Evaluating the quality of educational services and satisfaction of engineering students based on Servqual model and artificial neural network (Case study: Faculty of Engineering, Sistan and Baluchestan University

Quality of service delivery is an important factor in customer satisfaction. Based on this, recognizing the perceptions and expectations of service recipients is considered as a factor in improving the quality from the customer's point of view. This study aims to assess the quality and determine the gap between students 'expectations and perceptions of educational services and students' satisfaction prediction to compare the perceptual models and expectations of students about educational services. This is a descriptive-exploratory study. The statistical population of this study included all students studying at the Faculty of Engineering in the first semester of 2016- 2017. Since the study of all the statistical society was not possible, 313 students were selected using a systematic random sampling method and a standard questionnaire was given to them. The questionnaire was designed in 25 pairs of design questions and input and output data in three different models of perceptions and expectations, perceptions, and gaps in the artificial neural network. The results showed that artificial neural networks were able to predict the quality of service quality estimation using the collected data of the perceptual model with less error and more accuracy than the other two models. Also, the most important variables in the quality of educational services, the presentation of the materials in a comprehensible manner, the suitability of the time of classes, the holding of special training courses in each discipline, the faculty flexibility in dealing with student conditions, and the holding of camps and extra-curricular training programs determined.