Evaluation of Student-Perceived Service Quality in Higher Education for Sustainable Development: A Fuzzy TODIM-ERA Method

Evaluating and prioritizing the service quality of higher education is an essential issue for the successful implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This study investigates an evaluation framework to assess the performances of higher education institutes (HEIs) within the context of ESD based on student-perceived service quality. First, a conceptual model of the evaluation indicator system is explored by embedding sustainability-related indicators into the fuzzy SERVQUAL scale. Then, the evaluation of student-perceived service quality can be thought of as a problem of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) that involves uncertainty and bounded rationality. Thus, an evaluation technique called hybrid fuzzy TODIM-ERA is proposed to address such evaluation problems by synthesizing the theoretical strengths of the intuitionistic fuzzy set theory, the evidential reasoning algorithm (ERA), and the TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive and multicriteria decision-making). Finally, a case study of five Chinese HEIs in maritime transportation is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework. Results provide the ranking order of all the alternative HEIs and the improvement strategies of each HEI for student-perceived service quality dimensions.

Automated summary

Evaluating and prioritizing service quality in higher education is crucial for the successful implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This study proposes an evaluation framework that incorporates sustainability-related indicators into the fuzzy SERVQUAL scale to assess the performance of higher education institutes (HEIs) based on student-perceived service quality. The evaluation of student-perceived service quality is approached as a multicriteria decision-making problem, and a hybrid fuzzy TODIM-ERA evaluation technique is introduced to address uncertainty and bounded rationality. A case study of five Chinese HEIs in maritime transportation demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework, providing ranking orders and improvement strategies for each HEI in terms of student-perceived service quality dimensions.