Student Perception Towards Service Quality at Department of Academic Affairs

Delivering quality of service has become an important aspect in service marketing. Customer satisfaction is depending to the quality of service they received from service provider. In Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Department of Academic Affairs is the department that manages and organizes all the academic activities. This study attempt to investigate students* perception towards quality of service provided by this department. Study was conducted using SERVQUAL instrument introduced by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988). Service quality was measured across the five dimensions namely tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Finding from this study shown that there are discrepancies between student expectations and perception of service quality of this department. Regression test show that the variances in the service quality were influence by the five dimensions and tangible become the most important determinants. Examination and Graduation Unit is the unit that identified that has problem in term of service quality. As overall, perception towards service quality is not influence by gender or year of study. However, the study also shown that students feel that the staffs do not treat them properly. This study also suggest the Department of Academic Affairs should conduct the survey every year to evaluate its performance and to get better understanding about their customer expectations. Staffs should undergo training session to improve their skills to do their works and to make a decision