Service Quality Gap Analysis: Measuring Students’ satisfaction in the tertiary education sector of Bangladesh

Private universities in Bangladesh are shifting their focus towards student expectation and satisfaction, competition, and the realities of today’s dynamic business environment. The quest for competitive advantage demands a comprehensive evaluation of educational service quality to provide appropriate feedback on the effectiveness of current state of the service delivery. Despite the importance of measuring service quality in higher education sector, very limited empirical research efforts have focused on the tertiary education sector of Bangladesh. This research is an effort to gain insight into the expectations and perceptions of Bangladeshi private university students. The study used service quality model (SERVQUAL) to investigate undergraduate and graduate students’ perceptions of service quality in the tertiary education sector. A sample of 224 private university students participated in this study. The findings showed that responsive, knowledgeable and caring services are the most important attributes in regards to student/client expectations. Tangible dimensions were found to be less important to students’ assessment of service quality. The study also found that private universities of Bangladesh did not fare well in performing the promised service dependably and accurately.