Dr. David Cababaro Bueno - Characterizing the Quality of educational services towards ASEAN integrat

Characterizing the Quality of Educational Services Among Local Colleges Towards ASEAN Integration David Cababaro Bueno, MS, MPM,MBA,Ed,D., DBAc Dean, Graduate School and Director, Research and Publications Columban College, Inc. Olongapo City, Philippines 2200 docdave30@yahoo.com / docdave3090@gmail.com

Abstract— In today's competitive academic environment where students have many

options available to them, factors that enable educational institutions to attract and retain students should be seriously studied. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors contributory to the graduating students’ satisfaction studying in local colleges based on various dimensions. The researcher employed the descriptive-survey method of research. Primary data were collected using standardized closed-structured-questionnaire and documentary analysis. The data were statistically treated using Percentage, Mean and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

The graduating students were satisfied on various dimensions quality educational services of local colleges. Local College 3 got the highest rating on reputation due to its accreditation status by external accrediting agency. There were no significant variations found in relation to the degree of satisfaction of graduating students across local colleges relative to various dimensions of service quality such as nonacademic aspects, academic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, and access. However, significant variations were found in relations to reputation as dimension of quality. It is important for the local colleges to work continuously towards ensuring that the service provided really exceed the expectation of students thereby increasing their market share towards ASEAN integration.

Keywords—Educational quality, local colleges, educational services, ASEAN integration, descriptive-survey method, Olongapo City, Philippines

INTRODUCTION In today's competitive academic environment where students have many options available to them, factors that enable educational institutions to attract and retain students should be seriously studied. Higher education institutions, which want to gain competitive edge in the future, may need to begin searching for effective and creative ways to attract, retain and foster stronger relationships with students. As a public organization, it has to depend on the interaction and mechanism of the market. As a result, competition to woo as many students as possible or so-called “potential customer” may become more and more intense.

Continuous quality improvement is a philosophy. Within this philosophy is a set of broad principles and values that provide guidance on how to restructure and improve organizations.

Continuous quality improvement requires an organization to meet or exceed the customer’s expectation of quality. Student satisfaction surveys are commonly used in higher education institutions internationally as feedback mechanisms to determine the delivery of education.

Ford and Bach (1997) concluded that the most critical challenge facing educators is to identify and implement the most appropriate methods for measuring quality of the service experience. At higher education institutions student satisfaction studies are a means of selfexamination that enables them to measure their students’ satisfaction on a wide range of college experiences. By “sounding out” student satisfaction, institutions are able to identify institutional strengths as well as areas in need of improvement. Harvey (2003) contended that student satisfaction surveys are tools which institutions can use to assess the complexity of the total learning experience.

These assessments provide information on students’ perceptions of a range of services and experiences. Harvey (2003) is of the opinion that this may include perceptions of the learning and teaching, the learning support facilities (such as libraries, computing facilities), the learning environment (lecture rooms, laboratories, social space and university buildings), support facilities (student accommodation, health facilities, student services) and external aspects of being a student (such as finance, transport infrastructure).

Furthermore, in this world of cutthroat competition, an organization needs some competitive advantage to sustain. Customer satisfaction and loyalty could be considered as an important tool to maintain a competitive advantage. An organization should give a special attention to its service quality which can help its organization to differentiate itself from other organization, and results to long term competitive advantage. Delighting the customer is the core message of the total quality approach (Owlia and Aspinwall, 1996). A customer is the individual or organization that actually makes a purchase decision, while a consumer is the individual or organizational unit that uses or consumes a product (Stanton et al., 1994).

In the higher education sector, it is difficult to manage the institutions from the marketing point of view because the concept of customer has not been clearly defined. “Unlike other service industries, which hold satisfaction as a goal in and of itself, colleges and universities typically perceive satisfaction as means to end. Higher education tends to care about student satisfaction because of its potential impact on student motivation, retention, recruitment efforts, and fundraising” (Schreiner, 2009).

