The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the studies in the area of education service quality management conducted on higher education institutions (HEIs), with a special focus on the different parameters used to measure the performance of HEIs. It also analyses the parameters of evaluation used by different higher education institution ranking bodies, such as Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education, and Financial Times for Business School Rankings, to name a few. During a search for relevant literature, the authors started with a wide net, beginning with a broad search in Google Scholar and followed by a narrower search in educational databases including Proquest, EBSCO e-journals, and Emerald Insight. The authors found that there is a growing concern that the existing indicators fail to measure the role played by the institution in the life of the student. The authors of the chapter have additionally discussed and suggested the need to use a “value-added' model in the higher education system.
TopIntroduction
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education” – Martin Luther King (1948)
In the last couple of decades, the global higher education scenario has dramatically changed with the rise in the number of degree-providing institutions (García-Morales et al., 2021; Musselin, 2018). This expansion is mainly due to the exponential rise in students’ enrolment who are opting for higher education (Altbach et al., 2009). The rise in the number of institutions providing higher education has resulted in an increase in competition among universities (Grawe, 2018), which indicates that the sustainability of higher education institutions (HEIs) is based on the quality of the services that they deliver (Hemyari & Rajhi, 2022; Liu et al., 2022). The quality indicators in HEIs are explained as authoritative and quantitative measures of key features of the actions of the institutions and their constituents (Cave et al., 1988). A large number of researchers (e.g., Camilleri, 2021; Cave, 1988; Lu et al., 2017) have expressed reservations about the existing scales for assessing the quality of higher education institutions. The concern is that the existing indicators fail to measure the role played by the institution in the life of the student. The current study examines the educational literature and discusses studies on higher education institutions (HEIs) in the area of quality management, with a special emphasis on the various parameters used to measure HEI performance.
Education in general, and higher education in particular, is considered to be essential to improving the quality of life and well-being of people and has an influence on the society in which we live (Findler et al., 2019). It is generally accepted that, higher education influences the thought processes of the decision makers in business and society, which helps in transforming society. There is evidence in the literature underpinning the importance of universities in the achievement of sustainable development goals (McCowan, 2016, p. 505). In playing the role of a distributor, a distributor of intellectual and educational knowledge, skills and attitudes, the institution must have a system which can steer them towards excellence in their pursuit of relevance, and contribution to society and the business environment. This underlines the importance of planning, operationalising, and measuring the service quality of higher education institutions.
Various agencies and authorities have offered varied definitions of quality in higher education. The quality of education has been interpreted differently by different stakeholders (Harvey &Green, 1993; Mackie, 2008).One of the most acceptable definitions was given by Gordon & Partington(1996), when they defined quality of education as the level to which an institution offers educational environments which will facilitate students' attainment of meaningful learning objectives, including suitable academic standards.Service quality in higher education is defined as the gap between a student's expectations and their impressions of actual delivery (O’Neill & Palmer, 2004).It is extremely important for education institution to maintain higher orders of service quality. Institutions maintaining higher levels of service quality receives more attention among stakeholder communities. Such institutions also receive higher funding from external agencies. The acceptance of the students passing out from such institution is higher in the industry thereby, they may receive better job offers.