Quality Assurance in Education

Determinants of quality education in private universities from student

perspectives: A case study in Bangladesh
Mohammad A. Ashraf Abu Zafar Rashed Osman Sarker Rafij Ahmed Ratan
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Mohammad A. Ashraf Abu Zafar Rashed Osman Sarker Rafij Ahmed Ratan , (2016),"Determinants of
quality education in private universities from student perspectives", Quality Assurance in Education,
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Determinants of quality Determinants

of quality
education in private universities education
from student perspectives
A case study in Bangladesh 123
Mohammad A. Ashraf Received 18 September 2013
Department of Economics, United International University, Revised 30 June 2014
Accepted 3 July 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abu Zafar Rashed Osman
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College of Business, University Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia, and

Sarker Rafij Ahmed Ratan
School of Business and Economics, United International University,
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the present study is to identify the determinants that potentially influence
quality education in private universities in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach – To attain this objective, 234 data were collected through
face-to-face interviews on campus during February-March 2013 from Bachelor of Business
Administration students. The bootstrapping procedure through AMOS was applied to analyze the data
apart from exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings – The bootstrap path coefficients suggest that seven factors are statistically significant
among the eight postulated independent variables. The outcomes of the confirmatory factor analysis,
such as factor loadings, eigenvalues and percentage of variance explained, as well as reliability
coefficients, are observed to conform to the results of path analysis, such as item loadings and path
coefficients, which consistently increased the robustness of the study.
Practical implications – The overall results of the study would be beneficial to the planners to
formulate the proper policy to ensure the quality excellence in the private higher educational institutes.
Originality/value – The research is based on empirical evidence which deserves originality in terms
of data and methods of analysis.
Keywords Bangladesh, Quality education, Factor analysis, Determinants, Educational policy,
Private universities
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Bangladesh, during two decades after its liberation in 1971, was dominated by public
control (Ashraf, 2012). Educational institutions, such as schools (with a few exceptions)
and universities, were run by public funds and initiatives. By the 1980s, the higher Quality Assurance in Education
education sector as a whole in Bangladesh experienced a dramatic upward trend in Vol. 24 No. 1, 2016
pp. 123-138
social demand which could not be met by the existing public educational institutes. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
Since the state could not afford to fund the establishment of the additional new DOI 10.1108/QAE-09-2013-0040
 QAE institutes, it considered the option of privatization in the higher education sector. Being
24,1 cautious for about a decade, the Parliament voted for enacting a bill of establishment of
private universities in Bangladesh in 1992 (Alam et al., 2007).
After the enactment of the Private Universities Act of 1992, Bangladesh experienced
a remarkably rapid development in private higher educational institutes over the past
two decades. According to a report of the UGC (2013), currently, there are 71 private
124 universities in Bangladesh. Yet, this remarkable development is not free of the concerns
associated with a high rate of turnover of faculty, as well as the administrative staff
compared to public universities, along with a risk of compromise on quality and costs
(Ashraf and Joarder, 2009). However, the aggregate effect is a dynamic education sector
with healthy rivalry among the competing institutions (Ashraf et al., 2009).
Nevertheless, the fruits of this development have been reaped by the student community
of Bangladesh, as a whole, who are enjoying access to a wider platform of a variety of
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academic trades, with a domestic comparative cost advantages over studying abroad.
Hence, the cumulative effect of this vibrant development in the education sector involves
not only closing the loophole of capital drain but also contributes to build up rich human
capital which is deemed to be a key to develop a nation in the twenty-first century.
Fortunately, the country as a whole, ultimately, gains from having these new, young
higher educational institutes (Ashraf, 2012).
Besides, there is another concern which is related to the cost-benefit analysis of
studying in public and private universities in Bangladesh. As such, education in the
public universities is much cheaper than the private universities, but the quality of
education is also an important concern which is rated much higher in the public
universities compared to the private universities (UGC, 2013). Thus, it remains a
dilemma in the case of private sector education whether better quality would be too
costly for the local students.
One of the attractive features of education of the private universities in Bangladesh is
the course-curricula which are designed according to the American model of education
based on a trimester system rather than the old British system. They offer a four-year
bachelor degree program with credit-hour-based courses. In addition, the medium of
instruction in all of these private universities is exclusively English without exception
(Ashraf et al., 2009).
However, the service quality, design and costs of the private universities remain
paramount issues to the regulatory authority, academia and policymakers of the
country (Ashraf et al., 2009). In fact, the University Grant Commission (UGC) appears to
be a toothless tiger which can do nothing to control the private universities and to
enhance the quality of education other than to dispatch ineffective directions to these
university authorities. This means that the authorities of the private universities hold no
accountability to the UGC because they actually receive no funding from the UGC. In the
name of fulfilling a duty, they just send their yearly reports of the universities to the
UGC which can preserve them for their official record and make them available to other
agencies including government authorities (Ashraf et al., 2009).
Hence, the quality of higher education rendered by these private universities has
remained an important factor which is ranked among the top priorities by the civil
society, educationists and policy planners of Bangladesh. This study has, thus,
endeavored to identify the factors that are responsible for influencing the quality of
education in private higher educational institutes in Bangladesh.
 The plan for the paper is as follows: Section 2 presents the literature review. The Determinants
research framework is provided in the Section 3 followed by methodology of the study of quality
in the Section 4. Then, in the Section 5, data analyses and result interpretations are education
presented and conclusions are drawn in the Section 6.

