The Mediating Effects of School Reputation and School Image on the Relationship between Quality of Teaching Staff and Student Satisfaction in Higher Education in Hong Kong

Abstract

Aims: With the rapid expansion of Hong Kong’s higher education sector since the evolution of its knowledge-based economy in the 1980’s, the size and number of government-funded and self-funded higher education institutions in Hong Kong has increased substantially. With the launch of the Qualifications Framework (QF) in 2008 by the Hong Kong’s Education Bureau, the quality of qualifications in the vocational and academic sectors has become ever more explicit. In order to help maintain high academic standards and promote a healthy competitive market, the question of how students perceive post-secondary learning institutions is an important issue for stakeholders. Study Design: This study employed cross-sectional and quantitative study. Methodology: A quantitative research framework was developed to empirically test seven hypotheses by adopting a cross-sectional approach and employing a questionnaire survey. The research was taken in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2013 of Higher Education Institutes. As the primary customers of higher education, full-time students enrolled in post-secondary programmes offered by government-funded and self-funded higher education institutes in Hong Kong, were randomly selected as the targeted participants. Two thousands students were sent the questionnaires of this research and 1,170 valid responses were received, which represented a response rate of 58.5%. The collected data was analysed using a number of statistical methods. Results: Results of the analysis show that the quality of teaching staff has a positive and significant influence on student satisfaction, school reputation and school image; that school reputation and school image have direct influence on student satisfaction; that school reputation and school image play a mediating role in the relationship between quality of teaching staff and student satisfaction, and also form a subordinate variable termed ‘school branding’. Conclusion: The research contributes to the higher education debate and provides unique student-perceived insights into student satisfaction and the quality of teaching in Hong Kong’s higher education sector. It also provides suggestions for future research to improve service quality and competitiveness in higher education markets.