Student Satisfaction and Experience with Graduate Education

Graduate Education and Student Satisfaction

Satisfaction with education is the effective response to the overall educational experience. It is a particularly important construct among adult learners attending a university to obtain an advanced degree because the educational experience and outcomes must match the expectations of the student to sustain the motivation to learn. Various personal and institutional factors can influence the perceptions of students towards the educational experience and their satisfaction. The institutional environment and accommodations to student needs, the relevance of the coursework to the needs of the student, and the perceived quality of instructors can influence student satisfaction with graduate programs. In addition, the graduate student must perceive that the education supports attainment of professional and personal objectives.

Some of research examining student satisfaction adopts a marketing perspective viewing the student as a service customer with the institution providing an educational service. Nicolescu notes that "Marketing theories and concepts, which have been effective in business, are gradually now being applied by many universities... with the purpose to gain competitive advantage." According to Arambewela, Hall, and Zuhair, "Education is a service that is experienced by students and other stakeholders of educational institutions who form judgments about service delivery performance in terms of its quality and consistency, which are basic properties of a service." The educational institution offers students a bundle of tangible and intangible products. The tangible product is the physical environment of the institution where residential education services are provided such as the buildings and laboratory facilities. The intangible products are the explicit service of the faculty providing the instruction and the implicit service that includes factors such as the way faculty treats students. From this perspective, the student is a customer purchasing services from the institution and forming opinions concerning the value of the service after the service has been delivered. Arambewela and Hall note that universities have inherent difficulty with developing uniform service performance because of the substantial variation in needs and attitudes among the students receiving the services.

The scope of marketing activities by institutions of higher learning envisions students as the primary customers, although the language used in educational marketing avoids commercial terms. Nonetheless, the general approach in educational marketing is customer-centric with the institution attempting to persuade prospective students that it is the best alternative to meet their educational needs. In the marketing approach used by education, students are segmented in terms of a demographic or psychographic characteristic such as international students or high achieving students. The marketing approaches in education also recognize that students purchase an educational service only one time, and are not repeat consumers of the service although they may recommend the service to others. As a result, the institution providing the educational service is inherently less concerned with developing and maintaining an ongoing relationship with students based on satisfaction with the service. While student dissatisfaction can lead to reputational damage in the long run, the student that has consumed the service will not purchase it again regardless of their level of satisfaction.

General Satisfaction with Graduate Education

Various theories attempt to identify the determinants the determinants and processes that lead to satisfaction in organizations that can be applied to the experience of students in graduate schools. Expectancy theory can be applied the motivations of students for attending a graduate program and the degree of satisfaction they experience from the program. Expectancy theory postulates that an individual assess whether an effort expended to achieve a goal will indeed result in attaining the goal. In addition, the individual must perceive that the value of the goal is commensurate with the amount of effort necessary to achieve the goal. The expectation that the goal is achievable and valuable motivates the individual to make the necessary effort to attain the goal. Dissatisfaction develops if the individual subsequently discovers a significant discrepancy between the original expectations and the actual ability to achieve the goal or the actual value of the goal. In this theoretical model, satisfaction is highest when there is substantial congruity between the expectations formed before receiving the educational service and the experience of the service. If the actual experience disconfirms the validity of the expectations, dissatisfaction develops.

Graduate students in universities have different expectations than undergraduate students because of their former experience with institutions of higher learning. As a result, they compare their graduate experience with their undergraduate experience when assessing a university or an educational program. In teacher education programs at the graduate level, students have an expectation that the educational process will foster the development of interpersonal skills and the acquisition of professional knowledge relevant to the field. Graduate students often have high expectations concerning the benefits of the educational program, which are necessary to justify the substantial commitment of time and resources necessary to pursue advanced education. The institution offering the graduate program, however, may have objectives that diverge from the expectations of the student such as producing graduates who have a positive impact on a professional or social problem. In expectancy theory, the satisfaction of the student with the graduate program depends on the degree of congruence between the student's expectations and the actual experience and outcomes of the graduate program. While the graduate student makes assumption that the program can be successfully undertaken and will lead to the desired valued goal, unanticipated difficulties or failure to achieve the goal can result in dissatisfaction with the program. At the same time factors such as the personality characteristics of the student can influence perceptions of congruence between expectations and outcomes.