2. Review of literature
There are a large number of reports and theoretical works on quality from the 125
perspective of quality assurance and quality improvement. In many of them, research
scholars have identified different views on the issue of quality in education and its
determining factors. However, very limited empirical work is available on this
particular issue in the case of Bangladeshi private higher educational organizations
(Ashraf et al., 2009).
The term “quality” is evolved from the Latin word “qualitas” that means the degree
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of excellence of a thing (Oxford Dictionary, 2003). According to Coombs (1985),

qualitative dimensions mean more than the quality of education as customarily defined
and judged by student learning achievements, in terms of traditional curriculum and
standards. The author also asserts that quality is also relevant to how well it fits the
present and future needs of the particular learners in question, depending their
particular circumstances and prospects. It also refer to significant changes in the
educational system itself, in the nature of its inputs; its objectives, curricula and
educational technologies; and its socioeconomic, cultural and political environment.
The World Bank (1995, p. 46) provides a definition of quality of education which it
refers to as:
Quality in education is difficult to define and measure. An adequate definition must include
student outcomes. Most educators would also include in the definition the nature of the
educational experiences that help to produce the outcomes – the learning environment.
There are other definitions advanced by Murgatroyd and Morgan (1994, pp. 45-46) who
state that:
“Quality assurance refers to the determination of standards, appropriate methods and quality
requirements by an expert body, accompanied by a process of inspection or evaluation that
examines the extent to which practice meets these standards.

Consumer-driven quality refers to a notion of quality in which those who are to receive a
product or service make explicit their expectations for this product or service and quality is
defined in terms meeting or exceeding the expectations of customers.
According to Murgatroyd and Morgan (1994), quality assurance is regarded as a service
which is associated with customer-driven perspectives. Education, nowadays, is
characterized as a commodity which can be served to the customers who demand for it.
Hence, service quality in education has now appeared as an important concern to
education providers, similar to any other commercial organizations. Thus, customer
evaluation of the quality of their education is considered to be a necessary part of total
quality management which “quests for excellence” in all of the private universities in
Bangladesh (Haque, 2004). In this regard, the present study is justified as an initiative to
make an empirical assessment analyzing data from the consumer-perspective of how
quality can be assured.
 QAE In recent years, quality assessment and assurance procedures in tertiary education
24,1 have received much attention nationally as well as globally. In this regard, Gordon and
Partington (1993) refer to quality of education as “the success with which an institution
provides educational environments which enable students effectively to achieve
worthwhile learning goals including appropriate academic standards” (Rowley, 1996,
p. 12). Indeed, the quality of education provision is deemed to be one of the prime
126 concerns in all of the developing countries of the world.
Recently, Bangladesh has been identified as having a vibrant developing economy,
whose human development index is higher than that of India (Sen, 2013). Yet, there have
been many issues which remain to be resolved. Similar to Sen (2005), who expressed his
deep concern about primary education in India, Andaleeb (2003) presented seven
important aspects of the higher education sector in Bangladesh which are crucial for
nurturing an effective education system. Those issues are: teaching quality,
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methodological aspects of teaching, content of teaching, peer quality review, direct

