Perceived Service Quality In Australian Higher Education Institutions:Unveiling Chinese International Students’ Satisfaction With Service Quality Of Group Of Eight Universities

Increasing competition within the international student market has encouraged higher education institutions in popular overseas learning destinations like the US,UK,Australia and Canada to pay closer attention to the service quality perceived by international students.Nonetheless,as Chinese students become the largest cohort of international students in Australia,few academic studies were conducted to investigate their satisfaction with the service quality of their host universities.With an aim to present an insightful picture of this position,this study examines the Chinese international students’ satisfaction with the service quality provided by the Group of Eight universities.In line with the academic argument that student satisfaction is a consequence of service quality,this study adopts the theoretical framework proposed by Faizan et al,under which the five dimensions of service quality,namely academic aspects,non-academic aspects,access,program issues and reputation,positively and directly influence student satisfaction.A mix-methods research study was carried out online,with quantitative survey data collected from a convenience sample of 282 Chinese students and qualitative data collected from 8 follow-up interviews.SPSS 26 was employed to conduct descriptive analyses,independent sample t-tests,ANOVA and post-hoc tests on the quantitative data.NVivo 12 was utilized to analyze the qualitative data.The study findings posit that in a general picture,Chinese students are most satisfied with the academic aspects of service quality at Go8 universities,generally content with access,program issues and reputation,and least satisfied with non-academic aspects of service quality.Although Chinese international students affirm that teachers are well-qualified,supportive and positive,they show concerns for not receiving timely and informative feedback.In addition,the Chinese students expressed their satisfaction with skilled and engaging teachers,learning content closely related to real-world practice,career support,modern facilities and abundant learning resources.Nonacademic aspects,especially administrative efficiency and inconvenience by course selection processes elicited strong dissatisfaction from Chinese students.The investigation of student factors’impact reveals that there is no significant difference in student perception of service quality between gender,learning levels and academic divisions.Nonetheless,ANOVA results reveal significant differences in overall satisfaction among academic divisions.Post-hoc test results discover that Chinese students majoring in Economics,and Commerce,Management,Tourism and Services are more satisfied than their counterparts in Natural Science.Besides.Chinese students majoring in Natural Sciences,Information and Computing Sciences,Engineering,Economics,Commerce,Management,Tourism and Service,Psychology,Language,Communication and Culture are more satisfied than those pursuing Law and Legal Studies.ANOVA results of university performance reveal significant differences in the three service quality dimensions of academic aspects,program issues and reputation among Go8 universities.Post-hoc test results reveal a complex portrayal of university performance.So far as academic aspects are concerned,Chinese international students at Australian National University are more satisfied than their counterparts at the University of Sydney,Monash University,the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia.In terms of program issues,Chinese students at Australian National University,the University of New South Wales,the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland are more satisfied than those at Monash University.In addition,Chinese students at Australian National University are more satisfied with program issues than those at the University of Adelaide.With regard to reputation,Chinese students at Australian National University,the University of Sydney,the University of New South Wales,the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland are more satisfied than their counterparts at Monash University.Those learning at Australian National University are more satisfied than those at the University of New South Wales and the University of Adelaide.Additionally,Chinese students at Australian National University,the University of Sydney,the University of New South Wales,the University of Melbourne,Adelaide University and the University of Queensland are more satisfied than their counterparts at the University of Western Australia across the three dimensions(academic aspects,program issues and reputation).The findings serve as valuable references for academic research on higher education service quality,management of Australian higher education institutions as well as potential Chinese international students.