Research based on expectancy theory investigating the factors influencing student satisfaction in universities has verified that the expectancy gap construct can identify factors contributing to or detracting from student satisfaction. In the research of Tan and Keck the SERVQUAL questionnaire was modified for use among university students. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was developed and validated to assess the perceptions of service quality among customers in a commercial context. The instrument measures the gap between the expectations of student and the actual educational experience of the student across various dimensions. In the modified SERVQUAL instrument, the magnitude of the aggregate gap scores correlates to the level of student satisfaction. Although this modified instrument was validated by research, it is not widely used by universities to assess student satisfaction. Arambewela and Hall used an unmodified SERVQUAL instrument to assess the gap between expectations and experiences among graduate students. Their findings determined that congruence between expectations and experience for education related factors such as quality and access to instructors accounted for the largest amount of variance in satisfaction among graduate students. Grebennikov and Skaines also found that the gap between expectations and both academic and non-academic experiences influence student satisfaction.

Based on service marketing theory and expectancy theory, Hassan, Ilias, Rahman, and Razek developed and tested a model to identify the broad factors influencing student satisfaction with educational institutions. The model was based on the traditional approach to service quality the five dimensions of tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness, and empathy influence student satisfaction. Tangibility refers to the physical elements of the institution including accommodations and facilities for instruction. Assurance, reliability, and responsiveness are related to factors such as the perceived quality of instruction, the interactions with instructors, and the reputation of the institution. Empathy is the degree of concern demonstrated by the institution for the student's needs. Regression analysis of data obtained from undergraduate university students indicated that each of the five dimensions contributed to the variance in student satisfaction with the institution with perceptions of empathy accounting for the largest amount of variance. The findings of this study suggest that multiple factors influence student satisfaction with an educational experience.

Some prior research suggests that the marketing campaigns conducted by institutions of higher learning are instrumental in shaping many of the expectations of students prior to entering an educational program. Competition has increased among institutions to attract students particularly among second-tier universities that do not have a research orientation or a strong global reputation. Many universities have adopted the marketing practices used in commercial enterprises including branding and sales techniques emphasizing the attributes in a university valued by. The branding aspect of marketing links the institution with tangible attributes such as the ability to obtain a degree in certain subjects and the physical facilities of the institution. The branding also links the institution with intangible attributes such as quality of the education, social atmosphere, and utility of the degree for professional advancement. The branding efforts are essentially a marketing communication providing carefully crafted information to prospective students that foster the development of expectations concerning the educational experience at the institution. The information available in the market interacts with the goals and objectives of the students for pursuing higher education to motivate them to select a particular university or degree program.

The two-factor theory is another model of satisfaction, and postulates that satisfaction depends on the ability of the organization to meet perceived extrinsic and intrinsic needs of the individual with variables affecting the external needs known as hygiene factors and the variables affecting the internal needs known as motivation factors. In the context of graduate education, thee hygiene factors include variables such as cost and living accommodations for residential students. The motivation factors include variables such as relationships, opportunities for increased knowledge and responsibility, and the opportunity for career advancement. In this theory, improvements in the hygiene factors do not increase satisfaction, but deficiencies in these factors can lead to dissatisfaction. As a result, reducing the cost of the educational experience will not inherently result in higher student satisfaction, but increasing the cost could lead to dissatisfaction if the experience does not meet the expectations created by the pricing. Improving the motivation factors, however, can increase satisfaction. An education experience that improves opportunities for advancement in a profession or meets personal goals increases satisfaction.

While the two-factor theory is normally applied to employment situations, it is also relevant to the satisfaction of adult students with an educational experience.

DeShields, Kara, and Kaynak developed and administered a questionnaire based on the two-factor theory to identify the factors contributing to satisfaction with the educational experience among undergraduate students. The analysis of the survey data confirmed the validity of the theory when applied to the determinants of satisfaction with undergraduate level education. The findings indicate that relationships with faculty and the experience in the classroom were motivation factors and instrumental in determining satisfaction with the general educational experience. The research findings have limitations, however, because it relied on data obtained from business students a single small university. The findings cannot be generalized to students in other universities pursing different courses of study. Other research, however, has confirmed the importance of intrinsic motives for pursuing higher education for satisfaction and outcomes.

