Education Service Quality and Management Practices at Universities of Pakistan: Perspectives of Service Delivery Staff

Abstract

Since the last few decades, the trend of service and marketing in higher education is self-evident. Universities are viewed as markets and students as customers. This research aims to explore education service quality (ESQ) at universities of Pakistan. Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan having 60 universities. The study is delimited to 29 general public universities of Punjab. Six universities were randomly selected i.e. – University of the Punjab, Government College University Lahore, Islamia University Bahawalpur, University of Sargodha, University of Gujrat, and Government College University Faisalabad. The research relied on the perception of 33 service delivery staff of these universities. A semi-structured interview schedule mainly based on the HEdPERF model (Abdullah 2006) was used, which included six indicators – admissions, academic aspect, non-academic aspects, reputation, access, and program issues. Interviews were transcribed for thematic analysis. It was found that overall ESQ for all six indicators was perceived to be poor and non-academic services were reported to be in a very discouraging state; however, admissions services were found comparatively better. The study recommends that ESQ should be improved by continuously assessing students’ needs and observing trends and demands operative in the contemporary higher education scenario.