Students' perception of lecturers' competency and the effect on institution loyalty: The mediating role of students' satisfaction

Abstract

The lecturer's competency is the most important factor that influences students' achievement and satisfaction as per traditional learning theory. Indeed, it is found to be a critical element for institutions' sustainability through loyalty. Thus, the study investigated the impact of lecturers' competencies on student satisfaction and student loyalty involving a total of four exogenous variables, namely, knowledge and credential, pedagogy knowledge and skill, industrial experience, and motivation of the lecturers. The mediating effect of student satisfaction was tested. The target population of the study comprised a total of 1,055,245 active students enrolled in bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctoral degree programmes in Malaysia. A total of 386 valid responses were obtained through a traditional questionnaire method in eight higher education institutions. The findings revealed that knowledge and credential, industrial experience, and motivation of lecturers all have significant positive relationships with students' satisfaction. On the other hand, only the motivation of lecturers was found to have positive effects on student loyalty towards the institution. Students' satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships of knowledge and credential, industrial experience and motivation of lecturers toward student loyalty. The outcome of the study also accentuated the importance of maintaining and delivering a good service quality by the institution, achieved primarily through competent lecturers as this will lead to student loyalty and institutional sustainability. In return, students will have a better understanding of the subjects taught, and the institution will be likely to sustain and to have positive brand awareness in the market.