Student Learning Experiences in Higher Education: Investigating a Quantity Surveying Programme in Malaysia
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in fostering quality education. This paper examines the attributes that influence student learning experiences in a quantity surveying (QS) programme in a Malaysian private HEI and uncovers the underlying factors involved. The significance of these attributes as recognised by the students, obtained through a questionnaire survey, are subsequently presented. The findings reveal that the five most important attributes are closely related to the lecturer, namely the lecturer’s preparedness, responsiveness, interpersonal and communication skills, clarity and academic experiences. An exploratory factor analysis identifies the five major underlying factors to be the quality of academic learning to relate to professionalism and competency of lecturers, quality of academic services and support facilities, interpersonal connections and external considerations, curriculum structure and physical environment and facilities. Understanding these factors could help HEIs to devise effective strategies to enhance the quality of service and programme in higher education, which can result in a greater impact on the effectiveness of contemporary QS education and the reputation of the HEI as well as fostering student satisfaction and loyalty.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.
References
Al-Sheeb, B., Hamouda, A. M., and Abdella, G. M. (2018). “Investigating determinants of student satisfaction in the first year of college in a public university in the state of Qatar.” Education Research International, 2018, 7194106.
Amos, P. I., and Hassan, Z. (2017). “Quality of teaching and its influence on student satisfaction and intention to continue with institution.” International Journal of Education, Learning and Training, 2(1), 1–11.
Arambewela, R., and Hall, J. (2013). “The interactional effects of the internal and external university environment, and the influence of personal values, on satisfaction among international postgraduate students.” Studies in Higher Education, 38(7), 972–988.
Arrieta, M. del C., and Avolio, B. (2020). “Factors of higher education quality service: the case of a Peruvian university.” Quality Assurance in Education, Latest article, DOI: 10.1108/QAE-03-2020-0037.
Ashraf, M. A., Osman, A. Z. R., and Ratan, S. R. A. (2016). “Determinants of quality education in private universities from student perspectives: A case study in Bangladesh.” Quality Assurance in Education, 24(1), 123–138.
Balakrishnan, B., and Low, F. S. (2016). “Learning experience and socio-cultural influences on female engineering students’ perspectives on engineering courses and careers.” Minerva, 54(2), 219–239.
Bell, A. R., and Brooks, C. (2018). “What makes students satisfied? A discussion and analysis of the UK’s national student survey.” Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42(8), 1118–1142.
Butt, B. Z., and Rehman, K. U. (2010). “A study examining the students satisfaction in higher education.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 5446–5450.
Chandra, T., Ng, M., Chandra, S., and Priyono. (2018). “The effect of service quality on student satisfaction and student loyalty: An empirical study.” Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 9(3), 109–131.
Dada, J. O., and Jagboro, G. O. (2012). “Core skills requirement and competencies expected of quantity surveyors: Perspectives from quantity surveyors, allied professionals and clients in Nigeria.” Construction Economics and Building, 12(4), 78–90.
Dada, J. O., and Jagboro, G. O. (2018). “A framework for assessing quantity surveyors’ competence.” Benchmarking, 25(7), 2390–2403.
Dargusch, J., Persaud, N., and Horsley, M. (2011). “Judging the quality of educational materials – a research project on student voice.” IARTEM e-Journal, 4(2), 45–62.
Douglas, D., and Gifford, R. (2001). “Evaluation of the physical classroom by students and professors: A lens model approach.” Educational Research, 43(3), 295–309.
Elliott, K. M., and Healy, M. A. (2001). “Key factors influencing student satisfaction related to recruitment and retention.” Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 10(4), 1–11.
Farahmandian, S., Minavand, H., and Afshardost, M. (2013). “Perceived service quality and student satisfaction in higher education.” Journal of Business and Management, 12(4), 65–74.
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics. Sage Publications, Inc., London.
Ghazal, S., Al-Samarraie, H., and Aldowah, H. (2018). “‘I am still learning’: Modeling LMS critical success factors for promoting students’ experience and satisfaction in a blended learning environment.” IEEE Access, 6, 77179–77201.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., and Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis. Cengage Learning, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
Han, H., Kiatkawsin, K., Kim, W., and Hong, J. H. (2018). “Physical classroom environment and student satisfaction with courses.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(1), 110–125.
Harvey, L., and Askling, B. (2003). “Quality in higher education.” The Dialogue between Higher Education Research and Practice, Springer, Dordrecht.
Hossain, M. A., Hossain, M. M., and Chowdhury, T. H. (2018). “Understanding the success of private universities: an empirical investigation from graduates ’ perspective.” International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 35(1), 145–162.
Jereb, E., Jerebic, J., and Urh, M. (2018). “Revising the importance of factors pertaining to student satisfaction in higher education.” Journal of Management, Informatics and Human Resources, 51(4), 271–285.