facilities available for teaching, indirect facilities available for teaching and political
climate. In fact, all of these elements that were discussed by Andaleeb (2003) remain
important issues to ensure quality education in the present precarious political milieu of
Bangladesh. Otherwise, all efforts would be in vain.
As discussed earlier, there are two fundamental educational platforms in
Bangladesh: public and private. There is a gulf of differences between these two
education sectors along many dimensions. In this respect, Sabur (2004) presented a
comparison between the private and the public higher educational institutes on the basis
of quality assurance. He analyzed several issues which provided deep insights but the
discussion was devoid of any recommendations to resolve those contentious issues
related to quality dimensions of the two different educational platforms.
Education must be applied. Mere theoretical knowledge without fruitful application
is useless. Relating this fact, Lamagna (2002) introduced three different aspects in
evaluating quality education in private universities in Bangladesh. These are quality of
teaching and research, responsiveness to the demands of the labor market and equity. In
Lamagna’s (2002) review on the quality assurance in tertiary education in the case of
Bangladesh, she suggested a number of initiatives that could, ultimately, ensure a
quality education system in the higher learning institutions in the country. The study of
Dhali (1999) highlighted the techniques of students’ evaluation procedures, which were
advanced as formative and summative.
Another important aspect was noted by Aminuzzaman (2007) who emphasized
fixing up a target or goal that has to be achieved in the short or long term. He lamented
the fact that most departments of the universities do not have a long-term national
vision, but such a vision is crucial to quality education. His concern was expressed as
follows:
Quality education in universities will be achieved through changing the method of teaching
and learning as well as assessment methods, renewing the curriculum continually, updating
and upgrading professional knowledge and skills and improving the broader educational,
administrative and resource environments.
Actually, the student-lecturer interaction is important in determining quality, and it is
appropriate to seek to monitor this quality through appropriate quality assurance
processes. Though this is a superficial approach, the real challenge is the enhancement
 of quality. Different institutions have started to investigate approaches to quality Determinants
enhancement (Rowley, 1996). For instance, Hart and Shoolbred (1993) cite an example of of quality
a university as seeking registration under a particular method while a number of other
universities as taking the TQM path. Other contributions which describe initiatives in
education
this area include Marchese (1991), Ewell (1991) and Cornesky (1991).
Hart and Shoolbred (1993) also emphasized the connection between quality and
culture, which is pertinent to mention, as quality management is linked with how people 127
act and this act is embedded in the work, atmosphere and culture of an organization. If
higher education institutions are advancing towards effective quality assurance policy,
then they require being alert to how much the culture may have to be changed. This
might be highly uncomfortable for senior management and for the entire workforce of
the institution (Ashraf et al., 2009).
There was another investigation led by the Further Education Unit (1991) which put
forward six criteria for a quality model for assessing education. Those are:
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(1) it seeks to improve the quality of teaching and learning strategies;

(2) it is flexible;
(3) it harnesses the commitment of all staff;
(4) the learner should be involved;
(5) there must be enhanced working relationships in all functions of the
organization; and
(6) requirements can be measured and the progress can be demonstrated.

Kotler (2003) is succinct, mentioning that cost is a leading measure or an exchange price
or a sacrifice made to secure a benefit. Hence, the cost of education, according to Kotler,
means the sacrifice made or price paid by the beneficiaries (students) to achieve the
specific objective of learning.
Manyaga (2008) provides information on development of standards in an African
country which may be of help to training providers in other countries as they seek to
improve the quality and standards of their provision. The findings of the study reveal
that accreditation standards were useful in instilling best practices in education and
training. However, education and training institutions need to understand and practice
them over a period of time to bring about the expected results. It is concluded that
ensuring quality in education is a multifaceted phenomenon that calls for the joint
efforts of all key stakeholders including the clients who enjoy the educational services.
Previous findings have reported results mostly based on only theoretical
considerations. Given the circumstances, the present study takes an initiative to make
an empirical investigation based on a new approach of evaluation of the quality of
education in the private sector of Bangladesh. The findings from this study may be
valuable in guiding the professionals and policymakers to formulate further the
effective educational policy in the country.

