Philippine E-Journals

Students’ Satisfaction Rating on La Consolacion College Manila’s Student Services, School Year 2008-2009

Venancio N. Santos

 

Abstract:

The primary goal of educational institution is the total
development of the student. One of the ways educational
institutions attain this goal is by continuously gathering information
on student satisfaction. As cited in Beltyukova and Fox (2002,
para. 2), student satisfaction is defined as an "everpresent
campus variable" (Betz, Menne, Starr, & Klingensmith, 1971, p.
99), a key outcome of higher education (Astin, 1993; Sanders &
Chan, 1996), and a "quality enhancement tool designed to
improve the quality of the student experience" (Harvey, Plimmer,
Moon, & Geall, 1997, p. 3).
Student satisfaction is important in improving the quality of
service of any educational institution. Colleges and universities
use student satisfaction data to better understand, improve and
change campus environments, thereby creating settings more
conducive for student development. In this sense, student
satisfaction is an indicator of the institution's responsiveness to
students' needs and a measure of institutional effectiveness,
success, and vitality (Hallenbeck, 1978; Low, 2000; Nichols, 1985;
Upcraft & Schuh, 1996) (as cited in Beltyukova & Fox, 2002, para.
2). Moreover, measuring student satisfaction is useful to
educational institutions to help them monitor their institutions’
progress, pinpoint their strengths and identify areas for
improvement. 
Annually, La Consolacion College Manila (LCCM) gathers
information on student satisfaction in accordance with the
requirements of ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems
(QMS) “plan and implement the monitoring, measurement,
analysis and improvement processes (Claus 8.1). To accomplish
this goal, the Human Resource Division (HRD) of LCCM administered an instrument, a 5-point Likert scale composed of 30
items to determine the level of students’ satisfaction on the
different service areas offered by the school.