Kärnä, S., and Julin, P. (2015). “A framework for measuring student and staff satisfaction with university campus facilities.” Quality Assurance in Education, 23(1), 47–66.
Latif, K. F., Latif, I., Farooq Sahibzada, U., and Ullah, M. (2019). “In search of quality: measuring Higher Education Service Quality (HiEduQual).” Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 30(7–8), 768–791.
Letcher, D., and Neves, J. (2010). “Determinants of undergraduate business student satisfaction.” Research in Higher Education Journal, 6, 1–26.
Lim, S. Y. J., and Vighnarajah. (2018). “Influence of studentisolation on students’ university learning experiences: Perspectives of academic, social and psychological development.” SHS Web of Conferences, 53, 05005.
Manzoor, H. (2013). “Measuring student satisfaction in public and private universities in Pakistan.” Global Journal of Management and Business Research Interdisciplinary, 13(3), 5–15.
Martín, P. A. (2019). “Student perceptions of a good university lecturer.” Educacao e Pesquisa, 45(July), e196029.
Martirosyan, N. (2015). “An examination of factors contributing to student satisfaction in Armenian higher education.” International Journal of Educational Management, 29(2), 177–191.
Martirosyan, N. M., Saxon, D. P., and Wanjohi, R. (2014). “Student satisfaction and academic performance in Armenian higher education.” American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 4(2), 1–5.
Ng, C. G. (2018). “The impact of lecturers’ competencies on students’ satisfaction.” Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 1(2), 74–86.
Olmos-Gómez, M. del C., Suárez, M. L., Ferrara, C., and Olmedo-Moreno, E. M. (2020). “Quality of higher education through the pursuit of satisfaction with a focus on sustainability.” Sustainability, 12(6), 1–20.
Pedro, E., Mendes, L., and Lourenço, L. (2018). “Perceived service quality and students’ satisfaction in higher education: The influence of teaching methods.” International Journal for Quality Research, 12(1), 165–192.
Pescaru, T.-G. (2017). “Analysis of the main factors influencing student satisfaction towards the university environment.” Journal of Educational Sciences & Psychology, 7(1), 40–50.
Rae, K., and Sands, J. (2013). “Using classroom layout to help reduce students’ apprehension and increase communication.” Accounting Education, 22(5), 489–491.
Ravindran, S. D., and Kalpana, M. (2012). “Student’s expectation, perception and satisfaction towards the management educational institutions.” Procedia Economics and Finance, 2, 401–410.
RICS. (2018). Pathway guide: Quantity surveying and construction. London, UK.
Schindler, L., Puls-Elvidge, S., Welzant, H., and Crawford, L. (2015). “Definitions of quality in higher education: A synthesis of the literature.” Higher Learning Research Communications, 5(3), 3–13.
Schuck, S., Gordon, S., and Buchanan, J. (2008). “What are we missing here? Problematising wisdoms on teaching quality professionalism in higher education.” Teaching in Higher Education, 13(5), 537–547.
Shahsavar, T., and Sudzina, F. (2017). “Student satisfaction and loyalty in Denmark: Application of EPSI methodology.” PLoS ONE, 12(12), 1–18.
Siming, L., Gao, J., and Xu, D. (2015). “Factors leading to students ’ satisfaction in the higher learning institutions.” Journal of Education and Practice, 6(31), 114–118.
Spooren, P., Mortelmans, D., and Christiaens, W. (2014). “Assessing the validity and reliability of a quick scan for student’s evaluation of teaching. Results from confirmatory factor analysis and G Theory.” Studies in Educational Evaluation, 43(December), 88–94.
Susanto, R. (2019). “Lecturers’ professionalism in shaping students’ perceptions and commitments.” Journal of Education Research and Evaluation, 3(1), 25–38.
Tan, A. H. T., Muskat, B., and Zehrer, A. (2016). “A systematic review of quality of student experience in higher education.” International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 8(2), 209–228.
Tsinidou, M., Gerogiannis, V., and Fitsilis, P. (2010). “Evaluation of the factors that determine quality in higher education: An empirical study.” Quality Assurance in Education, 18(3), 227–244.
Vela, J. C., Ikonomopoulos, J., Hinojosa, K., Gonzalez, S. L., Duque, O., and Calvillo, M. (2016). “The impact of individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors on latina/o college students’ life satisfaction.” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 15(3), 260–276.
Weerasinghe, S., and Fernando, R. L. . (2017). “Students’ satisfaction in higher education literature review.” American Journal of Educational Research, 5(5), 533–539.
Yusoff, M., McLeay, F., and Woodruffe-Burton, H. (2015). “Dimensions driving business student satisfaction in higher education.” Quality Assurance in Education, 23(1), 86–104.