ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (EEIs) THROUGH GAP ANALYSIS

Engineering will be challenged as n ever before to shape the nature and quality of life in the twenty- first century. Engineering education will be at the forefront of the effort to meet this challenge. The aim of this study was to determine the students' preferences based on the quality gap of various services provided by Engineering Education Institutions (EEIs) by using an originally SERVQUAL instrument among fresh engineering graduates. In this study, a total of 200 students who have attended the Graduate Apprenticeship Counseling programme were selected randomly and asked to complete a questionnaire which measured students' perceptions and expectations on services provided by the EEIs. The quality gap of educational services was determined based on differences between students' perception s and expectations on thirty two items of service quality. Factor Analysis (FA) was carried out to identify the underlying dimensions in the service quality items. In this study, service quality items having higher quality gap are factor analyzed. The results help to focus on items which need immediate attention to enhance the quality of EEIs.