Assignment No 5

Type of Assignment:
Research Proposal
Measuring students satisfaction with reference to
Quality of Service: A case of Higher Education in
Pakistan
Name:
Shazia Haheed, S. Musasser Abbas, Saad Babar
Class:
MS-MS-DAY C
Semester:
Fall 2010
Email:
saadbabar@gmail.com
Contact:
0321-6115583
Yours Signature

Due Date:
1st November 2010
Submission Date:
1st November 2010
Submitted to
Dr. Bakhtiar Ali
Department of Management Science
SZABIST, Islamabad

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 Table of Contents
Title Page No

1. Introduction
2. Problem Statement
3. Quality at HEC
4. Research Objective
5. Research Questions
6. Literature Review
7. Importance of Study
8. Research Design
9. Bibliography

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Introduction

Education for the growth of any nation plays a very vital role. In Pakistan education can be
classified into four levels starting from the Primary education, secondary education, tertiary
education and coming to the Master level education / Higher education. Higher Education
Commission ()HEC) a governing body dealing with the higher education in Pakistan has
emphasized on delivering better education at the undergraduate, graduate and the post
graduate level. The higher education system of Pakistan comprises of two sectors: Public and
Private. There are a number of differences which separates both of these sectors. A good
example of this can be seen in the recent crisis in the education sector, where lack of funding
by HEC has led to a catastrophe regarding the announced rise in wages of various
universities.

According to a recent survey by HEC, the number of public and private sector universities
has risen over the last decade. Based on the data released by HEC Statistics Department there
are approximately 64 universities in the public and 43 universities in the private sector in
Pakistan. Every university’s objective is to deliver quality education. The government on the
other hand has show keen interest in redeveloping a better platform for higher education and
allocating sufficient funds to public and private sector universities for research and
infrastructure development.

Although this growing demands in universities and students, has led to a question on the
quality of services being provided to students by these universities. This issue of quality has
been identified as the major issue concerning the higher education. In the last few years a
shift in trend from MBA degree to MS leading to PhD is gaining popularity. Many
universities are finding it hard to cope with this situation as they fail to deliver in terms of
quality of education.

The further development of the private sector is highly dependent not only on the quality of
teaching but also on the number of students enrolled. In this competitive market only these
institutions will last, which gain their competitive edge through the highest quality/price ratio
(Patryk et al 2008).

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The main goal of this research article is to find a framework which can be used for future
researches and reference for assessing the quality of service at the higher education
institutions (Universities) in Pakistan. While measuring the quality in services it will be
difficult due to the intangible nature of the service being offered. Modified version of
SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1988; 1991) is going to be used
for analyzing the quality of service.

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Problem Statement

An Analysis of the Gap between quality of services and student satisfaction

Quality at HEC

In order to determine the quality of service at higher education, Higher education commission
has defined quality as follows:
• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) UK has defined Quality as the means through
which institutions can guarantee with confidence and certainty that the standards of its
educational provision are being maintained and enhanced over a period of time.
• Quality in higher education is a dynamic entity which is the outcome of interaction
among many factors including leadership, quality of faculty and students,
infrastructure facilities, research and learning environment, governance, strategic
planning, assessment procedures, and market force.

Research Objectives

Following are the objectives which will be addressed during this research:
• To calculate and measure the score of the five SERVQUAL dimensions
• To identify students’ expectations of service quality provided by universities
• To measure the gap between students’ expectations and management’s
perceptions of student’s expectations
• To create a benchmark framework for future institutions on how to measure
Quality

Research Questions

• Determine the relationship between service quality dimensions and satisfaction

among students at higher education institutions?
• What are the critical factors that contribute most to the satisfaction of students?

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Literature Review

Pakistan’s private sector is very competitive in terms of higher education. Private sector
universities are also exploring the possible opportunities for international collaborations with
various universities in order to strengthen the ties between the institutes of Pakistan and the
institutes of the west.

According to the study conducted by Ehsan, Qaiser and Usman (2010) do give some insights
on the real situation of higher education institutes in Punjab, Pakistan but due to various
drawbacks there are various areas of exploration. Many institutes do give importance to
meeting the customers’ expectations in comparison to business organizations, but there is
lack of awareness in customer expectations among the staff and this is becoming a major
drawback for many institutions.

Very little research in the Pakistani environment is carried out making it difficult to shed light
on the quality of service provided by the institutions. Continuous improvement is required by
institutions to make the service experience more remarkable and worthwhile.

The main goal of this research article is to find a framework which can be used for future
researches and reference for assessing the quality of service at the higher education
institutions (Universities) in Pakistan. While measuring the quality in services it will be
difficult due to the intangible nature of the service being offered. Modified version for higher
education (Markovic, 2006) of SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry,
1988; 1991) is going to be used for analyzing the quality of service.

