TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– The purpose of the paper is to ascertain students' perceptions on quality of services provided by private universities in Thailand and Japan and how these affected decisions selecting a university. A comparative study aims to focus on how cultural and economic factors affected their decisions.Design/methodology/approach– Research design sought students' perceptions through empirical surveys on the type of factors which influenced their decisions in selecting a university. As the students needed to form their views on personal experience on services categorized into ten factors, the research sample included students with one‐four years of campus experience. The research instrument was a well validated questionnaire developed on a review of literature and a pilot study. For the main study, 1,900 Thai students from nine private universities and 703 Japanese students from two private colleges were invited to participate.Findings– Findings suggest that in selecting a university campus the university's reputation, academic staff, quality of the programs and job‐placement were the most important factors that influenced student decisions. The comparative analyses reveal many similarities and some differences between the two groups while Thai students had a higher degree of satisfaction than Japanese counterparts which may perhaps be attributed to economic disparities.Implications– Findings may not be generally applicable as the sample was limited and cultural contexts were somewhat similar. Yet, there were generic factors applicable to most universities.Originality/value– These findings are valuable to university administrators and academics to improve the quality of services which are most important in influencing student perceptions in selecting a university.
VL  - 16
IS  - 2
SN  - 0968-4883
DO  - 10.1108/09684880810868457
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880810868457
AU  - Gamage David T.
AU  - Suwanabroma Jaratdao
AU  - Ueyama Takeyuki
AU  - Hada Sekio
AU  - Sekikawa Etsuo
ED  - Niaz Ahmed
PY  - 2008
Y1  - 2008/01/01
TI  - The impact of quality assurance measures on student services at the Japanese and Thai private universities
T2  - Quality Assurance in Education
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 181
EP  - 198
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -