The era of "customer satisfaction" brings students to colleges who are increasingly identifying themselves as customers. Competition among a growing number of institutions and learning organizations is sharpening the desire of institutions to deliver high quality service in order to attract and retain students. Some examples of interactions where service quality may affect satisfaction are accessible and prompt service, knowledgeable assistance and personal attention. The use of the SERVQUAL survey instrument offers a fruitful opportunity for student services managers to assess student satisfaction with service quality. Insofar as satisfaction may affect student desire to attend, retention, and word-of mouth recommendations, colleges should include service quality assessment in their efforts to be accountable for the effectiveness of their services. This study was conducted at a suburban community college, using a cluster sampling methodology, focused on students in college transfer and professional/technical courses. Student expectations and perceptions of service quality in Registration, Financial Aid, Counseling, Career Center and Library services were probed. Data analysis yielded discernible patterns in student satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Students placed less emphasis on the tangible aspects of service quality, such as the appearance of facilities and brochures, and more emphasis on aspects that provide them with reliable services and demonstrate attention to their personal needs. The quality of some Financial Aid services, as well as office hours among all five services, were identified as needing further examination. Some significant differences between male and female respondents, and between Caucasians and Students of Color were found. Because SERVQUAL offers a targeted method of identifying areas that can improve student satisfaction, this strategy offers some direct and perhaps cost-effective ways of implementing action as a result of assessment research. This may make it appealing to other community colleges. Implementation by other community colleges would be helpful in building a database and reference points about student satisfaction with service quality. / Graduation date: 2000

Graduation date: 1995

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Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for a Masters Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Background: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of Chiropractic students towards research at Durban University of Technology (DUT). The Chiropractic profession has made significant progress with regard to the production of high quality and clinically relevant research (Newell and Cunliffe, 2003; Hawk et al, 2008) and the continuation of this research effort will be the responsibility of the graduates that constitute the future profession (Newell and Cunliffe, 2003). Furthermore Cull, Yudkowsky, Schonfeld, Berkowitz and Pan (2003) state that the greatest predictor of this is a positive attitude, therefore it is essential to establish the present attitudes amongst the students. Method: The study was a quantitative questionnaire based, self administered, attitudinal survey. The sample group included all the Chiropractic students registered at DUT (n=185). Results: There was a response rate of 74,59%. The results indicated that on average students thought that the research subjects and courses taught at DUT were not interesting and that they did not adequately prepare them to perform research. The majority of the students felt that the research process was completely vague to them and that they felt insecure about their knowledge of research methodology. It was evident that students thought that DUT staff members placed a great emphasis on research and that they were easy to approach with regards to research. The area of greatest concern was that although students thought that the student researcher relationship was of great importance, they indicated that it was difficult to find a supervisor and they also indicated that inadequate supervision had delayed their research progression. For the most part students thought that research was important and they enjoyed listening to and reading research. However, only slightly positive scores were recorded when students were asked if they wanted to do research in the future, as they felt it was difficult and time consuming. Conclusion: Many factors were significantly associated with positive attitudes towards research at DUT and the strongest correlation between scales was between the importance of research and positive feelings towards research (r=0.713). Most students felt research was important and that it made them more knowledgeable however, if given the choice they would study at an institute where research was not mandatory.

The problem of the study was to create a valid and reliable instrument which would measure the diabetes knowledge of college students.To reach this goal, a pool of questions containing 49 items was developed after an extensive review of the literature which addressed diabetes risk factors, diabetes knowledge, college students and health knowledge, instrument development and knowledge measurement. A nine member jury of experts composed of health education professors, those knowledgeable in instrument development, and diabetes health care providers determined content validity for the pilot test instrument which reduced the pool to 34 items. The instrument was then pilot tested on 46 Ball State University undergraduates in a personal health course. The results were analyzed and had a whole test reliability, using the Kuder-Richardson 20, of .76.General education students (n = 522) at Central Michigan and Ball State Universities were the subjects for the administration of the revised instrument. The revised instrument included 27 items. The final instrument contained 26 items and had a whole test reliability coefficient, using the Kuder-Richardson 20, of .78. In addition, it discriminated between the upper and lower 27% groups in terms of total test score, had item-test reliability coefficients of .11 or greater, and the item difficulty ranged from .17 to .87. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

The purpose of the study was to determine the association of college student smokers' perceptions of nicotine dependence and measurements of loss of autonomy. The participants of the study were students enrolled in 7 randomly selected large (N > 170) core curriculum classes at Ball State University, during spring semester 2003. Using a cross-sectional data collection process, participants completed a 33 item survey consisting of questions from the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist and National College Health Risk Behavior Survey. The design of this study was to determine whether student smokers' perceive themselves as dependent on nicotine and how this was associated with a measurement on a loss of autonomy scale. Descriptive statistics, chi square, and univariate analyses were used to analyze the data. The majority, 64%, of participants had smoked sometime in their life, with 30% being classified as current smokers. Significant associations were found between the following variables: loss of autonomy and participants' perceptions of nicotine dependence, loss of autonomy and amount of cigarettes smoked, loss of autonomy and the number of years smoked, and perceptions of addiction and the number of years smoked. Gender and race were not found to be significantly associated with loss of autonomy or perception of nicotine dependence. Further analysis showed that as the consumption of cigarettes increases to an average of 2-5 cigarettes a day, chance of losing of autonomy also increases. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

This study attempted to determine whether or not there was a gender difference in students' ethical expectations of the public relations profession. Forty-two Ball State University public relations students participated. The students were given 49 statements that either supported or opposed a specific action that a public relations practitioner may take in an ethical dilemma, or a belief that public relations professionals may hold. Each student was asked to indicate how strongly he/she agreed or disagreed with each statement.The students' answers were analyzed using the QMETHOD factor analysis program. Two groups of individuals were defined: Factor I, "Female Dominated"; and Factor II, "Male Dominated." As the names indicate, the defining characteristic of these groups was the gender composition. The majority of females in the study fell into the first group, and the majority of the males in the study fell into the second group. Factor I z-scores were predominantly positive, whereas Factor II z-scores were predominantly negative-the results were close to perfect mirrors of one another. The findings supported the researcher's hypothesis that there is a gender difference in ethical expectations. / Department of Journalism

The purpose of this study was to examine the continuum of choral singing from secondary choral organizations to choral organizations at selected higher education institutions in Indiana. Examined were two large state institutions and two private, liberal arts colleges. Two groups of college students who had high school choral experience were surveyed: 1. non-participants, and 2. participants. Participants in choral ensembles made up 1.33% of the total enrollments of the institutions studied. Thirty four percent of the selected students had high school choral experience. Choral ensemble participants' responses to a questionnaire were compared with non-participants' responses. The state institutions' student responses were compared to the liberal arts institutions' student responses.There do not appear to be universal reasons for students to continue or not continue singing in choral ensembles. The reasons appear to vary with the individual student and institution. However, there were trends observed. Students perceived themselves as being well enough prepared to participate in higher education choral ensembles. There is a discrepancy between the expectations of the college conductors and the students' evaluation of their preparedness. Literature appears to be a highly significant factor in the interest of all respondents. Students preferred to sing all types of music. Neither participants nor non-participants reported that classical literature was the focus of their high school choral programs. Participants perceive that the university is interested in them, while non-participants reported negative responses. Private respondents felt that the university was interested in their participation in choral ensembles more than public respondents. Many students decide before arriving on the higher education campus whether or not they will participate in college choral ensembles. The amount of credit given for singing in ensembles or academic loads seem to be a minor factor. It appears that parents do influence choral participation.Private institutions have a larger percentage of their populations participating in choral ensembles than do public institutions. The higher involvement of liberal arts college students in choral ensembles may be explained by the department's need for adequate manpower and the personalized recruiting policies. The personality of the conductor was important to the students surveyed. / School of Music