Importance-performance analysis: a useful tool for directing continuous quality improvement in higher education

Authors: O'Neill M.A.; Palmer A.

Source: Quality Assurance in Education, Volume 12, Number 1, 2004 , pp. 39-52(14)

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Abstract:

This paper addresses the issue of service quality evaluation within the higher education sector and stresses the need to develop measures that are both psychometrically and practically sound. The paper argues that recent debate surrounding the development of such measures has been too strongly geared toward their psychometric performance, with little regard for their practical value. While the paper supports the need to develop valid, reliable and replicable measures of service quality, it is suggested that educators must not lose sight of the original purpose for which these measures were designed, i.e. their practical value in informing continuous quality improvement efforts. It critiques the use of disconfirmation models and reports on a study of students' perceptions of quality using importance-performance analysis (IPA). The technique allows specific failings in the quality of support issues to be identified and their importance to a quality improvement programme assessed.

Keywords: Performance Management; Education; Quality

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684880410517423

Publication date: 2004-02-13