The Perceptions of Students toward the Quality of Educational Services at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Based on the SERVQUAL Model during the Academic Year 2017-2018

Higher education is an important institution providing education and human resources, which requires special attention in terms of the quality of services if it is to be preserved. The present study aimed to assess the perceptions of students toward the quality of educational services at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS), Iran during the academic year 2017-2018.

This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 477 students, who were selected randomly using the Krejcie-Morgan table for the estimation of sample size and stratified-proportional sampling from the students of six schools at ZAUMS. Data were collected using the adjusted standardized questionnaire for the quality of educational services (SERVQUAL) model. The questionnaire consisted of two sections, including demographic data and quality assessment of educational services based on the SERVQUAL model. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 21 using descriptive and analytical statistics, such as independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The assessment of the perceptions of the students toward the quality of university services indicated that 11.2%, 87%, and 1.8% of the students considered the service quality to be poor, average, and favorable, respectively. However, the quality assessment of the educational services based on gender, marital status, age, type of accommodation, and schools indicated no statistically significant correlations (P>0.05). The difference observed in the average scores of the quality assessment obtained by the native students was considered statistically significant (P=0.004).

According to the results, the students considered the quality of the current educational services at ZAUMS to be average. Therefore, the authorities must implement efficient plans in order to improve the quality of educational services.