“Even though satisfying the wants and needs of customers of is not a new organizational concept for business institutions, customer orientation has been underemphasized in universities compare to profit-oriented organizations. Students are the “customers” of a university” (Huang, 2009). But Waugh (2002) suggested that viewing students as customers created some tensions in universities seem to be too aligned with business.

As per Seymour (1993), developing satisfied student should be a primary goal of higher education. Developing customer (student) satisfaction at universities level is crucial. If this is achieved, it will facilitate the strategic objectives of the university more effectively.

Several researches have been conducted on service quality delivery and student satisfaction in the university. Every educational institution needs to understand its internal strength and weakness, and external opportunities and threats. In local colleges, students come from different towns and provinces with different cultural backgrounds. Thus, their expectation and perception of satisfaction may differ. Local colleges are not only competing with the local universities but also many other private colleges in the area. Considering the whole world as a single market and every college as a competitor, one can say there is an intense competition.

Student satisfaction plays a crucial role for the success of a local college. As argued by Berry (1995), service is one of the important factors enhancing value, and can positively influence a

college’s success. The student perception about satisfaction can act as an essential tool to enhance the colleges’ service quality.

This study examined “the relationship between the variables of service quality and student satisfaction among graduating students in the local colleges in Olongapo City and Zambales”. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that contribute to graduating student satisfaction studying in the local colleges.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that contribute to graduating students’ satisfaction studying in Local Colleges (LC) in Olongapo City and Zambales with the following objectives: 1. To analyze the perceived service quality among local colleges based on nonacademic, academic, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, reputation, and access.

2. To determine the overall satisfaction of respondents among LC. 3. To analyze the significant variations on the perceived service quality across LC. 4. To analyze possible implications drawn for the improvement of quality services and students satisfaction among colleges towards ASEAN integration.

METHODOLOGY The researcher used quantitative survey as the major method. Quantitative surveys are designed to fit a questionnaire schedule. This method of research is designed to gather information on conditions existing at a particular period. Descriptive surveys are usual kinds of measure with test and scales.

The population of the study covered the graduating students for the Academic Year 2014-2015 of the Local Colleges (LC) such as Gordon College in Olongapo City; and Kolehiyo Ng Subic and Botolan Community College in Zambales. They were chosen purposively with the help of the school administrators and faculty members with the assistance of the admissions and registration office.

The primary data were collected using standardized closed structured questionnaires which were adopted by the researcher. These questionnaires were self-administered among the respondents in order to collect the completed responses within a short time possible. In this research, there were seven (7) variables of service quality. These were academic aspects, nonacademic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, reputation and access. The reliability of the questions for each variables are obtained when Cronbach’s coefficient alpha is at least 0.6. And the internal consistency and reliability of the questions will be considered higher, if the result is near to 1. During the reliability test some items did not correlate well: group size (the number of student’s enrollment in one class is small) and access (the staff is easy to contact). Thus, to improve the Cronbach’s alpha score, the researcher removed those items from the constructs. Although, the instrument was already standardized, the researcher will be pilot tested to the senior students of Limay Polytechnic College in Limay Bataan, for face validity.

Data collected was compiled, sorted, edited, classified, coded and analyzed using the following tools: Percentage, Mean, and ANOVA.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1. Service Quality among Local Colleges (LC) 1.1 Non-academic Aspects The graduating students from the three colleges reported the same level of agreement relative to various indicators. They agree that staff respect rule of confidentiality when they disclose information to them, administrative staff shows positive work attitude towards students, when the staff promises to do something by a certain time, they do so, administrative staffs have good knowledge of the systems, and inquiries are dealt with efficiently administrative staff.

However, they moderately agree that administrative staff communicates well with students, and when they have problem, administrative staffs show a sincere interest in solving it, administration offices keep accurate and retrievable records, administrative staffs provide caring attention, and students are treated equally by the staff.

Thus, the overall assessments of the graduating students in relation to non-academic aspects among colleges are 3.37 (LC1), 3.35 (LC2) and 3.38 (LC3) giving and overall wx of 3.38 (moderately agree). This means that the graduating students rated the same degree of satisfaction relative to non-academic aspects across colleges.

