DELIVERY AND PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION OF THE BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN SOCIAL SCIENCES OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA - ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY

U. VIDANAPATHIRANA

N. MORAIS

S. DORABAWILA

Abstract

The Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences is one of the undergraduate degrees offered by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Open University. This study evaluates how student profiles impinge on student expectations and their perceptions pertaining to quality of services offered by the faculty. The study is based on the premise that distance students are mature adults who self finance their educational pursuits and whose expectations in relation to service quality are different from those of conventional university students. The study reveals that profiles of adult students significantly impact on their expectations and that in the case of the BA in Social Sciences, the faculty has been successful in exceeding student expectations with respect to quite a number of priority areas of services. Based on the findings of the study a few recommendations are presented for implementation.

INTRODUCTION

Management of quality emerged as one of the central themes of university education in the last decade (Stiles, 1992; Kells, 1992). The decline in public confidence in higher educational institutions on the one hand and the gradual decrease in budgetary appropriations in many countries, on the other, contributed to this pressure for revival of quality (Burkhalter & Muse, 1995; James, 1995). Yet, much of the emphasis was on quality assurance through academic accreditation aimed at ensuring the recognition of educational qualifications both nationally and internationally. 1 For instance, the Association of Commonwealth Universities launched the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education with a view to attain this objective. The voice of the student was rarely accommodated in most of these discussions and hence there was very little concern about student expectations and student perceptions of the quality of the services offered. 2 Service quality deals with living up to and exceeding customer expectations by way of providing high quality services.

The issue of service quality is particularly important in the context of distance education where the students play multiple roles as the products, inputs, customers, financiers and the ultimate beneficiaries (Clare, 1994). 3 Two batches of students completed this program in 1999 and 2000. These students studied Economics, Mass Communication and Sociology This paper attempts to assess service quality of the BA degree program in social sciences, in terms of its ability to live up to and exceed student expectations in both, the delivery of the program and its administration. 4 "Worker" refers to all actors in the customer supply chain and, in the context of distance education this covers academic staff members, direct support staff and staff members providing auxiliary services as well

OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER

The principal objective of this paper is to examine the level of service quality of the BA degree program administered by the department of social studies. The supplementary objectives of the paper includes 1) identification of student characteristics which have a strong influence on student expectations pertaining to service quality, 2) establishing benchmark expectations of students, and 3) evaluating performance of the study programs in relation to the identified benchmark expectations.

The paper is divided into three parts. Part one reviews existing literature on service quality pertaining to university education in particular with a view to providing the conceptual framework of the study. Part two presents the findings of the study while part three discusses the above findings in relation to the conceptual framework in order to ascertain how the quality of the degree program could be improved and to help identify future research priorities.

PART I

The emergence of education as a service industry can be traced back to the past decade, which enabled open discussion by academics, educational planners and researchers on issues pertaining to customer satisfaction (Geddes, 1993). In such discussions university staff was led to believe that they belong to a customer/supplier chain of relationships, in which the "worker" is a supplier who should aim at meeting customer expectations as fully as possible. 5 The majority of the OUSL students are employed adults who pay for their education. The question then shifted to the identification of the customer in university education.

However, more recent literature has attempted to portray the student as the main customer, as far as university education is concerned (Brannigan et al, 1992; Clare, 1994). University students, in fact, are customers because of their capacity to influence the programme mix by way of choosing relevant courses and rejecting others, which fail to make acceptable service quality standards. This is more so when they are called upon to pay for higher education.

Another important reason for this argument is that in learner-centered education the needs of the learner constitute the basis of all activities and hence the student is at the center as the final customer (Garvin, 1991). This description is particularly apt in respect of the students following the BA degree in social sciences at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

It is in this broad framework that the role of the student as the customer became important in the discussions on quality. Initially, these discussions were based on student opinion surveys to identify shortfalls in the quality of teaching, in library facilities and other services provided by the universities (Clare, 1994). The coverage of quality issues in university education today is in fact centered round a number of questions, i.e., who is the customer, what are his expectations, how can the university satisfy them, how do students perceive and rate University services, and how do these ratings affect University policies. The answers to these questions highlight the importance of customer satisfaction, which has become one of the all-important activities in the quality improvement programs of universities.

In this context 'quality' encompasses a wider meaning of 'delighting the customer' (Kotler, 1998). This can only be achieved by ascertaining customers' quality goals and by 'exceeding' them in the endeavor to provide the best of what matters the most (Kanji & Kondo, 1988). Quality therefore is a drive to be best at what matters most to customers, which in other words means continuous improvement of products and services.

The identification of customer expectations and improving service quality of the BA degree program therefore should involve three logical steps.

•an attempt to identify the salient characteristics of the student community, because they have a bearing on customer expectations. Accordingly the building of student profiles and classifying students into groups are important steps in this direction.

•identification of benchmark expectations with respect to service quality.

•customer ranking of performance should be compared with benchmark expectations to identify possible gaps.

Figure 1 below sets out how these steps are related in terms of key concepts and processes.

