This contribution presents a systematic review that captures, analyses and synthesises the findings on the service quality of HEIs. It examines the relevant literature that is focused on the students’ learning experience, on the delivery and performance of HEIs. Afterwards, it discusses about the opportunities and challenges in a post COVID era. Finally, it elaborates on the implications to policy makers in education and outlines future research avenues to academia.

1. The service quality and performance
of higher education institutions
Suggested citation: Camilleri, M.A. (2021), "Evaluating service quality and performance of higher education institutions: a
systematic review and a post-COVID-19 outlook", International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp.
268-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQSS-03-2020-0034
By Prof. Mark Anthony Camilleri, Ph.D. (Edinburgh)
University of Malta, Malta.
GD Goenka University, Gurgaon - Delhi-NCR, INDIA
1st August 2022

2. Content of presentation
• Introduction
• Research questions
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

3. Introduction
• Students are continuously evaluating the service quality of their higher
educational institutions (HEIs).
• They assess them in terms of their tuition fees; educational services;
their physical aspects, including the technical and functional quality of
their infrastructure; interactions with academic and administrative
employees, as well as their corporate image and reputation, among
other issues (Ozkan and Koseler, 2009; Clemes, Gan and Kao, 2008; Hill,
1995).
• In the higher educational context, other stakeholders including employers
as well as the government demand high-quality educational services from
HEIs, in terms of their (i) provision of education, (ii) high impact research
and (iii) outreach (QS Ranking, 2019; THE, 2019).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

4. Research questions
• This contribution presents a systematic review that captures, analyses
and synthesises the findings on the service quality of HEIs.
• It examines the relevant literature that is focused on the students’
learning experience, on the delivery and performance of HEIs.
• Afterwards, it discusses about the opportunities and challenges in a
post COVID era.
• Finally, it elaborates on the implications to policy makers in education
and outlines future research avenues to academia.
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

5. Methodology
• This research relied on the grounded theory’s inductive approach to
analyse and interpret academic and non-academic sources.
• A systematic review methodology was carried out through Scopus to
explore “higher education” and “service quality”
• The search has yielded 640 items. 515 of them were journal articles; 82
conference proceedings; 21 reviews and 15 book chapters that were focused
on these keywords.
• The most common keywords included higher education (283), service
quality (273), students (88), student satisfaction (75), quality of
service (70).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

6. “Table 1. features twenty
of the most cited
publications (and the
keywords that were used
to describe their
content)”.
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

7. Results
The service quality of HEIs
• HEIs are expected to adapt to ongoing developments in their macro and
microenvironments as they are usually operating with budget constraints
(Camilleri, 2019).
• They compete for funding and for student numbers in a global marketplace
(OECD, 2019; Hägg and Schölin, 2018; Tian and Martin, 2014).
• Very often, they are using the corporate language as they formulate marketing
plans and set objectives to control their resources. In many cases they are
becoming customer-driven/student-centred (Lynch, 2015; Sojkin, Bartkowiak
and Skuza, 2012; Naidoo, Shankar and Veer, 2011; Ng and Forbes, 2009).
• The challenge for HEI leaders is to identify their students’ and other
stakeholders’ expectations on tangible and intangible aspects about their
institutions’ service quality (Wilkins and Balakrishnan, 2013; Ford, Joseph and
Joseph, 1999).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

8. The students’ learning experience
• The students’ expectations on their HEIs’ service performance plays a key role on
their quality perceptions (Raaper, 2009; Brochado, 2009; Abdullah, 2006b).
• Students spend a considerable amount of their time on campus in lecture rooms,
libraries, IT labs, canteens, sport grounds, et cetera (Hill, 1995).
• Since the emergence of COVID-19, they shifted from traditional learning to blended
approaches as they relied on virtual technologies to continue their educational
journeys.
• The learners’ perceived satisfaction with higher education and with remote learning is dependent
on the instructors’ digital skills to deliver virtual lectures, their own systems, the quality of online
content (e.g. course notes, recorded lectures, links etc.) and on facilitating conditions (Camilleri &
Camilleri, 2021).
The service delivery
• Both academic and the administrative employees’ ability and willingness to deliver
appropriate service quality will determine the students’ overall satisfaction with their
higher education services (Tsinidou et al., 2010).
• HEI leaders ought to foster an organisational culture that represents the educational institutions’
shared values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and norms of behaviour that bind employees to
deliver appropriate service quality and the desired performance outcomes.
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