3. Research design
The main source of data used was a field-level survey conducted during the last session
of 2012 in some selected private universities of Dhaka city. A structured questionnaire
was used in the survey. The respondents (students) were asked to what degree the
quality and costs of education services offered by the private universities corresponded
 QAE to their expectations on the 48 items related to 7 dimensions of quality-cost perception
24,1 difference model. The items responses were assessed on a seven-point “Likert type”
scale (Likert, 1932). In the measurement, Scale 1 indicated strongly disagree and Scale 7
indicated strongly agree.
The questionnaire was pre-tested on students and finally data were collected from
234 students enrolled in different batches of the bachelor degree programs. The students
128 were interviewed through personal visits to the university campuses. The respondents
selected the appropriate point that best indicated how they would describe the attributes
being rated.
The reliability test was conducted to verify the internal consistency of the variables
obtained in the sample. For this reliability test, the Cronbach’s alpha was used. The
overall value of the Cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.92, which is much higher than
the threshold level of 0.7 suggested by Nunnally (1978). Several statistical analytical
techniques such as factor analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM), correlation
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analyses and reliability test were used to identify the factors that affected the measure of
the level of quality education provided by private higher educational institutes in
Bangladesh.
The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for data
reduction, by using SPSS 16 and SEM along with path analysis by using AMOS 4 which
was used by Byrne (2001). First, descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients were
calculated and these are presented in Table I. Then exploratory and confirmatory factor
analyses were accomplished. The results of factor analysis along with the Cronbach’s
alpha values are provided in the Table II. Then, the model in Figure 2 was run to
estimate the path coefficients by using the bootstrapping procedure to have bias
correction if there was any. The statistical significance of the paths in the model was
tested using the bootstrapping procedure (Efron, 1979) with a sample size of 1, for 234
samples. Using two-tailed tests, seven of eight paths were found to be statistically
significant, one at the p ⬍ 0.05 and the other seven at the p ⬍ 0.01. These path
coefficients of the evaluated model with their respective significance levels are
presented in Table III.

4. Research framework
This study investigated the factors affecting the quality of education of the private
universities in Bangladesh. All together eight independent determinants related to both
human resources and organizational factors were identified that are likely to affect the
quality of education (QE) offered to the students studying in the private higher
educational institutes of Bangladesh. The independent factors were faculty credentials
(FC), administrative services (AS), library service (LS), curriculum structure (CS),
general facilities (GF), career prospects (CP), cost of education (CE) and financial aides
(FA). These factors were identified based on the past research presented in the literature
review. In Figure 1, the research model is delineated without respective items.

4.1 Faculty credentials

Faculty credentials are important in assurance of quality of education. By and large,
faculty’s main function is to equip the students with the pragmatic knowledge which is
most needed and suitable in the concurrent and emerging new age of science and
technology. In doing so, educational entities inevitably require hiring and retaining
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Factors Mean SD QE FC AS LS CS GF CP CE

Quality education (QE) 5.09 1.52 0.929a

Faculty credential (FC) 5.26 0.85 0.507** 0.884a
Administrative services (AS) 4.86 1.11 0.474** 0.512** 0.923a
General facilities (GF) 4.31 1.02 0.448** 0.401** 0.509** 0.894a
Career prospects (CP) 4.58 1.10 0.558** 0.574** 0.579** 0.516** 0.910a
Cost of education (CE) 5.13 1.20 0.548** 0.422** 0.498** 0.556** 0.512** 0.646a
Financial aids (FA) 4.71 1.11 0.518** 0.456** 0.479** 0.502** 0.522** 0.626** 0.919a
Library services (LS) 4.05 1.19 ⫺0.140* ⫺0.053 ⫺0.091 ⫺0.030 ⫺0.18** ⫺0.107 ⫺0.045 0.897a
Curricula structure (CS) 4.71 1.07 0.397** 0.255** 0.403** 0.362** 0.421** 0.509** 0.496** 0.098

