Service quality in education at Addis Ababa University: the case of the faculty of business and economics extension program

Abstract

Despite the fact that tertiary level education has been immensely operational, maintaining quality education has become a challenge in Ethiopia. This paper is trying to find out the problem related to service quality in education at Faculty of Business and Economics of Addis Ababa University (Accounting, Economics, Management, Public Administration and Informatics), specific to the extension program. The servqual model is used as an instrument methodology to measure the service quality vis-à-vis Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. Primary data pertaining to the research was collected from randomly selected students’ drawn from the five departments’ under Faculty of Business and Economics. The findings of the study show that except for responsiveness, all the remaining parameters exhibited positive responses from the students. The responsiveness of the Faculty of Business and Economics for evening students is low. But, the students’ replied that the faculty is reliable, shows good empathy, good service assurance and tangible. However, some of these items in construct show negative responses. The faculty has to use its resources to improve the problems identified in certain items in the constructs of this research. The study is limited to measure the service quality of the Faculty of Business and Economics extension program. The finding of the study however, may not represent the entire performance of the University. The recommendations and suggestions of this research would serve as a foundation to reinforce the relevance and crucial role that the service quality plays towards the performance of the University.

Keywords: Responsiveness, Reliability, Empathy, Assurance and Tangibles