Student as stakeholder: “voice of customer” in higher education quality development

Abstract

According to the continuous improvement principles, all Higher Education Institutions (hereafter – HEIs) focus on the requirement to improve organizational processes and achieve quality, create added value and achieve stakeholders’ satisfaction. The aim of the research is to analyse the concept “quality in higher education”, define the stakeholders within the system of higher education and to analyse students’ opinion about the importance and performance of the factors of quality of higher education. The research methods are a literature overview, analysis and synthesis, logical and comparative analysis, as well as Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The results of analysis showed that there are two global strategies for defining quality of higher education. The first strategy is process-oriented, the second used the specific indicators (administrative, student support, instructional; procedural quality; student performance, employability etc.). The research results show that the concept of quality is very complicated and depends on different factors, objectives of the organisation and personal experience. It is clear that students are the most important stakeholders; quality of the academic staff and study programmes are the most important elements in ensuring quality of higher education; organisation of the study process and delivery of study programmes are the most important activities. The factors that should be considered in the future are Clear achievement assessment and feedback, Teaching methods, Student-centred learning, State subsidized studies according to quality criteria and Funding of higher education. As a perspective for investigation, it would also be helpful to find out why students consider extracurricular activities (sports, arts, etc.) and HEI reputation as factors with a low impact on quality of education, but so much attention is paid to them.