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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
st
21 September 2021

RP2
Perception of Undergraduates on Service Quality of Higher Education in Sri Lanka

D.M.M. Sandeepani*, P.N.M.M. Wijerathna, M.G.T. Lakmali and G.C. Samaraweera

Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Mapalana,
Kamburupitiya

* Corresponding author: madusha0906@gmail.com

Abstract

A significant restructuring in higher education services has been processed in both European and Asian

contexts recently. As a developing country, Sri Lanka needs much more to move towards an economic
development within the nation thus ensuring service quality of higher education is required to enhance

the competitiveness within the educational sector. Hence, the study focuses on identifying the
students’ perception towards the service quality in higher education as they are the primary customers

who utilize the higher education service. An online survey was conducted for the randomly selected

311 undergraduates of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. The study covers
six dimensions of HEdPERF scale; academic, nonacademic, reputation, access, understanding, and

program issues that measure the service quality of higher education. All the statements given to the
respondents’ perception regarding the quality of higher education are proven as valid and significant

by the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test (p=0.000). Accordingly, students believe that quality service can
be obtained from the academic and non-academic staff of the faculty, and they consider that the hostel

facilities, academic facilities, ability of producing employable graduates, and academic programs of

the faculty are reputable. Moreover, the faculty has good access and interestingly, it possesses well-
organized academic programs with a flexible syllabus, proper structure, sound orientation program and

variety of specialization programs. The faculty maintains a good understanding of the counseling
service, health service, ideal campus layout/location, and quick response to students' requests for

assistance. The results reveal that the undergraduates’ overall satisfaction level of the service quality

provided by the faculty is valid and significant (p=0.000). Interestingly, the majority (46.9%) of the
undergraduates are satisfied with the overall service quality while 32.8% have a strong

satisfaction.14.1% of the sample shows a neutral approach while 4.5% and 1.6% have dissatisfaction
and a strong dissatisfaction respectively. Hence, the research findings will be beneficial for the

respective higher education providers to offer satisfactory services for the Sri Lankan students.

Keywords: Faculty of Agriculture, Higher Education, Perception, Service Quality, Undergraduates

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