The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study Bayesian dependency modelling (BDM) to validate the model of educational experiences and the student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ), and to identify the categories of educatonal experience in which students expect a higher educational institutions (HEI) to be student-customer oriented.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs a cross-sectional quantitative survey study, mixed methods research, exploratory factor analysis and BDM.

Findings

The validated model of educational experiences and the SCOQ; results indicate that students expect to be treated as customers in some, but not all categories of educational experience.

Research limitations/implications

The authors contribute to existing literature on two fronts: the validated model of educational experiences and the categories of educational experience in which students expect to be treated as customers.

Practical implications

The validated SCOQ presented in the paper may be used by other HEIs to assess the degree to which students expect a particular HEI to be customer oriented. Also, HEIs should assess students’ expectations concerning student-customer orientation before employing such an approach.

Originality/value

The paper presents a validated model of educational experiences and a SCOQ. Additionally, the study does not investigate whether students expect a HEI as such to be student-customer oriented (as most studies have done so far); instead, the aim is to find out whether, in which categories of educational experience and to what extent students expect a HEI to be student-customer oriented. Thus, the study explores the phenomenon of student-customer orientation at a deeper level, i.e. separately at the level of educational experiences.

Citation

Koris, R. and Nokelainen, P. (2015), "The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 115-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2013-0152