Foreign Students’ Perception of the Quality of Service Delivery in Ugandan Universities

Abstract

Uganda is a top recipient of foreign university students in the East African region and derives several benefits from them. To sustain these benefits, universities in the country need to ensure that these students are satisfied with the quality of their service delivery. However, hitherto, research had not been conducted into the extent to which the students are satisfied with the quality of the universities’ service delivery. To fill this gap, this study delved into the extent to which the students are satisfied with the quality of their universities’ service delivery—to point the universities to areas requiring improvement if any. Starting with discussion of literature on the concept and measurement of quality in higher education, focus was put on the satisfactoriness of the quality of the universities’ teaching, library, ICT, recreation and health services—because the literature indicated that the universities are obligated to provide them and that students can validly express opinions on the extent to which their delivery is satisfactory. Data were collected from a sample of 775 foreign students drawn from two public universities and two private universities in the country. The findings were that the students are satisfied with most of the attributes of service delivery investigated. Nevertheless, the students in public universities were more satisfied than those from private universities. The students were also more satisfied with the quality of teaching, recreation and health services than with the quality of library and ICT services.

Keywords: Study abroad; Quality assurance; Student services