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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To ensure sustainable growth, higher education institutions must enhance educational service quality, student satisfaction, and loyalty. In this regard, the present study seeks to evaluate the relationship between educational services quality, students' satisfaction and loyalty at Shahroud University of Medical Sciences (northeast of Iran) in 2023. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This is a cross-sectional study, consisting of 316 medical students which were selected by multi-stage random sampling method. Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), Students' academic satisfaction and Students' Loyalty questionnaires were used. The relationship between the latent and observer variables were analyzed using the structural equation method (SEM). RESULTS: Majority of students, 229 (72.5%) were female. While the mean score for evaluation of educational services quality was 63.4 ± 14.8, the mean scores for satisfaction with educational services and loyalty to the institution were 29.0 ± 6.6 and 29.2 ± 4 respectively. A significant and direct relationship was observed between the educational services quality score and the satisfaction score (standardized Beta coefficient = 0.83). Our findings revealed no direct association between educational services quality and student loyalty. However, this relationship is mediated by student satisfaction (standardized Beta coefficient = 0.94). CONCLUSION: Given the impact of educational service quality on student satisfaction and loyalty, we recommend targeted initiatives to: enhance faculty expertise, meet student needs (educational and services), improve facilities, foster respectful interactions, increase faculty-student engagement, enhance flexibility of curricula, offer academic advising, elevate teaching quality, and upgrade learning spaces and dormitories. We recommend focusing on both weaknesses and strengths, and repeatedly measuring service quality to ensure continuous improvement.
Amiri et al. (Fri,) studied this question.