ASSESSING SERVICE QUALITY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SATISFACTION IN INDONESIAN UNIVERSITIES

Globalization of higher education has prompted inter-university competition to attract and maintain international students, thus making quality of services a strategic factor that determines the student experience and the reputation of the institution. This paper explores how dimensions of service quality based on SERVQUAL are associated with international student satisfaction in the Indonesian universities. A quantitative survey was conducted on 250 international students who are studying in public and a private institution in Indonesia. The descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the extent to which the extent with which Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy predict overall satisfaction. The results indicate that every five dimensions have a positive relationship with satisfaction and Assurance and Responsiveness were identified to be the most powerful predictors; this highlights the paramount role of trust, professionalism, and timely support in service delivery to international students. The positive effects of Tangibility and Reliability are significant, and Empathy is the most insignificant, which indicates the necessity to enhance culturally responsive and individualized engagement. The current study contributes to the sphere of the application of SERVQUAL in the context of the developing-country higher education facilities and provides practical recommendations to be followed in the framework of the service-improvement measures aimed at increasing the level of international student satisfaction and institutional competitiveness.