The model developed by the authors described how student characteristics could be used to develop classifications of students into typologies (groups). It is postulated that benchmark expectations of students vary depending on their characteristics that result in broad types of classifications into groups.

Three major types of characteristics pertaining to personal data, educational and employment data, place of residence, medium of study, and other features peculiar to the university itself have been used by a number of researchers to ascertain student profiles (Jayatilleka et al, 1997; Woodley et al, 1992; Gamaathige & Dissanayake, 1999). For this study, researchers collected additional details on schools attended, proficiency in English, occupational status, marital status, income levels and purpose of enrollment into the program.

This was done because it was postulated that a student with a middle class family background, resident in Colombo, with good educational qualifications and language competency had different expectations from another student who was from a radically different social and economic background.

The authors believed that benchmarking provides important pointers to future directions of quality for any institution. However, benchmark expectations change with time, changes in the socioeconomic environment, and with competitors' responses to changing environment (Zairi & Leonard, 1994).

As students compare their expectations with actual performance, service quality levels could lead to a combination of positive or negative gaps between expectations and performance. Parasuraman has identified five types of gaps between customer expectations and the perceived performance (Parasuraman et al, 1985). When performance fails to meet benchmark expectations negative gaps occur, which can cause frustration. Conversely, positive gaps occur when performance exceeds benchmark expectations and these give rise to customer delight.

The association between customer characteristics and the benchmark expectations of students is found to be very strong. The benchmark expectations are the central quality concerns of the customers. Studies done elsewhere have identified bundles of "benchmark quality attributes" that include access, completeness, responsiveness, communication, courtesy, empathy, and reliability. (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991).

This paper reclassified the above "generic attributes" under five major categories of activities performed by the University. They included, a) day school interactions, b), presentation of study materials, c) assessment and feedback mechanisms, d) internal coordination, and e) the effectiveness of services provided by the other auxiliary departments such as student affairs, and regional services.

For each of the five generic attributes, four statements of expectations were developed. They are given in Table I. A corresponding set of statements was developed setting out performance levels so that the students could indicate their ratings. The students were required to rate each of them on a four-point scale ranging from very good to very poor.

The benchmark expectations identified for the study are given in Table 1 below.

Methodology

A six-paged questionnaire was administered among the first year (level III) students of the BA program, which consisted of a population of eighty-seven students. The questionnaire contained three parts. Part I covered background information necessary to identify student characteristics. Part II consisted of information on student expectations under the five broad groups of benchmarks (See Table I). Part III contained a set of questions to assess program delivery and administration quality of work in the eyes of the students. This was based on a set of positive statements, which the students were supposed to rank in the order of importance. (See Table II)

However, only thirty returns (34%) were in usable form. 6. The questionnaire was posted to the entire population of 87registered students at level III. Many students did not return the questionnaire despite numerous reminders. Of the returns only 30 were complete and in usable form Data so gathered was supplemented, with other information collected through discussions with the students who attended day schools, and teachers and the coordinators of the program.

PART II

Characteristics of students

The average age of students surveyed was 37 years and 9 months with a median of 38 years and a standard deviation of 13 years and 2 months. It was seen that on the average the BA degree program caters to a student population of mature-adults. However, the age distribution of students was relatively skewed towards youth in the twenties with a skewed statistic of 0.466 and a standard error of 0.427. The high standard deviation of 13 years showed that this programme catered to a heterogeneous group of students.

Of the students surveyed, about 57 per cent were married; with an average family size of 3.2 members. As many as 65 per cent of the students were employed at the time of the survey, and many of them were found to be holding managerial or supervisory positions in the public, private or non-governmental sectors.
The place of residence of students showed that about 63 per ecnt were from Colombo while 17% were from Gampaha, 13%, from Kandy, and 7% Matara. About 60 percent of the students have had their pre university education in 1AB category of schools. 7. The list of reputed schools includes Anula Vidyalaya, Holy Family Convent, Ladies College, St. Bridget Convent, methodist College, St. Clare's and Ananda Balika. The fairly known schools include Vidyarthe, St. Xavier's, Sujatha, St. Benedicts, and Yasodara Balika Most of the students were exempted (53%) from following additional English courses while others (47%) were following part two and part one of the English for Social Sciences course.
The significance of these characteristics could be viewed in two contexts. First, the majority of the students who were in the first year of the BA degree program had a middle class urban outlook. Second, these students were very different from those following the first and second years of the Foundation Program, which is one of the main entry routes to the degree program. For instance students who enrolled in the Foundation Program in the first three years, according to Gamaathige and others, were largely rural based in terms of residence (60%) and their medium of study was Sinhala (76%)(Gamaathige & Dissanayake, 1999; Jayatileke et. al, 1997). One reason for this difference could have been the direct recruitment of students with other qualifications for the academic year 1999/2000.

It was found that the age of students had an important bearing on student characteristics. For instance, age affects occupational and civil status, positions held, income levels, family size, stage of family life cycle, and expectations of students. Therefore it was thought that student typologies based on age distribution and average age data could provide some useful insights into student profiles and resultant expectations. This exercise yielded three discernible student groups as follows.
