Factors affecting Student Satisfaction and Performance Gap in relation to the model of Strategic Enrolment, Graduation and Articulation (SEGA): the case of Self-financing Higher Education in Hong Kong

In respond to the 2001 Policy Address of the HKSAR Government, the number of places for post-secondary graduates has increased drastically from 33% in 2001 to 66% in 2013; however, the children population decreased from 17% in 2001 to 12% in 2013. In order to face the foreseeable challenge of surplus supply in self-financing tertiary education sector, understanding tertiary students' expectation and satisfaction is important to education policy makers as well as senior management in the course of developing quality education strategies. This paper attempts to examine the performance gap of self-financing institutions in Hong Kong by comparing the perceived importance and satisfaction levels of students studying at sub-degree and undergraduate degree levels with a focus on SEGA issues. The study also identifies aspects that are more important in influencing student satisfaction in relation to the SEGA model in the areas of "enrolment", "graduation" and "articulation". It is found that the attributes of (1) articulation, (2) career services, (3) financial aid (4) programme design and (5) academic advising have strong impacts on students' perceived importance at both sub-degree and degree levels. However, large performance gaps are concurrently found in these five aspects, reflecting high student dissatisfaction in the important SEGA attributes. The results suggest that specific strategies with reference to the SEGA model should be adopted to improve the satisfaction level of students on the influential attributes of their educational experiences