Exploratory Factor Analysis of Adapted SERVQUAL in Private Higher Institutions in Syria

The purpose of this research is to explore the application of SERVQUAL scale in higher education in Syria building on previous measurement instrument developed by (A. Parasuraman et al. 1988). The applied scale examines perceived quality only without the measurement of service quality gap between perceived and expected quality. The research paper investigates the instrument at higher education sector. The planned methodology for the research employs a quantitative approach where the service quality instrument developed by (A Parasuraman et al. 1988) is employed in this research. The sample of the study follows a non-probability approach. The unit of analysis in this research is undergraduate students of private universities in Syria. Online self-administered questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate students in 3 private universities in Syria. The adjusted instrument scale employed a 5 points Likert scale where 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree. The service quality scale originally comprises of five dimensions namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. The instrument consists of 22 items. The level of analysis will investigate validity and reliability tests. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is employed to measure relationships between measured variables. The exploratory factor analysis produced three dimensions. Cronbach alpha test for internal consistency is employed to measure the internal consistency of the scale. The research recommends the measurement scale to be applied for service quality in Higher Education environment.