Factors Affecting Student Satisfaction At Arab Open University Jeddah

Factors affecting student satisfaction

Arab Open University is the most well-known academic institution having nine branches. The students expect high-quality services from the institution and therefore an analysis has been done on the branch Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to critically evaluate the factors which can affect the expectations of the students (Ibrahim and van der Heijden 2019). On this basis, the branch can update its services further and serve the needs of the students in a better way.

It is very much evident from the studies and practices in the business world that customers have certain expectations when they arrive for receiving services from the companies (Husnayani et al 2021). These expectations change over the time with the change in market trends and the preferences of the customers. In case of the Arab Open University for the branch Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, the students arrive to study at the institute with certain expectations and services to receive from the organization.

The Zone of Tolerance represents various services and their performances which the customers consider to be satisfactory in nature. This process helps the companies in recognizing their abilities in managing the dissatisfaction and satisfaction of the customers through the transactions (Aldiansyah 2020). The tolerance zone represents the difference between the desired services and the level of minimum acceptable service offered to the customers. Acceptable service indicates lower level of service while the desired service represents high level of expectation.  

Source: (Lester, Cho and Lochmiller 2020)

When the organization can exceed the tolerance zone, then it has created a wow moment for the customers. On the basis of this theory, the expectations of the students from the university have been evaluated by analyzing the following factors.

• Corporate Promise: In today’s competitive world, customers judge the service levels offered by the companies on the basis of the corporate promises that they make. For instance, an event management company peaches the logo saying that it is the one-stop wedding shop for all (Barus, Prastawa and Mahachandra 2019). This arouses the expectation of the customers that when they visit the shop of the event planner, they can get every service related to wedding. Similarly, when the students go ahead for taking admissions at the Arab Open University in Jeddah, they look for the promise that the institution makes to them through their slogans, websites or e-magazines. They expect to have their future being built-up by the university.
• Price Charged: Price is the most vital element of the marketing mix for any organization or company. Some organizations choose to go for psychological pricing that can be afforded by all while others fix prices of the services or products to earn profits. When the students approach to get admissions in the Arab Open University, they check for the fees that the institution charges them and on the basis of that they fix up their expectation of services to be received from the institute. Higher fees elevate the expectations of the students automatically.
• Comments, Reviews and Recommendations: This a very common deciding factor of service level to be expected by the students in this digitalized world (Negai 2020). Students either refer to the reviews of the other students online or get recommendations from the seniors of the university and set their expectations accordingly before getting admitted.
• Alternatives: Students often look for alternative universities offering the same courses and try to compare the fees of the other institutes with the Arab Open University. After comparing the services of the other universities, if they find that they are getting something extra from their institute, they feel satisfied to be a part of it. The existence of many alternative institutions in the market raises the expectations of the students even more.
• Education Level: The expectations of the customers also vary depending on their education levels. Some students who come from educated backgrounds have tolerant expectation levels while others may not have the same.
• Personal Needs: Experts have asserted to the fact that the personal needs of the customers also influence their expectations and satisfaction levels from the services offered by the companies. Similarly, the students also have the same perspective while they are studying at the university or planning to get admitted. They have certain psychological or physical needs that they expect to get fulfilled by the services of the university.

In order to determine the satisfaction level of the students in the Arab Open University for the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia branch, a questionnaire has been prepared to get the answers from 25 respondents who are part of the study. The topic under consideration here is the satisfaction level of the students that they get from studying at the branch of Jeddah at the Arab Open University (Zhou et al 2018). The questions to be asked in this regard must reflect the points of satisfaction of the students so that the level of performance of the university can be judged accurately. The questions have been identified so as to determine the learning practices and methods followed in the university on the basis of which the students can determine their satisfaction levels.

