Factors affecting the improvement of service quality at Universities of Technology: the case of South Africa

Abstract

Several research studies have been conducted on the evaluation of service quality at conventional universities. However, this study focuses on universities of technology which are fast growing value-based educational institutions in South Africa. The uniqueness of this study highlights the issues that can affect the improvement of service at universities of technology. Three factors namely: Organizational issues, Educational issues and Staff &Student issues were extracted as the main foci in the improvement of service at universities of technology. A mixed method methodology and an action research approach were employed in this study. The results obtained using factor analysis provides a basis for driving an equation system for evaluating the impact of the issues with respect to the factors named above. The results also show that some extraneous factors that are external to service delivery, have a substantial effect on the quality of service at universities of technology.