SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS, INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND STUDENT SATISFACTION IN SCHOOLS OF BUSINESS OF CHARTERED UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of service quality dimensions on student satisfaction in universities in Kenya and specially students in the Schools of Business. Service quality is a measure of the extent to which a service meets and exceeds customer expectations; which in turn creates a competitive edge for the organization. For the purposes of this study, service quality was measured under four dimensions, namely service tangibility, responsiveness, reliability and accessibility. Satisfaction, on other hand, is the extent to which service delivery meets the student expectations, was assessed on the basis of; customer loyalty, referrals, positive word of mouth and student retention. Tremendous growth of university education in Kenya has brought enormous challenges some of which have continued to compromise the quality of services delivered to students. The specific objectives of the study included: to establish the effect of service tangibility on student satisfaction in Schools of Business of Chartered Universities in Kenya, to find out the effect of service responsiveness on student satisfaction in Schools of Business of the Chartered Universities in Kenya, to determine the effect of service reliability on student satisfaction of Schools of Business of Chartered Universities in Kenya, to assess the effect of service accessibility on student satisfaction in Schools of Business of Chartered Universities Institutions in Kenya and to establish the moderating effect of Information Communication Technology on the relationship between service quality dimensions and student satisfaction in Schools of Business of Chartered Universities in Kenya. The study was based on Positivism philosophy and the Cross-sectional descriptive design was employed. Sampling was done in two stages: stage one was sampling of the universities which were the unit of analysis while stage two was sampling students from the sampled universities. Primary data was collected from 400 respondents; questionnaires were self-administered to students during the common units’ classes. Descriptive statistics namely; cross-tabulations, frequency distributions and median were used to summarize the data whereas inferential statistics was used to establish the magnitude and the direction of the relationship. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (2020) version 27 was used for data analysis. The study used the Multinomial Logistic Regression Model after the proposed Ordinal Logistic Regression Model was found inappropriate when the test of parallels estimation was carried out. Results revealed that among the four hypothesis that were tested on both the main effect MLR model and Moderated MLR model service tangibility and service responsiveness were found to be statistically significant. Results of the study indicated that service quality had a significant effect on student satisfaction in Schools of Business of Chartered universities in Kenya. This was based on two service quality dimensions (service tangibility and service responsiveness) that were found significant across all categories under the main effect model and the moderated effect MRL environment. This study is expected to benefit various stakeholders in the education sector among them Higher Education Institutions Management, Commission for University Education, Ministry of Education and Government of Kenya (GoK) in developing essential education policies regarding quality. Scholars and researchers also could use the study as a basis for further research.