The facilities offered by the university, experience of the students with the academic members and the learning environment all together will help in reflecting the satisfaction level of the students at the Arab Open University in Jeddah (Littlejohns et al 2020). The questions prepared in this regard will include:

1. Are you satisfied with the level of teaching offered by the professors of the university?
2. Do you feel job-competent after moving forward from the university?
3. Are you satisfied with the access of the resources from the e-library of the university?
4. Are you satisfied with the administrative services being offered at the university?
5. How helpful are the academic advisors?
6. Are you satisfied with the effectiveness of the course being taught at the university?
7. Do you feel it is easy in getting registered for variety of courses within the university?
8. How likely it is that you would continue for further studies in the university in the upcoming years?
9. Would you recommend your friends and siblings to study at the university?
10. Given a chance, would you shift to another university for the completion of the course?

The data gathered from using the questionnaire of 25 respondents will now have to be analyzed on the quantitative basis so that the outcome of the study can be arrived at.

1. Are you satisfied with the level of teaching offered by the professors of the university?

Survey questionnaire

2. Do you feel job-competent after moving forward from the university?

3. Are you satisfied with the access of the resources from the e-library of the university?

4. Are you satisfied with the administrative services being offered at the university?

5. How helpful are the academic advisors?

6. Are you satisfied with the effectiveness of the course being taught at the university?

7. Do you feel it is easy in getting registered for variety of courses within the university?

8. How likely it is that you would continue for further studies in the university in the upcoming years?

9. Would you recommend your friends and siblings to study at the university?

10. Given a chance, would you shift to another university for the completion of the course?

As per the response received for question 1, it can be said that the students are mostly satisfied with the level of teaching in the university but still there are 10 students who have expressed their high dissatisfaction on the fact which means that the university must look into the matter and get into personal discussion with those students so that there are issues can be understood and worked upon (Clark and Vealé 2018).  

The response of the second question has also been satisfactory but the university can make further improvements in this area by entering into partnerships with some of the companies and other well-known universities so that students get better placed after completing the course.

The response received for the question 3 reveal the fact that the university branch in Jeddah requires real improvements in its e-library access of the students so that they can get the learning materials even well which is very important for the successful completion of the courses.

For the administrative services, the students are highly satisfied with the services of the university and therefore no further actions are required in the area (Roh, Heo and Whang 2019). The same goes for the academic advisors as per the response of question 5 where students have expressed their satisfaction with the advice they receive from the experts.

In response to question 6, most of the students feel satisfied with the effectiveness of the course being taught. However, the university can control the dissatisfaction of some of the students in this regard by arranging special classes for them (Parmar et al 2018). In response to question 7, most of the students feel easy with the registration process and those facing difficulties in the area must be helped out by the administrative department of the organization.

As per response of question 8, majority of the students want to continue with their further studies at the university which clearly reflect their satisfaction level. For question 9 however, the responses have been mixed and therefore it is recommended that the university pays attention to its services to the current students so that they get recommended to others (Ho et al 2019). In response to question 10, most of the students have expressed the opinion that they would not like to shift to other universities which reflect that they are very much comfortable with the learning environment being offered to them at the Arab Open University in Jeddah.

Conclusion:

Therefore, from the above discussion, the conclusion that be drawn is that the university is offering excellent services to the students but it can definitely improve its services in certain areas with little efforts. Being in the service industry and dealing with several numbers of students, it is very crucial that the Arab Open University of the Jeddah branch in Saudi Arabia emphasize on quality services being offered to the students and the staff members of the branch must be empathetic towards the needs of the students. The feedback received from the students must be applied in practice so that the institute can maintain its reputation in the market in the upcoming years. 

References:

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Clark, K.R. and Vealé, B.L., 2018. Strategies to enhance data collection and analysis in qualitative research. Radiologic technology, 89(5), pp.482CT-485CT.

Ho, J., Tumkaya, T., Aryal, S., Choi, H. and Claridge-Chang, A., 2019. Moving beyond P values: data analysis with estimation graphics. Nature methods, 16(7), pp.565-566.

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