As part of achieving the objectives of the country’s development plans, women in Saudi Arabia are vigorously pursuing higher education and professional careers so that they can become active members of society (Ministry of Higher Education, Saudi Arabia, 2010). In recent years, the Saudi Government has begun implementing a number of initiatives for enhancing women’s access to higher education, including setting up the Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University for women. At present, there are more than 300 colleges/universities for women throughout Saudi Arabia, and over half of the approximately one million students enrolled in various colleges (public and private) are female (Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington DC, n.d.). However, to preserve the country’s modesty rules for women, teaching of female students by male academics can only be
done electronically and remotely via the use of video-conferencing or e-learning
systems. Through these methods, female students view their male professors and
teaching materials via one-way cameras permanently placed in the classrooms,
rather than through face-to-face meetings. Such situations have created some
difficulties in getting female students actively engaged in the learning process.
Thus, our objectives in this study were to examine: (a) the specific and critical
service quality dimensions of a gender-segregated college of business at a public
university in Saudi Arabia, and (b) to what extent the college is meeting its
female students’ expectations.