The Impact of the International Office Service Quality on Student’s Satisfaction and Loyalty The Case of EMU, Northern Cyprus

Service quality, student’s satisfaction and loyalty are the main concepts that higher educational institutions (universities) must focus on if they are planning to run competitiveness and growth of the institution. Accordingly, higher educational institutions have many fields which care on service quality, students’ satisfaction and student’s loyalty. One of the most important fields of the university is the international office which recruits international students from all around the world, provides the necessary guidance and advising services. The international office’s service quality plays a significant role in satisfaction and loyalty of international students. The main purpose of this thesis is to measure a service quality of the Eastern Mediterranean University’s (EMU) international office and find out how it affects student’s satisfaction and student’s loyalty to the university. This research involved collecting data from randomly selected international students at EMU Campus, in Northern Cyprus. Survey questionnaires were distributed among 235 international students coming from different countries of the world. SERVQUAL Model, One Way ANOVA, Descriptive Statistics, Correlation, Independent Samples T-Test, Gap Analysis and Duncan Test are used to analyze the data. As a result, findings show that in respect of the international office service quality with student’s satisfaction, the expectations of international students exceed the perceptions of international students.