Kotler and Clarke (1987) define satisfaction as a state felt by a person who has experience performance or an outcome that fulfill his or her expectation. Satisfaction is a function of relative level of expectations and perceives performance. Furthermore, this means the student expectation may go as far as before the students even enter the higher education, suggesting that it is important to the researchers to determine first what the students expect before entering the college. In addition, it is believed that satisfaction actually covers issues of students’ perception and experiences during the college years. While most student satisfaction study focus on the perspective of customer, various researchers are facing a problem of creating a standard definition for student satisfaction thus providing a need of customer satisfaction theory to be selected and modified so that it can explain the meaning of student satisfaction in reference to non-academic aspects of quality service. Even though it is risky to view students as customer, but given the current atmosphere of higher education marketplace, there is a new moral prerogative that student have become “customer” and therefore can, as payers, reasonably demand that their views be heard and acted upon. Moreover, research has identified one non-traditional predictor of college retention: student perceptions of service quality for non-academic factors within college setting. Additionally, as expressed the administrative concern of responding to expectations in pursuit of service quality. This means that the expectations act as a moderating variable in the relationship between service quality and satisfaction, employees and staffs need to deliver against expectations, no matter the level of those expectations. This could result in service quality levels being lowered for lower customer expectations, and the inability to generate a high level of customer satisfaction when expectations are very high. The satisfaction plays a major role in the determining the originality and accuracy of a system especially the educational system as higher the level of satisfaction the higher will be the level of students’ grooming their skill development, course knowledge and mentality. According to Zeithaml (1988) satisfaction is the resultant outcome of an institution’s administrative as well as educational system’s coherent performance. Because the students will be more satisfied and motivated for completing their studies if the institution provides an environment which facilitates learning i.e. the institution contains proper infrastructure for

educational utility accumulated with essential parameters of professional and academic development.

1.2 Academic Aspects The graduating students reported they agree that the instructors are highly educated in their respective fields, manifest awareness of modern educational trends, has the knowledge to answer my questions relating to the course content, deals with me in a courteous manner, show positive attitude towards students, and communicates well in the classrooms. Moreover, documentations and provision of feedback are provided adequately by the instructors, and they show sincerity in solving problems with the students. However, it is commonly noted among colleges that handouts are provided adequately by the instructor. Thus, the overall satisfaction of students are recorded as 3.57 (LC1), 3.64 (LC2), 3.83 (LC3) which resulted to the overall computed wx as 3.68, which means agree.

These findings are supported by the earlier researches on service quality in higher education which emphasized academic more than administration, concentrating on effective course delivery mechanisms and the quality of courses and teaching though the teaching staff or instructors (Cheng and Tam, 1997). However there are also an attempt to look upon the administrative side of higher institution which attempt to measure student perception of registration and academic advising across different faculties and other administrative services to assure positive quality service that compliments the academic. Some essential characteristics identified such as ‘knowledge and experience of academic staff, quality of lectures, relevance of course material and quality of seminars, show strong resemblance to the academic aspect of a student’s college experience. Thus, teachers’ ability, excellence, coordination and reasonability greatly influence students’ class performance. This means that the students are greatly influenced by the educational activities their teacher or instructor coordinates for them. The researcher believed that the instructors who teach with punctuality, accuracy, reasonability and logical approach in a student friendly manner are more popular and efficient to the students.

Because students level of satisfaction increases by working with those instructors and lecturers who properly handle the assignments, projects, exams and facilitate students’ logical reasoning and aptitude development.

1.3 Design, Delivery and Assessment The graduating students strongly agree that timing of the class is suitable to them.

While they simply agree that teaching methodology is appropriate, methods and strategies that are used contribute to the development of desirable values, varied methods and innovative approaches are used, adequate laboratory facilities are available for laboratory courses, curricula designed by the college are up to date, the assessment and the grading by the instructor are fair, the grading policy is made known to the students, and the evaluation activities measure the attainment of objectives stated in the syllabi. Thus, the overall satisfaction of students are recorded as 4.08 (LC1), 4.09 (LC2), 4.12 (LC3) which resulted to the overall computed wx as 4.09, which means agree.

