The ‘Inside-out’ and ‘Outside-in’ Approaches on Students’ Perceived Service Quality: An Empirical Evaluation

Abstract

Competition for student enrollment has intensified with the liberalization of the private higher education industry in Malaysia. This has prompted the higher private education institutions to pay more attention in assessing the overall students’ perceived service quality of the respective institution. The aim of this research is to evaluate and validate the determinants of the overall students’ perceived service quality for a private higher education institution in Malaysia, based on the combination of both the ‘inside-out’ and ‘outside-in’ approaches. A total of 458 undergraduate business students from a private university in Malaysia participated in this research. The research found that contact personnel, quality of librarians, access to facilities, curriculum, staff responsiveness from the Division of Examinations and Awards, reputation of the tertiary institution and academic program, amount of recreational activities, and cost of courses offered were positively related to the overall students’ perceived service quality. Keywords: inside-out approach; outside-in approach; perceived service quality; Malaysia