Page 57 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1492 Ali Gargoum
research was formulated to explore the influence of quality towards student’s
satisfaction (Weerasinghe et al., 2017). The supporting underpinning theory is
the “equity theory”. This theory has earned extensive recognition due to its
capability in explaining customer behavior and customer satisfaction
(Grigoroudis and Siskos, 2010).

The research framework is illustrated in Figure 1.

Quality (Programs/services) Students’ happiness

Students’ satisfaction

Figure 1: The research framework

The research framework of the study and the literature suggest the following
main hypothesis: Quality is positively related to students’ satisfaction and
consequently to their happiness.

2. Methodology
This article aims to assess service quality and customer satisfaction using
SERVQUAL. In spite of theoretical and operational criticisms, SERVQUAL has
growing popularity and widespread applications. According to (Parasuraman
et. al. 1985), when service quality is high, then this will lead to increase in
customer satisfaction. This goes in line with many authors, see, for example,
(Lee et. al., 2000, p 226) who acknowledge that customer satisfaction is based
upon the level of service quality provided.
This study is performed empirically and results are based on assessment
of UAE University students’ responses. A questionnaire is designed using a
modified SERVQUAL to model the service quality of the UAE University and
how the quality of services could help in gaining students’ satisfaction. The
questionnaire is comprised of two parts. Part I includes 5 demographic
questions. Part II includes 43 questions on the students’ university experience,
which are subdivided into 6 constructs, out of which 5 constructs are used to
measure service quality and the 6th construct is used to measure the overall
satisfaction about the quality service. The responses were measured on a 5-
point Likert scale where [5] is assigned for “extremely satisfied”, [4] for
“satisfied”, [3] for neutral, [2] for unsatisfied and [1] for extremely unsatisfied.
The target population of the study comprises the undergraduate and
postgraduate UAEU students enrolled in the Fall semester 2018. A total of 498
questionnaires were valid for the analysis. A pretesting of the questionnaire

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