9. The Service performance
• HEIs can utilise international benchmarks and targets to evaluate their
employees’ performance levels (OECD, 2019).
• Academic employees can be appraised on their research impact, teaching
activities and outreach (Camilleri, 2021; QS Ranking, 2019; THE, 2019).
• Their duties serve as performance indicators that can contribute to build the reputation
and standing of their employer.
• Institutions ought to be evaluated on their: organisation; corporate
governance, autonomy; accountability; system structures; resourcing and
funding; consultation processes; digitalisation; admission processes; student-
centred education, internationalisation; regional development; continuing
education; lifelong learning qualifications; research, innovation and technology
transfer; high impact publications, stakeholder engagement with business and
industry; labour market relevance; collaborations with other HEIs and
researcher centres; and quality assurance - among other issues (OECD,2019).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

10. Table 2 features a list of 45 quantitative indicators that can assess the
HEIs’ service performance”.
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

11. © Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

12. © Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

13. Qualitative measures to assess the HEIs’ service performance
• HEIs can obtain insightful information by communicating (directly) with
students.
• The students may voice their opinions and perceptions about their education
and learning environments through face-to-face interviews and/or via focus
group meetings.
• HEI leaders ought to evaluate their students’ satisfaction levels after they
attended courses; research opportunities and training; international and public
engagement opportunities; ease of taking courses across boundaries; and may
also determine whether they experienced administrative and/or bureaucratic
barriers (Kivisto, Pekkola and Lyytinen, 2017).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

14. The impact of COVID-19 on HEIs’ service performance
• The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in both challenges and
opportunities for HEIs.
• The students (and their educators) have embraced the dynamics of digital
technologies in order to continue receiving (and delivering educational
services) (see Burns, 2020; Watermeyer et al., 2020; OECD, 2020; EUA,
2020).
• During the pandemic, both parties necessitated appropriate an internet
connectivity (at their homes), training, facilitation or orientation sessions
to acquaint themselves with electronic learning (elearning) resources
(Baloran, 2020).
• Most HEIs relied on learning management systems (LMSs) to share asynchronous
learning resources including presentations, case studies, recorded video lectures, et
cetera, with their students.
• At times, they engaged in synchronous, interactive communications (in real time) - as
they used video conferencing software to improve the students’ learning experiences
(Salman et al., 2020).
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

15. Conclusions
• COVID-19 has disrupted the education of millions of students in different contexts.
However, on a positive note, it has opened a window of opportunity for higher
education stakeholders.
• The pandemic triggered educators to start using new teaching methodologies including
synchronous, interactive communications.
• HEIs ought to continue investing in online learning infrastructures, resources and
facilitating conditions, for the benefit of their students and faculty employees.
• This way, they will be in a better position to attract students, lure prolific faculty members and/or
researchers, whilst raising the quality and standards of their higher education services.
• HEI leaders ought to recognise the tangible and intangible attributes of their higher
education services. There is scope for them to regularly evaluate their performance in
terms of their resources, education, research and engagement.
• Future research could investigate further the impact of elearning and of blended
learning methodologies on the students’ learning outcomes.
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

16. This presentation was drawn from this article:
Camilleri, M.A. (2021), "Evaluating service quality and
education institutions: a systematic review and a post-COVID-
outlook", International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences,
281. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQSS-03-2020-0034
A prepublication version of this paper and all references that
presentation - are available through ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349553734_Evaluati
_performance_of_higher_education_institutions_A_systematic_r
OVID-19_outlook#fullTextFileContent
© Mark Anthony Camilleri (2022)

17. Thanks for your attention.
Please feel free to ask any questions.
Mark.A.Camilleri@um.edu.mt