The Effect of Gender and Nationality on Service Quality in Malaysian Higher Education

Competition is becoming increasingly intense among service organizations, and one of the most profitable service sectors of Malaysia is the higher education sector. This stiff competition requires tertiary institutions to satisfy their clients. Hence, measuring students’ satisfaction becomes essential. Accordingly, this study measures the effect of gender and nationality on service quality in Malaysian private universities using the SERVQUAL instrument. The level of students’ satisfaction is evaluated based on the gap found between their perceptions and expectations towards five dimensions of service quality, namely tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, based on their gender and nationality. Thus, a 22-item Likert-type questionnaire was administered among 250 students from both genders and different nationalities. Based on the results obtained, there is no sufficient evidence concerning the effect of gender on service quality in higher education institutions. However, nationality has a slight effect on the responsiveness dimension of service quality. Then, the research addresses policy implications on the importance of the education system in a country, and some implications for universities to improve their offered services. Finally, in the two last sections, the researchers address limitations of the study and future research directions.