The Gap between Students’ Perceptions and Their Expectations for The Level of Services Provided for Them by Al - Quds Open University from their viewpoint

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the level of the gap between students’

perceptions and their expectations for the level of services provided for them

by Al - Quds Open University Tulkarem Region. To achieve this purpose, the

researcher randomly selected a stratified sample that consisted at a (215)

students، (88 male، and 127 female) from Al - Quds Open University in Tulkarm.

The Parasuraman et al. ، 1988 SERVQUAL scale for measuring service

quality was used after deveoping it to suit the service quality at QOU. Results

revealed that there were positive insignificant differences gap between the

students’ perceptions and expectations for the total degree of the University

service quality. The results also showed that there were positive insignificant

differences gap between student’s perceptions and expectations in: social

empathy، responsiveness، safety and securityrespectively. There were negative

insignificant differences in tangible and reliability domains respectively. As

for the service elements، results indicated that there were positive significant

differences between students’ perceptions and expectations in: the speed

of offering the services، the desire of the staff to offer services، and giving

opportunity for travels and parteis، There were negative significant differences

gap between students’ perceptions and expectations in: the availability facilities

and technical materials، the attraction of facilites and services، the attractian of

courses and specializations، the speed of problems solving، and the availability

of security and safety measures. On the other side, results showed that there

were no significant differences in the gap between students’ perceptions and

expectations for the measurement of the University service quality due to sex

and specialization variables