دانلود رایگان مقاله ارزیابی کیفیت در دوره های دیپلم قبل از فارغ التحصیلی از دیدگاه دانشجویان: یک مطالعه اکتشافی در برزیل

abstract

This article aims to evaluate the quality perceived, from the perspective of students, in post-graduate diploma courses in the Brazilian context. Post-graduate diploma courses in Brazil are called lato sensu courses as opposed to stricto sensu courses, which is a term used for Master's Degree and Doctorate courses. Based on the literature on quality in services, the main constructs regarding quality in this field were addressed, in addition to studies that investigated the quality of services in Higher Education Institutions. A questionnaire with 32 items was applied to 358 individuals at a major university in the northeast of Brazil. By means of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, five dimensions relating to SERVQUAL attributes were formed: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. As a contribution to the field, this study suggests the validity of quality perception indicators analyzed in the context of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and their adaptation to the robust SERVQUAL methodology.

5. Discussion of the results

The attributes of quality identified as important have different degrees for the different participants. This difference was perceived early in the data analysis. This study confirms the validity of the indicators developed by the Federal University of Rio Grande regarding the perception of quality in higher education. The elements indicated in the factor analyses (exploratory and confirmatory), regarding their clusters, resemble the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model: assurance, empathy, reliability, tangibles and responsiveness. This suggests that the attributes related to these dimensions are those that are of greater importance to students in higher education. In studies such as those of Russell (2005); Nasser, Khoury, and Abouchedid (2008) and Wang, Taplin, and Brown (2011) on students’ perception of quality, in general, the attributes are analyzed without exploring the formation of the dimensions. Studies such as those of Tontini and Walter (2011), Arambewela and Hall (2009) and Eberle et al. (2010) explore the formation of dimensions, but without necessarily linking them to the already consolidated theory of dimensions of service quality suggested by Parasuraman et al. (1985; 1988); Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml, 1991), and Cronin and Taylor (1992; 1994).