Libro

Descripción

This study analyses the high education sector in Kenya for the purpose of identifying the critical determinants of service quality, the differences in service dimension between public and private universities and determines the nature of relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. A cross sectional sample survey guides the study in data collection. A structured five point Likert scale questionnaire is self administered to the stratified randomly selected respondents. A descriptive analysis is used to profile the respondents, through rigorous factor analysis which guides the study in determining critical service quality dimensions in universities, a MANOVA test facilitates the comparative analysis and a regression analysis is employed in examining the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The study findings confirmed previous findings that service dimensions can vary with the service setting. While SERVQUAL identifies five services quality dimensions, this study reveals three critical determinants of service quality in public universities as reliability, responsiveness and corporate image and extracts four critical dimensions that define service quality in private universities as including; corporate image, core service, physical evidence and assurance. The study established a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Image and reliability are the most important dimensions to university students and the greatest improvement in service quality and customer satisfaction by management can be achieved through building a strong corporate image and improved service reliability.