article · Journal of International Education in Business
This study investigates the relationship between educational service quality and student academic performance across three public universities in southern Ethiopia. Using surveys gathered from 400 graduating undergraduate students, the research evaluates how student satisfaction mediates this dynamic. The results show a strong positive correlation between educational service quality and student satisfaction, with service quality dimensions explaining 71.2 percent of the variation in satisfaction levels. Furthermore, service quality exerts a statistically significant indirect effect on academic performance through the mechanism of student satisfaction. Overall, service quality accounts for 12.7 percent of the variation in academic performance via this mediating pathway. The findings underline that institutional service enhancements can actively support student learning outcomes by first elevating student satisfaction.
Higher education systems rely on academic achievement to support broader national development. Demonstrating that service quality directly influences student satisfaction, which subsequently drives academic performance, provides university managers, quality assurance agencies, and policymakers with clear empirical evidence. These insights demonstrate why investment in everyday institutional service standards directly supports broader learning and educational outcomes.
The findings can inform quality management and performance monitoring frameworks used by university administrators and national quality assurance bodies. Because the study focuses entirely on survey-based statistical analysis within three public universities, it represents applied institutional research rather than a commercial product, though the metrics could inform higher education evaluation tools or advisory practices.
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Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of educational service quality (ESQ) on student academic performance via the mediating role of student satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach To serve the study’s purpose, the study adopted a quantitative research approach. Three public universities representing 30% of the ten public universities located in the Southern part of Ethiopia participated in the study. Questionnaires were the main tools for gathering data. The adapted questionnaire, consisting of 116 items was administered to 400 randomly selected regular undergraduate graduating class students. The quantitative data collected via questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive and advanced inferential statistics. Findings The quantitative findings revealed that there is a statistically positive association between overall education service quality and students’ satisfaction ( r = 0.712). The findings proved that the facets of education service quality accounted for 71.2% of the variations in students’ satisfaction in the universities. The quantitative findings further showed that the education service quality has a statistically indirect effect on students’ academic performance via the mediating role of students’ satisfaction (test statistic = 31.5311573, std. error = 0.00122536 and p -value = 0). The findings further confirmed that the overall education service quality accounted for 12.7% of the variations in students’ academic performance via student satisfaction in the universities. Research limitations/implications The present study was conducted in public universities located in the Southern part of Ethiopia. The findings and conclusions of the study may not be generalizable to all Ethiopian public universities. Future researchers and scholars should conduct their study in all Ethiopian public universities by taking a representative sample from the Ethiopian public universities. Practical implications The present finding suggests that an improvement in ESQ leads to students’ satisfaction and that could contribute to boosting their academic performance. The findings of the present may help the practitioners who measure higher education service quality by providing how the provision of ESQ indirectly influences the student’s academic performance in the universities. Social implications The findings of this study confirmed that the facets of ESQ are associated with students’ satisfaction and this, in turn, indirectly influences their academic performance. Student academic performance is one of the key indicators of quality education, and it has its influences on the social, political and economic development of a country. The findings of the present research provide valuable insights to higher education management bodies, higher quality assurance agencies and the Federal Ministry of Education to learn the indirect effect of ESQ on students’ academic performance and take necessary measures to improve the Ethiopian higher education quality. Originality/value The contributions of ESQ in the higher education sector are enormous. However, the existing service quality literature in higher education mainly focuses on the interrelation among service quality, student satisfaction, loyalty and behavioral intentions. Little is known about the indirect influence of ESQ on student academic performance (one of the key indicators of quality education), principally in Ethiopian higher education, the place of current research. The present study showed the indirect impact of ESQ on student academic performance in Ethiopian public universities. The study, therefore, suggests that university management bodies should actively monitor the quality of their services and commit themselves to boosting students’ learning outcomes.
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DOI: 10.1108/jieb-07-2023-0042
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