According to Lovitts, motivation is a mediating factor between what an individual can accomplish and what an individual does accomplish in higher education. Intrinsic motivation involves a positive reaction and enjoyment of a particular task. Participation in higher education particularly at the graduate level is voluntary even if an advanced degree can improve opportunity for career advancement. Intrinsic motivational factors are necessary to encourage the adult learner to engage in the necessary effort to pursue higher education. The educational experience, however, can reduce motivation if it involves rigid learning environments, extensive oversight and directive mentoring, and excessive bureaucratic requirements. From the perspective of expectancy theory, the style of instruction is one of the factors that can reduce motivation if the style creates an environment that the student perceives will require the expenditure of extra effort to achieve the goal.

The orientation and educational approach of the departments within a university can have an effect on the general satisfaction of students with education. Umbach and Porter investigated the effect on student satisfaction of the educational orientation of various departments within a single large research university in the United States. The researchers collected data with a survey questionnaire from 1,300 alumni concerning their perception of satisfaction, with the academic department as the unit of analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the data. The findings indicated that grade point average (GPA) was a predictor of satisfaction with the educational experience regardless of the department, with higher GPA leading to higher satisfaction among students. The findings also indicated that higher levels of student satisfaction were associated with departments that had a strong research focus such as the sciences and engineering. In contrast, departments with an interpersonal and skills orientation such as education, psychology, and the humanities had lower levels of student satisfaction. While this research identified the departmental patterns in student satisfaction, it did not offer an explanation for the differences other than the personal characteristics of the students attracted to the various fields of study. In addition, the use of data from a single university raises the possibility that variables specific to the university influenced the findings.

Institutional Accommodations and Facilities

Perceptions of the physical environment of the university including facilities such as laboratories can influence student satisfaction with the institution. Dissatisfaction develops when the physical environment does not meet minimum student expectations for quality. The expectations of the student for the physical environment at the institution are subjective, and often depend on the student's past experience with the physical structures in past educational experiences. In addition, students place lower value on aspects of the environment that ate not critical to education such as furnishings or the décor of buildings. Grebennikov and Skaines found that the availability of living accommodations perceived as adequate by students as well as assistance in obtaining accommodations were important factors for students that did not live near the institution. Some research, however, suggests that the physical accommodations at a university play only a minor role in student satisfaction with the educational experience. Even if the student perceives the accommodations as inadequate, other factors such as perceptions of academic quality and social interactions have a greater influence on overall satisfaction with the educational program.

From a review of research literature, Lovitts concluded both the institutional and social environment play an important role in the motivation of graduate students in residential programs to learn and to engage in educational activities beyond the minimal requirements of the program. The department in which the student studies largely controls the environment in graduate studies through its balance between andragogical and pedagogical educational approaches. In general, graduate students value a more collaborative method of education with instructors functioning as self-directed learning guides. In studies intended to enhance professional skills, graduate students also expect instructors to model the behaviors required by the profession. The conclusions of the research imply that institutions offering graduate programs should make some accommodations in approaches to education to meet the expectations of adult learners. The findings of Buchanan, Kim, and Basham, however, indicate that student expectations for graduate education are varied and depend on whether their goals involve career advancement, intellectual growth, or socialization and community involvement.

Relevance of Coursework

The literature generally suggests that students in graduate programs with professional experience in the workplace often require that the coursework is relevant to the profession and can be applied in practical situations. The relevance of the coursework is related to the autonomy found in the adult learner, with control of the learning process essential for satisfaction with the educational program. In addition, the coursework must be authentic in that it is related to the actual experiences of the students in practical situations and perceived as appropriate for the field of study.

Reynolds, Ross, and Rakow investigated the differences in the satisfaction of teachers and their principals with the coursework offered in schools of education that were classified as professional development schools and non-professional development schools. The professional development schools relied on the authentic learning paradigm in which the material was geared towards practical application in the secondary school educational environment. The non-professional development school offered coursework that was more theoretical and general in nature. The research collected data using a telephone survey, with qualitative methods used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that teachers were more satisfied with the learning they received at the professional development schools, and perceived the education experience as relevant to the teaching profession. In addition, the principals were more satisfied with the effectiveness of the teachers who had attended post-graduate programs at professional development schools rather than schools offering general programs. Although the findings of this research indicate that relevance of the coursework is a significant factor for satisfaction with the learning experience, the small sample size and the qualitative approach to the methodology reduces the ability to generalize the findings.

Quality of Instructors

Research evidence indicates that student assessment of the quality of instructors is subjective and based on their overall interactions with instructors. The perceived quality of instructors contributes to the overall perceptions of the quality of the educational program among students. The students form an expectation concerning the quality of instructors before entering the institution based on factors such as the reputation of the institution and marketing information from the school. These expectations may not be realistic, and can lead to a gap between the expectations and the experience with instructors.

