The influence of competences in business higher education: a student's approach

Nowadays, competences have an important role in higher education. Their development may have an effect on student's satisfaction with his/her studies. The aim of this research is to test the relationship between competences developed during the study of a university business degree and the student's satisfaction with this degree. Moreover, we test other outcomes derived from satisfaction, such as the student's word of mouth and his/her confirmation of the university degree that he/she chose. We design an online survey for students of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in a Spanish University. We collect 161 effective questionnaires and analyse them using structural equation modelling, specifically partial least square (PLS). Results demonstrate that competences have a strong effect on student's satisfaction, leading to positive word of mouth and confirmation of student's past behaviour. This implies that specifying and working properly the competences of a degree becomes a priority objective for university institutions.