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Can students’ satisfaction indexes be applied the same way in different countries?

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Abstract

Student satisfaction indexes are important management tools for higher education institutions, and several studies have indicated generic models to measure them. However, the specific characteristics of education systems differ across countries; therefore, models of student satisfaction may not be as generalizable as expected. This article aims to study the applicability of a model of student satisfaction within state higher education in two different situations: Portugal and Uruguay. The index of higher education student satisfaction developed by Alves and Raposo (2007b) is taken as a basis, and it is tested in Uruguay. The results show that when applied to the Uruguayan system, the model presents lower performance, with three non-significant relationships, in connection with the expectations and word of mouth construct. The remaining relationships are maintained in both systems but sometimes with very different weights.

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Notes

  1. In Uruguay, polytechnic institutes are not considered higher education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Estadística, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Ramón Álvarez Vaz & Elena Vernazza

  2. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Danny Freira

  3. Universidad da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

    Helena Alves

Authors
  1. Ramón Álvarez Vaz
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  2. Danny Freira
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  3. Elena Vernazza
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  4. Helena Alves
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Correspondence to Ramón Álvarez Vaz.

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Álvarez Vaz, R., Freira, D., Vernazza, E. et al. Can students’ satisfaction indexes be applied the same way in different countries?. Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark 13, 101–118 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-016-0155-x

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