Although previous studies have shown results of service quality in higher education in
Pakistan in various settings, this study aims to examine the quality of services in higher
education in institutes at the MS level in order to minimize the gap which exists between
students and institutes.

Organizations have to be customer oriented similarly Universities have to become more

student orientated. Perceptions of management of universities must be aligned with student’s
expectations about the university’s facilities and services. Interaction between customer and
service organization lies at the heart of service delivery (Oldfield and Baron, 2000). If the
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service organizations do not know what their customers expect, this will result in poor
performance (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1992).

SEVRQUAL
Service quality can be measured by using SERVQUAL and its importance and validity in
measuring service quality is highlighted by many authors (Cuthbert, 1996; and Brysland and
Curry, 2001). Focus of more than two decades of studies to measure the service quality has
helped in the development of various tools to reliably and consistently develop construct of
service quality (Ladhari, 2009). Of these, perhaps the best known and most commonly used
measure has been the “SERVQUAL” scale, which was originally developed by Parasuraman
et al. (1985, 1988) and subsequently refined by Parasuraman et al. (1991, 1994).
SERVQUAL consists of five dimensions categorically Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy. The SERVQUAL was originally applied in service settings of retail
banking, credit card services, repair and maintenance of electrical appliances, long-distance
telephone services, and title brokerage. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, (1988) described
the five dimensions as follows:
• Tangible—physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel;
• Reliability—ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately;
• Responsiveness—willingness to help customers and provide prompt service;
• Assurance—knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust
and confidence; and
• Empathy—caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

On the other hand Higher Education Commotion (HEC) is also working closely with
institutions in developing a quality assurance framework to measure quality in these
educational institutes. The framework developed by HEC is established on two levels: One at
the program level and second at the institutional level. The area under discussion here is the
quality of service at the higher education. If we compare the SERVIQUAL model with the
framework by HEC we can analyze that the framework by HEC has no variables to measure
the quality where as the SERVIQUAL model is a more reliable instrument developed by
Berry et al (1988) which measures quality from every aspect from physical resources to
providing customer what they want, later the modified version was used by various

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researchers accordingly. The framework by HEC is still in its initial stages and more work is
required to come up with a benchmark framework.

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Proposed Framework

Importance of Study

• This study is important as it will examine the level of quality service and level of
satisfaction among students. Another aspect is to create a future framework for
universities who are willing to measure quality of service at their institute and for
future institutes who want to deliver quality education

Research Design

• Type of Study: It will be a field study and it will be done in a natural environment
• Purpose of Study: It is a descriptive study because we will be testing the relationship
of variables
• Unit of analysis: Students of Business Schools in Pakistan
• Time Horizon: This study is cross-sectional as it will be done only once
• Technique: Questionnaires will be used to collect data and this questionnaire will be
tested for reliability and validity
• Population/Sample: Students of business school are the population and we will use
stratified sampling technique to collect data as it will be region wise

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Bibliography
• Brysland, A. and Curry, A. (2001). Service improvements in public services using
SERVQUAL. Managing Service Quality. 11 (6). 389-401.
• Ehsan, M., Qaiser, R., Usman, A. (2010). The impact of service quality od students
satisfaction in higher education institutes of Punjab. Journal of Management
Research, Vol 2, No 2, E10
• Hasan, A., IIias, A., (2008). Service quality and student satisfaction: A case study at
private higher education institutions. International Business Research, Vol 1, No 3
• Higher Education Quality Assurance Division:
http://www.hec.gov.pk/InsideHEC/Divisions/QALI/QualityAssurance/QADivision/Pa
ges/Default.aspx (Accessed on 21st October 2010)
• Higher Education Commission:-Statistical Information unit,
http://www.hec.gov.pk/InsideHEC/Divisions/QALI/Others/Pages/UniversitiesDAIs.as
px (Accessed on 27th September 2010)
• Ladhari, R. (2009). A review of twenty years of SERVQUAL research. International
Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. 1(2). 172-198
• Markovic, S. (2006). Expected service quality measurement in tourism higher
education. Nase Gospodarstvo, 52 (1/2). 86-95
• Parasuraman. A., Berry L. and Zeithmal V. ,1988, “SERVQUAL: A Multi-item Scale
for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of SQ”, Journal of Retailing, 64(2). pp. 12-40
• Parasuraman. A., Berry L. and Zeithmal V. ,1985. “A Conceptual Model of SQ and
Its Implications for Future Research”, Journal of Marketing. 49(3). pp. 41-50.
• Shanin, A. (2005), "SERVQUAL and model of service quality gaps: a framework for
determining and prioritizing critical factors in delivering quality services", paper
presented at International Conference on Quality Management, 19-21 December
2004, available at: www.qmconf.com
• Zeithaml, V.A & Bitner M.J. (2003). Services Marketing: Integrating customer focus
across the firm. Third Edition. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.

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