Notes: ** and * indicate correlations are significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels, respectively; a KMO statistics for each individual variable is provided on
the diagonal of the matrix

analysis
Table I.
129
of quality

and correlation
education
Determinants

Descriptive statistics
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24,1

130
QAE

Table II.

coefficients
quality education
Factor analysis of

and Cronbach’s alpha

Factor % of variance Cronbach’s
Factor name Variables loading explained reliability coefficient

Faculty credential (FC) {␭ ⫽ 6.170}* Q1. Academic qualifications of the Faculty are high 0.73 10.704 0.79
Q2. The Faculty are professionally experienced 0.73
Q3. Communication skills of the Faculty are 0.74
adequate
Q4. The Faculty are friendly and cooperative 0.72
Administrative services (AS) Q7. Administrative service is quick 0.79 10.267 0.82
{␭ ⫽ 2.245}* Q8. Staffs are much friendly 0.78
Q9. Information materials are available 0.74
Q10. There are clear guidelines 0.66
Cost of education CE) {␭ ⫽ 1.821}* Q40. Tuition fees are high 0.76 8.655 0.72
Q41. Study-cost materials are high 0.72
Q42. Accommodation costs are high 0.81
Q43. Transportation costs are high 0.63
Curricula structure (CS) Q19. There are interesting curricula 0.75 8.370 0.73
{␭ ⫽ 1.660}* Q20. There are high quality educational materials 0.77
General facilities (GF) {␭ ⫽ 1.491}* Q30. University has accommodation facilities 0.61 7.201 0.77
Q32. University has frequent transport services 0.77
Financial aids (FA) {␭ ⫽ 1.202}* Q44. Tuition-waver scholarships are available 0.81 7.182 0.66
Q45. Teaching assistantships are available 0.71
Library services (LS) {␭ ⫽ 1.32* Q15. Borrowing process is easy 0.66 6.688 0.60
Q17. Adequate working hours 0.64
Career prospect(CP) {␭ ⫽ 1.053}* Q39. University has links with business enterprises 0.64 5.457 –
Cumulative % of variance explained ⫽ 64.524 %

Note: * Indicates the eigenvalues represented in the curly brackets

 talented faculty. For this reason, Hensel (1991) emphasized talented faculty members Determinants
and maintained that the well-being of the university depends on its ability to recruit and of quality
retain a talented professoriate.
As a whole, the well-being of any nation depends on the ability to develop a happy,
education
emotionally healthy and productive next generation (Ashraf, 2012). According to Bowen
and Schuster (1986, p. 3) “The excellence of higher education is a function of the kind of
people it is able to enlist and retain on its faculties”. Thus, all these scholarly qualities of 131
the faculties need to be ensured in order to secure quality of education in the universities.

4.2 Administrative services

Universities have seen the provision of higher education become a product and have
been driven by competition to examine the quality of their services, to redefine their
product and to measure customer satisfaction in ways that are familiar to service
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marketing specialists (Kotler, 1985). Universities have realized that their long-term
survival depends on how good their services are, and that quality sets one university
apart from the rest (Aly and Akpovi, 2001).
Regarding the administration services, the provision of correct directions and advice
on administrative issues is top priority for the total sample population regardless of the
department or year of study. Students see the administration service as the authoritative

Path Path coefficients

Faculty credentials to quality education* 0.51

Administrative services to quality education* 0.46
Library services to quality education* 0.44
Curricula structure to quality education* 0.58
General facilities to quality education* 0.51
Career prospects to quality education* 0.52
Cost of education to quality educationa ⫺0.14 Table III.
Financial aids to quality education** 0.38 Standardized path
coefficients with
Notes: * Statistically significant at p ⬍ 0.01; ** statistically significant at p ⬍ 0.05; a not statistically significance for the
significant paths in the model

FC

AS

LS

CS
QE
GF

CP Figure 1.
CE
Research model for
quality education
FA analysis
 QAE source of information on matters relating to their studies and place high importance on
24,1 good advice. This is followed by the degree of friendliness, not necessarily as part of the
secretariat job, but as a feeling created on the basis of interpersonal relations. Next, the
most important factor is the computerized data processing, with the hours of service
being of the lowest importance. Close to the last two criteria is the use of the Internet for
communication purposes. It is noted that all these criteria relate to students’ preference
132 for a more flexible service. The availability of information material is not a priority as
long as there is direct personal contact and neither is rapid service, with students
preferring to receive high-quality services instead.