The findings identified that the main factors that could affect the level of students’ satisfaction were students’ perception on learning and teaching process, support facilities for teaching and learning such as (libraries, computer and lab facilities), learning environment (rooms of lectures, laboratories, social space and university buildings), support facilities (health

facilities, refectories, student accommodation, student services) and external aspects of being a student (such as finance).

With all these capabilities, a local college will be able to meet student expectations and compete competitively. This only means that the perceived quality is defined as the ones’ justification about the excellence of a product or service.

The service quality is so called the better and standardized output delivered by a service through proper design, delivery and fair assessment. The service quality in the educational sector particularly in the higher educational institutions is the fundamental aspect of educational excellence. When students perceive the institution’s quality and standardized learning environment facilitated with intellectual faculty, appropriate facilities of learning and infrastructure, their interest in their organization will explicitly be retained. The students are motivated from the academic as well as the administrative efficiency of their institution. The organizational harmony, teachers’ intellectual ability, professional development, transparency in students’ evaluation, feedback and training are the important features that mentally develop the students.

Therefore, the maintenance of other essentials of quality service in education with a well-managed and updated libraries, security systems, facilities, class decoration and facilitation with multimedia and sitting arrangements along with administrative staff’s cooperation play a vital role in educational support and development. Thus, both academic and administrative issues of an institution are extremely important in determining the performance of students, development of organizational image and quality assurance.

1.4 Group Size The students strongly agree that small class size helps the class make more interactive.

Moreover, they strongly agree that a smaller the class size helps student better understand the lesson in class. In addition, the graduating students from theses local colleges simply agree relative to the level of their satisfaction on following items: the number of students’ enrollment in one class is small; the class size allows active participation of each student in a class discourse; he ratio of faculty members and students per field of specialization assures rich opportunities for interaction; the ratio of faculty members and students per field of specialization assures rich opportunities for discussion leadership; the ratio of faculty members and students per field of specialization assures rich opportunities for research presentations; the ratio of faculty members and students per field of specialization assures rich opportunities for individualized evaluation of students; the number of students per program allows active participation in co-curricular activities; and the number of students per program allows active participation in extra-curricular activities. Thus, the overall computed wx per college are 4.11 (LC1), 4.11 (LC2), and 4.15 (LC3). When taken as a whole, the overall satisfaction rating is relative to group size as dimension is 4.12. Navarro et al. (2005) mentioned that students evaluate the quality of organization on the basis of tangibility (teachers and student ratio), reliability and responsiveness (methods of teaching) and management of the institution and these factors have direct influence on the level of students’ satisfaction.

In other words, the availability of other academic factors like intellectual faculty, advisors, and sufficient number of faculty with appropriate educational qualification to facilitate student’s activities and academic needs are the features that an institution needs for its students’ better performance and satisfaction. The services quality is mostly recognized by the cooperation of the administrative staff well as the faculty staff with the students. Thus, majority of the students get de-motivated if they found that the staff is not adequate and compassionate

and kind. Thus, for quality assurance an institution must train its teaching staff members in a way that it may create a sense of facilitation by means of coordination, cooperation, compassion and empathy.

1.5 Program Issues The students are very positive as shown by their strong level of agreement on the orientation conducted to new and old students to the institutional philosophy-vision-mission and program objectives, and systematically arranged learning experiences that are interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. Moreover, they simply agree on the following items: the college runs excellent quality programs; the specific objectives of the program of study are attainable; the philosophy / vision-mission statement of the institution are printed in a catalogue or prospectus readily available for prospective students and other persons concerned; the specific objectives of the program of study are printed in a catalogue or prospectus readily available for prospective students and other persons concerned; the program of studies is consistent with national and international development goals; the college offers programs with flexible structure; the college offers a wide range of programs with various specializations; and the college operates an excellent counseling service.

Thus, the overall computed wx per college are 4.00 (LC1), 4.02 (LC2), and 4.05 (LC3).