The degree of interaction with instructors also contributes to satisfaction with the educational experience, with satisfaction increasing proportionate to the amount of contact with instructors. The student and particularly adult learners are more satisfied with the quality of the instructors when they perceive that they have a personal relationship with the instructor. This suggests that student assessments of instructor quality are subjective and depend on interpersonal factors rather than evaluation of instructional methods or styles. In contrast to the findings of Bain, Fedynich, and Knight and Umbach and Porter, Douglas, Douglas, and Barnes determined that students placed greater value on the teaching ability and expertise in subject matter than on personal relationships when evaluating instructor quality. These findings, however, were based on research in universities in the United Kingdom, with variations in cultural factors accounting for the differences from the findings of research conducted in the United States.

The differences in the findings of various researchers concerning the relationship between faculty interaction and student satisfaction may be because of the effect of student personality and demographic variables. Research conducted by Kim and Sax determined that factors such as student race, gender, and socioeconomic status influence the degree of interaction with faculty and the relationship between faculty interactions and satisfaction. The data was obtained from students in a large research university in the United States. The frequency of interactions was lower for some racial groups of students such as African Americans, but was similar for groupings based on gender or socioeconomic status. The frequency of interaction with instructors was also positively correlated with higher satisfaction with the quality of instructors and a higher GPA among students.

Martin, Milne-Horne, Barrett, Spalding, and Jones, G. determined that the perception of instructor quality has a correlation with the perception among students that a graduate program effectively prepared them for employment. The factors influencing perceptions of instructor quality among international students may also be related to the degree that faculty understands the differences in academic and personal needs between international and domestic students.

The accessibility and promptness of response of instructors is also a factor contributing to the perception of satisfaction with instructor quality. Students evaluate the accessibility of instructors based on flexibility to accommodate the needs of the students rather than a subjective perception of the quality of the information provided by the instructor. The flexibility of the instructor becomes more significant in distance education at the graduate level because of the asynchronous contact between the instructor and the student. Arambewela and Hall also found that access and feedback were separate antecedent variables accounting for a substantial amount of the variance in perception of education quality among graduate students. In the model developed in this research, subjective estimates of instructor knowledge, accessibility, and feedback interacted to influence perceptions of quality, which in turn influenced the level of student satisfaction.

Support Systems

In their analysis of the differences in student satisfaction among university departments, Umbach and Porter found that the academic ability of students was inversely related to their satisfaction with the educational experience. The researchers concluded that a highly selective academic department in a university resulted in greater competition during the course of study. The students perceived the competitive environment as less supportive, and a source of dissatisfaction with education. In addition, students that did not have the personal characteristics to thrive in a highly competitive environment were less motivated to complete the graduate program.

In contrast to the findings of Umbach and Porter, Bain, Fedynich, and Knight determined that the degree of personal support provided to graduate students by professors and faculty advisors increased the motivation to succeed and improved perceptions of the educational program. These authors concluded that high levels of faculty support for students creates a more nurturing educational environment that creates a sense of connection to the institution, which encourages students to persevere and succeed. Martin, et al. also found that the perception of support services in a graduate program positively influenced satisfaction with the program. In addition, these researchers identified a positive correlation between perceptions of support services and perceptions that the graduate program adequately prepares students for employment after completion of the graduate program.

Some research evidence indicates that students also value social support system because of the concern that they will not fit into the social environment of the institution. Social concerns include the ability to form friendships with other students, the general social climate in the institution, and the range of extracurricular activities. Some of these factors are beyond the control of the institution because they depend on student personality characteristics, although the institution can attempt to promote a social climate that fosters acceptance of diversity.

Career Goals and Outcomes

Career goals and anticipated outcomes are an important motivating factor for students to pursue graduate degrees, particularly after they have some professional experience. Individuals that have entered the workforce often experience events or circumstances that increase the perceived value of a graduate degree for career advancement. These individuals have experience in the profession, with the education intended to provide a competitive advantage for career advancement. From this perspective, the career goal associated with the education may be to increase marketability in a changing professional environment. In some cases, the intended outcome may be a change in career path that the graduate degree will enable. In the context of education, graduate degrees can improve existing teaching skills of support a transition into administrative tasks.

