Assessment of service quality and student perception in public universities: the case of Addis Ababa University
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the satisfaction of the PhD students’ with the quality of services provided by Addis Ababa University. To this end, descriptive survey design in which both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed was used. Accordingly, the numbers of participants in the study were 443 PhD students of which 408 were male and 35 female, 9 associate deans from 9 colleges and 6 associate directors from 6 institutes which have enrolled PhD students in their programs currently and one director from the Office of Graduate Programs. In the process of selection of samples, 20% the PhD students from the total population 2215 were selected as samples by using stratified sampling method. On the other hand, purposive sampling was used to select associate deans and director for graduate program because they are the most appropriate persons to give data since they coordinate the programs. The instruments employed for data collection were questionnaire that had both open ended and closed ended questions and semi-structural interview. The quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using descriptive statistics frequency counting and percentage. The data gathered through open ended questions of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were analyzed qualitatively through narrations to support the results obtained from quantitative analysis. The major findings of the study indicated that the PhD students’ satisfaction is positively perceived by the PhD especially in the dimensions of advising with a mean result of 73.5, teaching quality with a mean result of 55.1 and facilities with a mean result of 45.6. The findings from the qualitative data also revealed that the PhD students are not satisfied in the other domains of the study for the fact that they complained about the poor administrative services, long bureaucracy of the financing system, lack of well-organized plan, small research fund they are provided in the university. In addition, long time taken for graduation, insufficient time allotment for their own studies and lack of proper discussion time with faulty staff are the other factors stated as causes of their dissatisfaction. Thus, the study provided recommendations to improve the condition thereby to boost the satisfaction of the PhD students in the services provided to them.
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Assessment of service quality, and student perception in public