ASSESSMENT OF PERCEIVED QUALITY OF SEMPA EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

To increase quality of higher educational services is one of the biggest challenges these days. The paper identifies the quality gaps in School of Economics and Management in Public Administration's (SEMPA) educational services and answers the questions if there are gender and regional's differences in expectations and perceptions of quality. SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to measure perceived quality of educational services. Interview was used to investigate problems with an individual statement in the questionnaire. The sample of the study consisted of 40 bachelor level part-time students. A convenient sampling procedure was used. The data were collected during the winter semester 2012/2013. Results showed a SEMPA's significant negative quality gap in tangibles (mean difference -0.9313) and reliability (mean difference -0.865) and positive gaps in responsiveness (mean difference 0.725) and empathy (mean difference 0.44). The resultant perceived quality determined as the sum of the individual, was negative (Mean diff -0.8438). The gender differences in expectations and perceptions were not confirmed (all p-values were more than significant level). Regional differences were confirmed in the perception of responsiveness (p-value 0.0297). The participants' opinions about the questionnaire also highlighted the problems with negative questionnaire's items and missing weight of dimensions' importance.