4.3 Library services

In a similar fashion, research facilities are also underdeveloped. Most of the universities
do not have research bureau and research publication is also scanty, because altogether
four or five journals are published among more than 50 private universities in
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Bangladesh. Due to lack of adequate reference sources in the library, the teachers and
the students face enormous problems and difficulties (Alam et al., 2007). So the variable
of campus facilities has an important impact on the overall quality of education in these
higher learning centers of Bangladesh.

4.4 Curricula structure

In formal education, a curriculum is the planned interaction of students with
instructional content, materials resources and processes for evaluating the attainment of
educational objectives. In this context, Kay and Sei (2004) found the highest negative
gap in course content in their study. The negative gap score implied that there was
differentiation among students. Their study provided useful information for university
administrators in decision-making processes which can be a key imperative for
improving the quality of education.
The academic calendar is another factor that is extremely important in the context of
the private universities of Bangladesh. In most of the cases, the semester is run
irregularly and there is no tight schedule, which affects the students in the proper
planning of their studies and that affects quality of education negatively. This fact is
particularly relevant in the present political situation in Bangladesh which frequently
interrupts the routine flow of class and examinations. However, the curricula structures
are there and every university is found to seek to follow the routine structure strictly
which contributes to enhancing the quality of education.

4.5 General facilities

Higher education is, by culture, a developmental and facilitative environment (Rowley,
1996). Classroom facilities are important because they form part of the whole
atmosphere of learning which subsumes the facilities such as modern teaching aids,
neat and clean adequate space according to class-size and a temperature controlled
environment. In Bangladesh, most of the private universities (with a few exceptions
nowadays) are established on rented premise where classroom space is alarmingly
inadequate.
As mentioned earlier, almost all private universities (with few exceptions) are
founded in rented space and buildings, so campus facilities such as academically
suitable building infrastructure, rich library facility, dormitory facility, canteen facility,
sports and recreational facility, computer laboratory with high-speed Internet access
 and the transport system are all extremely limited. So this factor influences the overall Determinants
learning of the students which affect the quality of their education. of quality
education
4.6 Career prospects
Career prospects are the probability or chance for future success in a chosen profession
which must be relevant to demand in the labor market. In this respect, Saha (2011)
argues that young talent should pursue a career based on understanding market trends, 133
passion and development opportunities to be successful in their working life. The
socio-economic trend in the twenty-first century is somewhat unique compared to the
past when education was pursued by the students solely based on their own predilection
and interest. Life was not so mechanical and the motivation of people was not as
commercial as it seems to be today.
Similarly, the quality of education also matters enormously to the students who must
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enter the competitive job market after finishing the program. If the education rendered
to the students is not evaluated and found to be up to the mark, career prospects would
be in jeopardy. In this precarious condition of career, the calculation of opportunity cost
would come up to compare with the best alternative sacrificed. Obviously, this cost
would be much higher if career prospects end in uncertainty. Hence, career prospects
and quality of education are interrelated.

4.7 Cost of education

Cost of education in private universities in Bangladesh is also an important concern,
where about 42-45 per cent of households live under absolute poverty line (Alam et al.,
2007). Only rich parents can think of affording the high fees and other costs of studies for
their children. In exchange for high tuition fees and other costs, the students of the rich
families expect to have a quality education from the private universities. The private
universities, in fact, spend most of their funds renting campus accommodation and
facilities (Alam et al., 2007) rather than high salaries for hiring the scholarly faculty. So
there is a serious question about the quality of education rendered by these universities.