Research conducted by Browne-Ferrigno and Muth concerning the characteristics of students in graduate educational research programs determined that the majority have the career goal of entering educational administration. These students perceive that a master's degree in educational leadership is a necessary credential to compete for administrative positions in schools and school systems. The research supporting these findings was based on a meta-analysis of data in published studies, which increases the reliability of the identified trend in motives of students for attending graduate programs in educational leadership.

According to Buchanan, Kim, and Basham, the graduate student with a career objective is considered a goal-oriented learner, with the goal functioning as the motivation for engaging in the activity of learning. The student has the expectation that completion of the task will lead to the desired objective. In this orientation, satisfaction with the learning activities is not fully determined until the completion of the task and the student assesses the degree of congruence between the expected outcome and the actual outcome. In effect, the experience of learning is less important than the outcome of learning as an antecedent factor influencing satisfaction.

An investigation conducted by Knight, Tait, and Yorke found that the perceived need to obtain knowledge concerning changes in education is an important motivating factor for instructors in higher education to pursue professional training and development. This qualitative research relied on survey data and interviews with full-time and part-time instructors attending a single large online university in the United Kingdom. The participants in the study believed that ensuring that professional knowledge and practice conform to the generally accepted approaches in education was necessary to maintain employment at the institution and to secure eventually advancement such as the transition from part-time to full-time status.

Research conducted by Marginson found that the career goals of many international students in cross-border education involve the status accruing from attending a foreign university and the improvement in their prospects for obtaining better employment after graduation. The findings of this research suggest that international students assess factors such as the reputation of the institution in their particular field of study when selecting a foreign university. Arambewela, Hall, also Zuhair also determined that reputation of the graduates of the institution in a profession is a significant factor influencing students to select an institution.

One of the theoretical difficulties with satisfaction with achieving post-educational career goals is that the educational service is fully consumed before the student can determine if the outcome of the education meets their expectations. Students form an expectation that obtaining a degree from a particular university or program will enhance their career prospects when selecting the institution. The career prospect assumption is based on multiple factors include the reputation of the institution, information from peers, and information from media or marketing information from the institution. The assumptions concerning the value of the course of study for career advancement cannot be tested until the studies have been concluded and the student has fully consumed the educational product. If the student does not achieve the expected career objectives from the education, a gap develops between the outcome expectation and the actual outcome, leading to lower satisfaction with the institution or educational program.

The findings of Martin, et al. in an investigation of factors influencing satisfaction with graduate education programs indicate that several factors related to career aspirations moderate satisfaction. Significant differences exist in the factors influencing satisfaction among students intending to find post-graduate employment at the local, national, or international levels. Students with local employment aspirations were less concerned about content of the educational programs than students intending to work nationally or internationally. Students seeking employment internationally, however, evaluated their educational experienced based on their ability to find post-graduation employment in the field and the specific geographic location they had envisioned when they began their graduate studies.

Personal Goals and Outcomes

The personal goals of graduate students include acquisition of knowledge for its own sake to satisfy needs for intellectual growth and to engage in a non-routine activity involving socialization and involvement in the academic community. For students motivated to undertake graduate studies primarily by a learning orientation or a social activity orientation, the expectation is that the experience of the graduate program will meet these objectives. As a result, satisfaction depends on congruence between the expectation of achieving these personal objectives and the experience of the graduate program while studies are occurring. Satisfaction is higher when the program meets expectations for personal intellectual growth or increased opportunities for social or community activities. Personal goals for intellectual growth or socialization, however, can exist simultaneously with career goals, creating complexity if the factors influencing student satisfaction with graduate programs.

In an analysis of research concerning educational leadership programs in the United States, Browne-Ferrigno and Muth found that doctoral dissertations in the field are rarely available for other researchers and are often not considered as reliable source of information as post-graduate research. The practice of discounting the value of educational leadership research conducted in graduate school marginalizes the accomplishments of students motivated by the need to acquire knowledge for its own sake. The practice can reduce satisfaction of students with their achievements in graduate programs with the findings of the research discounted because of the status of the researcher as a student. At the same time, the student is expected to apply the knowledge obtained in the dissertation process to practical situations in the field of education.

The general research concerning student satisfaction with higher education often focuses on domestic students, although some studies consider the perceptions of international students in undergraduate and graduate programs. International students represent an increasing proportion of the student population in the industrialized nations. These students have different expectations for educational programs and different determinants of satisfaction when compared to domestic students. The following section examines the literature concerning cross-border education and satisfaction with the educational experience among international students.