A Confirmatory Study On Customer Perceived Service Quality In Higher Education

Quality assessment and assurance in higher education are attended widely with popularity of higher education. The estimators of quality in higher quality are government, university with presentation of its high administrators, academic with presentation of teaching and science authority, employer, but customer authority of undergraduate is ignored, therefore we have not established an assessment and assurance system of customer perceived service quality in higher education. Though the meaning, attributes, cause and effect of service quality have been widely researched in private sectors, the study on customer perceived service quality in higher education seems inadequate. It is obvious that the doctoral thesis has an important theoretics and practicality significance.The study is divided into three stages. The first is literature reading and qualitative examination, which includes literature searching and reading, interviews with undergraduates, faculties and other specialists, design of questionnaire, fore and back measurement of questionnaire and modification of it. The second is exploratory investigation. I surveyed in South-west Jiao-tong University, Tongji University and Hua Zhong Normal University from November to December in 2005, and collected 1139 valid specimens, then analyzed the data and proposed formal hypotheses. The third is confirmatory study. I surveyed in South-west Jiao-tong University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, South China Agricultural University, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Anhui University of Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Southern Yangtze University, Nanchang Institute of Aviation Technology and Beijing Wuzi University from April to May in 2005, and collected 3278 valid specimens, then analyzed the data and confirmed hypotheses which was proposed.With qualitative and quantitative analysis, the thesis confirms these viewpoints:1. Customer perceived service quality in higher education includes nine dimensions: facility, logistic, image, content, deliver, empathy, reliability, society activity, employed service, in which content, reliability and deliver are main factors. The study finds out that the measurement model is reliable and valid.2. The importance of customer perceived service quality in higher education is indubitable, because customer perceived service quality not only has a positive, direct influence on customer perceived service value, but also has a positive, direct and indirect influence on customer satisfaction, but also has a positive, indirect influence on behavioral intentions in higher education.3. Customer perceived service price has a negative, direct influence on customer perceived service value in higher education, and for most kinds of customers, Customer perceived service price in higher education has a weak, negative, indirect influence on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in higher education.4. Customer perceived service value not only has a positive, direct influence on customer satisfaction, but also has a positive, indirect influence on behavioral intentions in higher education.5. Customer satisfaction has an important, positive, indirect influence on behavioral intentions in higher education.6. Customer participation in higher education has an important, direct influence on customer perception. If Undergraduates involves in higher education more, customer perceive service quality, value satisfaction and behavior intention in higher education are even higher.7. The personality of Undergraduates has some influence on customer perceive service quality, value satisfaction and behavior intention in higher education.8. The conceptual model proposed is significant to some degree. The results of data analysis reveal that most hypotheses which have been proposed are confirmed or accredited in some sense, which indicates that the conceptual model is in point.