Student satisfaction in higher education: a comparison between private and public institutions in South Africa

Like most other service organisations, higher education has realized the importance of customer- centred approach to survive amongst competitors. This is very important bearing in mind the globalisation of higher education and... [ view full abstract ]

Like most other service organisations, higher education has realized the importance of customer- centred approach to survive amongst competitors. This is very important bearing in mind the globalisation of higher education and consequent competition. The primary objective of the study is to determine the importance and perceived performance of academic related variables of public and private institutions of higher education in South Africa and to determine whether there are significant differences between the two institutions. A random sample of eight hundred and ninety two students at two public institutions as well as two private institutions in South Africa was chosen. After applying the importance\perceived performance (IP) grid, to determine customer/student satisfaction, it appeared that public higher institutions should first attend to reasonable class fees followed by ensuring that academic staff is approachable. Private institutions of higher education need to attend to reasonable class fees as well as the availability of a wide range of courses. Statistical significant differences were measured between students of public and private institutions in terms of the importance of the academic related variables while no statistical significant differences were measured between them in terms of their perceived performance of the offerings.