-date library in your institute.

1 2 3 4 5

E5 The institute should have a wide

range of books and periodicals.

E6 Materials associated with services of

lecturers such as handouts and

syllabus should be visually

appealing.

1 2 3 4 5

E7 The institute should have plenty of

sports facilities with modern

equipments.

1 2 3 4 5

E8 The institute should have hygienic

canteens.

1 2 3 4 5

E9 The institute should have adequate

printer and Xerox facilities.

1 2 3 4 5

E10 The institute should have up-to-date

teaching support

1 2 3 4 5

E11 The institute should have suffiecient

hostel facilities with proper security.

1 2 3 4 5

E12 The institute should provide

adequate parking areas.

1 2 3 4 5

E13 The teaching and learning process

should be up-to-date as what was

promised.

1 2 3 4 5

E14 When student having a problem,

lecturers should show a sincere

interest in solving it.

1 2 3 4 5

E15 Lecturers should perform the service

right the first time.

1 2 3 4 5

E16 Lectures and presentation should be

effectively given by the lecturers.

1 2 3 4 5

E17 Error-free records of students‘ marks

and other documents should be kept

by lecturers.

1 2 3 4 5

E18 The institute should be able to solve

trouble and complaints of students.

1 2 3 4 5

E19 The institute should upgrade the

syllabus from time to time.

1 2 3 4 5

E20 The design of course structure 1 2 3 4 5

should be based on job requirements.

E21 The current MBA programme

structure should be based enable me

to be an employable post-graduate.

1 2 3 4 5

E22 The institute should tie-up with the

companies for placements.

1 2 3 4 5

E23 Useful information related to

scholarship job opportunities should

be accurately provided by the

institute.

1 2 3 4 5

Responsiveness

E24 Employees of your institute should

give you prompt service

1 2 3 4 5

E25 The academic staffs (lecturers)

should be willing to solve your

problem.

1 2 3 4 5

E26 Administrative staffs of your

institute should never be too busy to

respond to your request.

1 2 3 4 5

E27 There should be adequate facilities to

render service

1 2 3 4 5

E28 The academic staff should provide

sufficient time to give directions and

suggestions.

1 2 3 4 5

E29 The institute should be encouraged

teamwork and communication skill

among students.

1 2 3 4 5

E30 There should be a transparency of

official procedure, norms and rules

1 2 3 4 5

Assurance

E31 The academic staff (lecturers) should

instill confidence in customers

(students).

1 2 3 4 5

E32 You should feel safe in your

transactions with your institute

1 2 3 4 5

E33 Lecturers should deal with me in a

caring and courteous manner.

1 2 3 4 5

E34 This department should employ

academic staff in whom I have

confidence.

1 2 3 4 5

E35 Lecturers should have knowledge to

answer students‘ questions.

1 2 3 4 5

E36 The academic staff (Lecturers)

should have high research

productivity in your institute.

1 2 3 4 5

Empathy

E 37 Lecturers of your institute should

provide Individualized attention to

students.

1 2 3 4 5

E38 Lecturers should have your best

interest at heart.

1 2 3 4 5

E39 The working hours of the

department must be convenient for

me

1 2 3 4 5

E40 All staff in the department should

be consistently courteous to me.

1 2 3 4 5

E41 The institute should be an east

accessible from city.

1 2 3 4 5

PART –C: PERCEPTION

The following g statements relate to your feeling about management institute you chose. Please

show the extent to which you believe your institutes have the feature described in the statement.

Here, we are interested in a number that shows your perceptions about management institute.

Statements Strongly

Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Agree Tangibles

P1 The exterior of this institute are

visually appealing

1 2 3 4 5

P2 The institute has modern, up-to-

date Infrastructure

1 2 3 4 5

P3 Employees of your institute have

neat appearance

1 2 3 4 5

P4 This institute has well-equipped

and up-to-date library

1 2 3 4 5

P5 The institute has a wide range of 1 2 3 4 5

book and periodicals

P6 Materials associated with services

of lecturers such as handouts and

syllabus are visually appealing.

1 2 3 4 5

P7 The institute has a plenty of

sports facilities with modern

equipments.

1 2 3 4 5

P8 The institute has a hygienic

canteen.

1 2 3 4 5

P9 The institute have adequate

printer and Xerox facilities

1 2 3 4 5

P10 The institute have up-to-date

teaching support

1 2 3 4 5

P11 The institute must have sufficient

hostel facilities with proper

security

1 2 3 4 5

P12 The institute must provide

adequate parking areas.

1 2 3 4 5

Reliability

P13 The teaching and learning process

are up-to-date as what was

promised.

1 2 3 4 5

P14 When student having a problem,

lecturers should show a sincere

interest in solving it.

1 2 3 4 5

P15 A lecturer performs the service

right the first time.

1 2 3 4 5

P16 Lectures and presentation are

effectively given by the lecturers.

1 2 3 4 5

P17 An error-free record of students‘

marks and other documents is to

be kept by lecturers.

1 2 3 4 5

P18 The institute is able to solve

trouble and complaints of

students.

1 2 3 4 5

P19 The institutes must upgrade the

syllabus from time to time

1 2 3 4 5

P20 The design of course structure is

to be based on job requirements.

1 2 3 4 5

P21 The current MBA programme

structure enables me to be an

employable post-graduate.

1 2 3 4 5

P22 The institute have a tie-up with

the companies for placements

1 2 3 4 5

P23 Useful information related to

scholarship job opportunities are

1 2 3 4 5

accurately provided by the

institute.

Responsiveness

P24 Employees of your institute give

you prompt service

1 2 3 4 5

P25 The academic staffs (lecturers)

are willing to solve your problem.

1 2 3 4 5

P26 Administrative staffs of your

institute are never too busy to

respond to your request.

1 2 3 4 5

P27 There is an adequate facility to

render service.

1 2 3 4 5

P28 The academic staff provide

sufficient time to give directions

and suggestions.

1 2 3 4 5

P29 The institute must encourage

teamwork and communication

skill among students.

1 2 3 4 5

P30 There must be transparency of

official procedures.

1 2 3 4 5

Assurance

P31 The academic staff (lecturers)

instills confidence in customers

(students).

1 2 3 4 5

P32 You must feel safe in your

transactions with your institute

1 2 3 4 5

P33 Lecturers deal with me in a caring

and courteous manner.

1 2 3 4 5

P34 This department must employ

academic staff in whom I have

confidence.

1 2 3 4 5

P35 Lecturers must have knowledge

to answer students‘ questions.

1 2 3 4 5

P36 The academic staff (lecturers )

must have high research

productivity in your institute.

1 2 3 4 5

Empathy

P37 Lecturers of your institute

provide Individualized attention

to students.

1 2 3 4 5

P38 Lecturers have your best interest

at heart.

1 2 3 4 5

P39 The working hours of the

department must be convenient

for me

1 2 3 4 5

P40 All staff in the department be

consistently courteous to me.

1 2 3 4 5

P41 The institute is an easy accessible

from city.

1 2 3 4 5

Satisfaction level

I am satisfied with the services

provided by the institute.

I recommend my friends to get

educational services from this

institute.

(Respondent Signature)

Documents

MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION