Service quality in Malaysian higher education: Adult learners’ perspective

• Main Author: Shaari, Hasnizam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Center for Promoting Ideas (CPI), USA 2014
• Subjects: LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/12284/1/11.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/12284/; http://ijbssnet.com/index.php/home
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The study of service quality is relatively new especially in higher education sector.Previous studies predominantly focus service quality issues of main stream higher education but rarely discussed in the context of adult-learner especially in the context of off-campus program.The issue is whether university manages to provide equal service quality for both mainstream and off-campus students.Uniquely, off-campus students are more mature, perhaps could be different in term of their expectation and evaluation toward service quality.Thus, this study aims to discover service quality issues in ‘off -campus program’ offered by one of the university’s center of excellence.This study employed the SERVQUAL measurement to understand students’ service quality gaps at two different centers. Finding from 82 respondents suggest that there is a significant difference in service quality gaps between the two centers.Among the crucial dimensions are tangibility, reliability and empathy issues.Implication and recommendation for service quality of adult learning were also discussed.