Abstract
Purpose – In order to face the new competitive scenario, Italian universities are involved in a change
process and are trying to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to better serve their customers/students.
The paper aims to assess university performance by testing student satisfaction. It tries to provide
universities with some solutions to improve its performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The case of the University of Bari has been analysed by
interviewing a random (but well stratified) sample of students in order to test their satisfaction
concerning services provided and quality perceived. Reasons why students decide to enrol at the
University of Bari are also investigated.
Findings – Universities have to concentrate their efforts on the improvement of quality of teaching
and non-teaching services, in order to promptly respond to the target, and foster a stronger
relationship with surrounding economic and productive systems.
Research implications/limitations – Universities need to adopt a customer centric approach.
Future research should analyse the reform period experienced by the Italian University system, in
order to investigate student satisfaction concerning recent changes. Moreover, a cross-country
analysis of student satisfaction, through the servqual questionnaire, would be interesting.
Practical implications – Student satisfaction at the University of Bari is higher for working
students that are not interested in “additional” services. On the contrary, several improvements are
perceived as urgent concerning non-core services provided, in which regular students are very
interested.
Originality/value – This paper provides a wide analysis of the services perception tested and
viewed through student eyes.
Keywords Customer satisfaction, Universities, Service levels, Quality, Italy
Paper type Research paper