Education Service Quality, Value and Satisfaction on Student Customer Intentions and Behaviour

Traditional avenues of accreditation, module review and teaching evaluations are not the only ways to assess education service quality and related issues. In order to evaluate the education service provided by a private university in Ireland, this investigation utilized an extension of Cronin, Brady and Hult’s (2000) model examining the effects of quality, value and customer satisfaction on customer intentions and behaviour. The model predicts that positive perceptions of quality, value and satisfaction in relation to the education service encounter will lead to positive word of mouth, and future intention to use the service again. The Arts undergraduate student sample size was 260. The perception of a high price for the education service provided did not translate to high service value, and service quality was only shown to have an indirect effect on satisfaction, word of mouth behaviour and intentions to return to the university. Despite a slight majority stating that the service quality was above average, and the majority stating they were satisfied overall, only a minority indicated that they would use the service again. The underlying reasons for and implications from these findings and others are discussed.