TY - JOUR
T1 - Increasing service quality at a university
T2 - a continuous improvement project
AU - Gonzalez Aleu, Fernando
AU - Granda Gutierrez, Edgar Marco Aurelio
AU - Garza-Reyes, Jose Arturo
AU - Garza Villegas, Juan Baldemar
AU - Vazquez Hernandez, Jesus
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2021/9/27
Y1 - 2021/9/27
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a continuous improvement project (CIP) at a Mexican university designed to increase engineering graduate student loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A plan-do-check-act problem-solving methodology was implemented, and a SERVQUAL survey was conducted on 67 master’s engineering students. Findings: Five factors were found to affect student loyalty: facility cleanliness; faculty teaching skills; evening student services; master’s degree student management roles at work; and master’s degree students’ ages. After the implementation of the improvement and control actions, there was a 7.7% increase in the engineering master’s degree students’ loyalty scores. Research limitations/implications: However, there were several research limitations: data availability (such as student loyalty, student satisfaction and a small master’s degree student population size) and factors outside the CIP’s scope (such as the country’s economic situation, university rankings, master’s programme accreditations and COVID-19). Practical implications: The findings from this research study could be used by other higher education institutions (HEIs)to improve student loyalty and as a reference when conducting similar studies in other service organisations such as hospitals and hotels. Originality/value: This research work took a different approach in assessing student satisfaction and student loyalty in a HEI by using the SERVQUAL survey as the data collection instrument for conducting CIP.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a continuous improvement project (CIP) at a Mexican university designed to increase engineering graduate student loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A plan-do-check-act problem-solving methodology was implemented, and a SERVQUAL survey was conducted on 67 master’s engineering students. Findings: Five factors were found to affect student loyalty: facility cleanliness; faculty teaching skills; evening student services; master’s degree student management roles at work; and master’s degree students’ ages. After the implementation of the improvement and control actions, there was a 7.7% increase in the engineering master’s degree students’ loyalty scores. Research limitations/implications: However, there were several research limitations: data availability (such as student loyalty, student satisfaction and a small master’s degree student population size) and factors outside the CIP’s scope (such as the country’s economic situation, university rankings, master’s programme accreditations and COVID-19). Practical implications: The findings from this research study could be used by other higher education institutions (HEIs)to improve student loyalty and as a reference when conducting similar studies in other service organisations such as hospitals and hotels. Originality/value: This research work took a different approach in assessing student satisfaction and student loyalty in a HEI by using the SERVQUAL survey as the data collection instrument for conducting CIP.
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U2 - 10.1108/QAE-02-2021-0020
DO - 10.1108/QAE-02-2021-0020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110005745
SN - 0968-4883
VL - 29
SP - 209
EP - 224
JO - Quality Assurance in Education
JF - Quality Assurance in Education
IS - 2-3
ER -