When taken as a whole, the overall satisfaction rating is relative to group size as dimension is 4.03. The findings emphasized that the perception on service quality of higher learning by the students was relative to the following; quality program offerings, ability to create career opportunities, issues of the program, physical aspects, clear and precise philosophy including the vision, mission and program objectives, and others. Meanwhile, he ranked academic program reputation as first and later followed by program issues, physical aspects and choice influences. Similarly, Kuh and Hu (2001) posit that student success is defined broadly including academic achievement, engagement in educational activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, attainment of educational objectives, and excellent counseling service with highly structured but flexible program offerings.

1.6 Reputation They all agree that the college has a professional image and the academic program run by the college is reputable. Accordingly, they mentioned that the graduates are easily employable. Moreover, the performance rating in the national board examinations are above the national passing rate. The college’s philosophy/ vision-mission statement is geared towards internationalization. There are awards and certification from external agencies and are recognized by the community through its accreditation status or government recognition.

Moreover, they are satisfied that the college is managed by a group of officers and academic staff with appropriate educational qualification. Thus, the overall computed wx per college are 3.47 (LC1), 3.61 (LC2), and 4.10 (LC3). When taken as a whole, the overall satisfaction rating is relative to group size as dimension is 3.73.

Reputation is a factor of quality school, which is tied closely to management’s capacity to foster an organizational climate directed at serving the needs of its students and other stakeholders and to the image of the institutions. Students believed the college’s reputation is related to employability and that it influenced their future job prospects. The overriding purpose of attending college for many students is to increase the likelihood of securing a job after

graduation. Therefore, the students were in agreement that they wanted their college and degree classification to be recognized when applying for jobs upon completion of their degree.

One participant claimed that: “You could have an amazing time at a less reputable college, but sooner or later it all comes down to employability, and this is not going to work as well if the reputation of the college is not there.” Understanding the performance of different service quality characteristics is critical to enable college service management to understand how to improve service quality and reputation. Thus, the institutions need to continue to deliver a high quality service and satisfy students in order to succeed in a competitive service environment.

1.7 Access They strongly agree that the school offers scholarships and financial assistance to needy but qualified students, and the school’s tuition and other fees are affordable. The school is conveniently located to students. In addition, they agree on the following items: instructor allocates sufficient time for academic consultation; the administrators are always available for student’s academic-related needs; instructor is never too busy to respond to my request for assistance; the office staffs are easy to contact; the school’s information is accessible through printed or non-printed materials by prospective students and other persons concerned; the school accommodates international students; and the academic and student service offices are always open for students needs. Thus, the overall computed wx per college are 3.77 (LC1), 3.93 (LC2), and 4.12 (LC3). When taken as a whole, the overall satisfaction rating is relative to group size as dimension is 3.94.

Regarding the analysis of the quality access to non-academic service quality perceptions, the dimensions of tangibles and empathy were found to be statistically significant in predicting overall student satisfaction. This study significantly links perceptions of access to service quality to student satisfaction. Moreover, information about educational program must be kept available. Student accessibility to information about the contents and operation of the educational program for the service must be displayed at the education and service premises at a place accessible to parents of children being educated and cared for by the service; and a copy of the educational program must be available at the college’s premises.

2. Overall Satisfaction of Respondents among Local Colleges The graduating students from local college 1 are satisfied as to their level of agreement with a computed wx of 3.89, while 3.94 for local college 2 and 4.10 for local college 3. The overall satisfaction rating is 3.97, which means agree. Thus, the graduating students from theses local colleges are satisfied relative to the services offered by their respective colleges. A definition of quality revolves around the idea that quality has to be judged on the assessment of the students as user or consumer of the service. The construct of quality as conceptualized in the services literature is based on the perceived quality. Perceived quality is defined as the consumer’s judgment about an entity’s overall experience or superiority. Similarly, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1990) also concluded that student’ perceptions of service quality result from comparing expectations prior to receiving the service, and their actual experience of the service. Perceived quality is also seen as a form of attitude, related to, but not the same as satisfaction, and resulting from a comparison of expectations with perceptions of performance. Therefore, perceived service quality could be the product of the evaluations of a number of service encounters and in this case, of a student, these could range from encounters with administrators, office staff, to encounters with instructors, lecturers, the head

of departments, etc…As a result, if an organization regularly provides service at a level that exceeds customer expectations, the service will be evaluated as high quality. In contrast, if a college fails to meet student’s expectations, the service will be judge as poor quality.

