Student's expectations of service quality in tertiary education : a comparison between prospective and current students

The competition for quality students in a highly competitive environment between newly formed tertiary institutions necessitates the employment of managerial techniques to improve the efficiency and quality of their provisions. By examining the factors that influence the buying decisions of prospective and existing students, the most important service quality variables are determined to enable an institution to attract quality prospective students and reduce dropout rates. The overall objective of the article is to determine the most important service quality variables for predegree and degree students when deciding on an educational institution. The most important identified factors that influenced buying decisions among prospective and existing students, in order of importance, were security on campus, computer and library facilities, academic reputation of the institution and reasonable class fees. .