The Research On Service Quality Of Independent College

The independent college is a unique product in the period of higher education popularization, which has played a constructive role in the process of popularization and meeting the demand of masses’ education. Currently, there are 303 independent colleges in China. These independent colleges undertake nearly 1/3 of the task of undergraduate personal training, and they have become the important part of the nation’s education. The quality view of high education has gone from traditional product value to service value currently. The basic output of higher education is the educational service, and the service quality will affect the survival and development of colleges’ future. Under the background of higher education marketization and the domestic and international education market diversification, the competition of college entrance has been more and more intense. As a newborn thing, the independent college should improve the service quality and win the competition by it in order to win a place in the fierce competition of the education market.In the past, the assessment of education quality was often carried out by the administrative departments of education, which ignored the important stakeholders of students. As the main body and customers of colleges and universities, the students’ evaluation of the service quality is of great significance for the future development of colleges. It could reflect the present situation of the independent colleges from the perspective of students’ measurement of service quality.In order to know the status of independent colleges’ educational service quality and to promote their further development, this study selected three independent colleges in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province as the research objects. We hoped to discover the problems of the independent colleges and propose solutions through the methods of questionnaire, interview and text analysis.Therefore, the research questions of this study mainly included:(1) whether there exist a gap in the aspect of students’expectation and perception and what were the differences, which were measured by the students’ expectation and perception of the service quality.(2) Whether there were differences of education service quality satisfaction among students from different majors and grades, and what were the differences.(3) Whether there exit demographic differences of the students’ evaluation on the quality of independent colleges’ education services quality.(4) Whether there was a positive correlation between the education service quality and the overall satisfaction of students.Through the survey and empirical analysis, the result showed that:(1) The students’ satisfaction on the education service quality of these three independent colleges was relatively low. The result showed that the evaluation differences of each index were negative of students’ evaluation on the service quality. That is to say there was a great gap between students’ perceptions and expectations on service quality, and there was a significant difference between the expectation degree and satisfaction degree of service quality. This result illustrated that the service of independent colleges does not reach the students’ satisfactory level, and the students’ satisfaction of service quality was low. The independent colleges need to recognize the fact and take measures to improve education quality and students’satisfaction.(2) There were great differences of the five dimensions of service quality. The students’ satisfaction went from reliability to responsiveness and then down to tangibles, empathy and assurance. There was the farthest distance from reliability to students’ expectation, while assurance was close to students’ expectations, which showed that teaching staff and course teaching could preferably meet the needs of students.(3) The service quality evaluation of students from different grades varied greatly. The result showed that there were differences of education service quality evaluation between students from different grades, and there exist a significant difference. The satisfaction level of service quality of students from higher grade was higher than that from lower grade.(4) There was not a significant difference in demographic characteristics of students’ satisfaction. From the point of view of demographic characteristics, Gender, parents’ education level, only children, origin, whether to participate in community activities, whether to ever been a student cadre had no significant difference on the evaluation of education service quality, that is to say, there were no significant differences of students’ satisfaction among these variables.(5) There was a significant correlation between education service quality and students’ satisfaction. The higher of the service quality of independent colleges, there were higher satisfaction of students.In view of the above problems and in order to promote the further development of independent colleges, we put forward that education service quality should been built up of independent colleges, paying attention to students’ evaluation and improving the students’ satisfaction. The independent colleges should also strengthen the employment guidance and service, improve the students’ competitiveness of employment. What’s more, appropriate publicity, brand building and social recognition are needed. Last but not least, the curriculum should been optimized and the curriculum system to adapt the training target of independent colleges need to been established.