CONTRIBUTION OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS TOWARDS STUDENTS’ SATISFACTION: A HIGHER INSTITUTION CONTEXT

ABSTRACT
Universities strive hard to deliver good services to their clients or stakeholders. One of the important stakeholders in
university levels is students, where their satisfaction contributes to the sustainability of the services, loyalty and
retention. This is because they are the first and final beneficiaries of the services provided by universities. The current
paper examines the relationship between five service quality dimensions and customer satisfactions among students’ in
a major higher institution in Somalia, which is based in the capital city of Mogadishu. Using a sample of 353 students
from a higher education institution in Mogadishu, Somalia, the current study is based on the service quality framework
and intends to gauge the impact of service quality dimensions on the students’ satisfaction with the services provided by
the university. The results was analyzed with SmartPLS 3 using bootstrapping to determine the level of significance of
the paths. The results of PLS suggested that tangibility dimension (β=0.308, p<0.001) had the highest contribution
towards students’ satisfaction, followed by assurance dimension (β=0.203, p<0.001) and empathy (β=0.160, p<0.05). In
addition, reliability dimension has significant contribution towards students’ satisfaction level (β=0.149, p<0.05);
however, responsiveness (β=0.145, p<0.05) was least contributor towards students’ satisfaction. When aggregated thesedimensions as one construct called service quality, it has been found that this construct had significant impact on
students’ satisfaction with the services (β=0.733, p<0.001). Finally, implications of the study are further explained.