3. Significant Variations on the Perceived Service Quality Across Local Colleges No significant variations are found relative to the degree of satisfaction of graduating students across local colleges relative to various dimensions of service quality such as nonacademic aspects, academic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, and access. However, significant variations are in relations to reputation as dimension of quality. These results can be traced back from the previous results where graduating students from LC3 gave the highest satisfaction rating relative to reputation. Thus, performance measurement of service quality at higher learning institutions is strongly embedded to the matching between students’ expectation and their experience of a particular service. Generally, students evaluate and judge the service quality to be satisfactory by comparing what they want or expect against what they are really getting. The researcher believed that the behaviors and attitudes of students as consumers of services contact internal stakeholders primarily determine the perceptions of the service quality provided. This means, human interaction element is essential to determine whether students consider service delivered satisfactory or not. Apart from that, higher learning institutions need to have appropriate infrastructure too such as administration and academic aspects, quality of instruction through qualified instructors, school reputation, accessibility of the delivery of services, well-managed class size, clear vision and mission statement as well as programs goals and objectives.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Determining and assessing students’ satisfaction with their educational experiences is not easy, but can be very helpful for the college to build strong relationship with their existing and potential students. The results indicated that both groups of students have strong relationship with depending variable and indicators of service quality. Furthermore, the results of the study declared that the areas of the college’s services quality that attain the requirements and needs of students and their expectations have better potential to build strong relationship with student satisfaction. The results also indicate that generally graduating students are satisfied with the service quality performed by the local colleges such as nonacademic aspects, academic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, reputation, and access. In other words, local colleges have successfully implemented their strategic improvement service quality. It is important information to build market positive perception on local colleges in serving its customers. It will leverage customers’ intention and brand awareness of local colleges’ quality, especially for local students. It is one of the main parts of Philippine Higher Education’s strategic platform, which is to attract as many students as possible to study and take post-secondary degree. Therefore, it is important for higher learning institutions especially local colleges to work continuously towards ensuring that the service provided can really meet or exceed the expectation of students. For those are able to do it, will have the advantage to be more competitive and resilient.

The graduating students from various local colleges were satisfied on various dimensions such as non-academic aspects, academic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, reputation and access. Local college 3 got the highest rating in terms of reputation due to its accreditation status by external accrediting agency aside from

government recognition by the Commission on Higher education. There were no significant variations found in relation to the degree of satisfaction of graduating students across local colleges relative to various dimensions of service quality such as non-academic aspects, academic aspects, design, delivery and assessment, group size, program issues, and access.

However, significant variations were in relations to reputation as dimension of quality. It is important for higher learning institutions especially local colleges to work continuously towards ensuring that the service provided can really meet or exceed the expectation of students. For those are able to do it, will have the advantage to be more competitive and resilient. It is not about big or small but speed. Small higher learning institutions, which can make quick and better decision, have better potential to increase their market share. By doing so, higher learning institutions from Philippines can become a major force in the industry at both Philippines and ASEAN market.

The administrative staff of local colleges should communicate and treat well and be sensitive to of students. They should keep students’ records accurately and have faster retrieval upon request by the students to further improve the non-academic aspect for service quality.

Instructional handouts should be provided adequately by the instructor to the students, and provision of adequate laboratory facilities should be explored and made available for laboratory courses. The ratio of faculty members and students per field of specialization should be reviewed to further enrich opportunities for interaction. The specific objectives of the program of study should be printed in a catalogue or prospectus readily available for prospective students and other persons concerned. Moreover, the college should maintain an excellent counseling service to students to further improve issues related to program. The administration of local colleges should revisit their philosophy/vision-mission statement towards internationalization. They should likewise increase the number of awards and certification from external agencies to boost the reputation of the school. To further improve access to service quality, the instructor should allocate sufficient time for academic consultation. Moreover, the school should explore accommodating international students.

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