Student Satisfaction Approach for Enhancing University Competitiveness

Background

Universities contribute to the production of a knowledgeable and skilled national workforce that is needed for a successful transition to a knowledge-based economy (Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2018). Correspondingly, universities contribute to the development of many nations around the world by producing skilled and intellectual human resources needed to produce goods and services geared towards national economic survival (Geevarghese, 2019; Stankovska, Angelkoska, Osmani & Grncarovska, 2017). In the case of Namibia, a satisfied university student is likely to learn at a faster pace than unsatisfied students, consequently leading to producing a knowledgeable and skilled graduate needed for the future Namibia knowledge-based economy. Student satisfaction measures the positive and negative factors/elements that influence the conditions (conducive or unconducive environment) under which student academic tasks are performed.

Universities around the world operate in more competitive market structures where students are becoming more demanding (Appuhamilage & Torri, 2019). Consequently, universities that fail to address student satisfaction are likely to experience difficulties to return or recruit students. For instance, student enrolment numbers at many universities in Namibia and countries such as Sri Lanka are declining (National Council of Higher Education, 2018; Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2018). As a result, there is a critical need for universities in identifying the most important factors that drive students’ satisfaction levels (Alvis & Raposo as cited in Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2018). This is because, even though providing adequate services to students on all dimensions may seem attractive to most universities, this might not be achievable as many universities especially in developing countries have limited access to resources (Ali, Zhou, Hussain, Nair & Ragavan, 2016). Thus, universities with access to minimum available resources (both financial and human resources), need to prioritize the provision of student support services based on the value of those services in terms of aiding efforts aimed at improving student satisfaction and retention.