Student as a Customer or Improving Students´ Involvement in the Education Process

Abstract

Trying to develop the new sophisticated methods of teaching teachers sometimes forget to use the basic and the first principle of quality management, which is customer orientation. The study proposes the way how to involve students to education improvement process. The emphasis is put on the student´s expectations investigation, expectation transformation into actions and student´s satisfaction survey. It may be assumed, that treating students as customers or even as a collaborative partner makes students involved in the education improvement process. The study is based on the assumption that we know the requirements of other stakeholders and the teacher constantly monitors the latest trends in the field of lecturing, which incorporates into lectures. To verify the study´s hypothesis, two surveys were conducted. Students´ expectations and students´ satisfaction after the education process survey data were drawn from a sample of 27 of 27 (100% sample) students of the subject Quality Audits. Our variables under study were related to studentsâ?? satisfaction with the educational process. Building on prior literature, the results from this research allow identifying the main strategies for studentsâ?? involvement into the educational process. The presented research is intended to be a useful reference to teachers and scholars interested in continuous improvement process in education. This article first makes a brief interpretation of some concepts concerning customer satisfaction in terms of continuous improvement process in higher education. Then, our methodology and research approach is presented. The next part of the study discusses the results of the two surveys carried out to follow if the curriculum improvement based on students´ expectation awareness can improve students´ satisfaction with the subject. The paper suggests the standardized curriculum development process in basic steps of the cyclic model of the PDCA on the basis of a profound analysis of studentsâ?? expectations following and meeting. For instance, it provides a basis for differentiating and linking evaluation results to continuous improvement. Finally we present the principal findings of the research, limitations and conclusions.