5. Data analysis and interpretations

In Table I, the mean values for all of the factors included in the model are depicted as
higher than the number 4 which is scaled as a neutral score, indicating that the students
are mostly satisfied with the service of education rendered by the private universities in
Bangladesh. Among them, there are three variables such as quality education, faculty
credentials and cost of education, those have scored the mean values more than five
which implies the students agree that they are satisfied in terms of those variables that
they are answered in the questionnaire in relation to studying in the private higher
educational institutes.
The standard deviations are also relatively low which indicates robustness in terms
of goodness of fit of the overall analysis done in the model. However, the Spearman’s
correlation coefficients are mostly observed to be statistically significant, with some
exceptions. These attributes indicate that there might have been some multicollinearity
which is not desirable in the model analysis. This is also another reason for the
bootstrapping analysis which is useful to avoid bias of the sample concerned in the
survey reported in the present study. However, there are some of the variables found in
the analysis which are uncorrelated and not significant.
 QAE The study performed Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s test along with the
24,1 anti-image correlation matrix. The overall KMO measure of sampling adequacy was
found as 0.905 which is regarded as best (Kaiser, 1974). The Bartlett’s test of Sphericity
provided the approximate chi-square value which was 890.63 and appeared to be
significant at p ⬍ 0.01 with degrees of freedom of 36. The anti-image correlation matrix
showed that the majority of the off-diagonal values were close to zero which is what we
134 want to see. In fact, the KMO compared the observed correlation coefficients to the
partial correlation coefficients and the diagonal values are important for the KMO
analysis which is provided in Table I along the diagonal axis. The KMO statistics for
each individual variable appeared to be much higher than the threshold level 0.50 as
specified by Kaiser (1974). Inspection revealed that the lowest and the highest
correlation were found to be 0.646 and 0.929, respectively. These indicated that the
matrix was suitable for factoring. If any of the variables are ⬍0.50, it is advisable to drop
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the individual variable with the lowest value of the statistic until the overall statistic
rises above 0.60 (Kaiser, 1974).
The result of principal component factor analysis is presented in the Table II. The
analysis yielded a 7 factor solution that explained about 65 per cent of the cumulative
variance which is considered high. The factor analysis showed that faculty credentials
(␭ ⫽ 6.17) and administrative services (␭ ⫽ 2.245) appeared to be the most important to
students in their judgment of quality education. The other five factors are also
important, as they scored more than one in their eigenvalues. Thus, focusing on these
factors would enable universities to achieve quality of excellence in private education.
The first factor, faculty credentials, which account for the most variance of 10.74 per
cent, consisted of four control variables whose factor loadings were also substantially
higher than the threshold level of 0.60 (Likert, 1932). The four variables are academic
qualifications, professional experiences, communication skills and friendliness of the
faculty. These should be considered by the policymakers to improve the quality of
education in higher education programs in Bangladesh.
The second most important factor is administrative services, which explains the
10.27 per cent of the variation for students’ evaluation about quality education. It
includes quick administrative services, friendly staff, availability of information
materials and clear guidelines and advice. The factor loading points for these variables
are also higher than 0.60. Thus, the administrative services factor is considerable,
carrying heavy weight in terms of importance of explaining quality education in the
private universities.
The third factor that is rated as important is faculty credentials which accounts for
8.66 per cent of the variation. Variables included in this component are tuition fees, cost
of study materials, accommodation and transport costs. The factor loading values were
also substantially higher which shows the significant level of student judgment of
credentials that is important for determining quality education.
The fourth factor is curricula structure which explains the 8.37 per cent of the
variance. This factor includes two important items which are interesting, namely,
course-curricula and high-quality education materials whose factor loadings are also
very high and need to be considered.
The fifth factor is general facilities that accounts for 7.20 per cent of the variance and
covers accommodation facilities and frequent transport facilities. The financial aides are
the sixth factor, which explain 7.18 per cent of variance. It is embedded with two items
 which are tuition-waiver scholarships and teaching assistantships. Their factor Determinants
loadings are also very high. of quality
The seventh factor is library service that encompasses two item-variables which are
easy borrowing process and long opening hours of the library. The last factor is career
education
prospects which can explain 5.50 per cent of variation and consists of only one item with
a factor loading of 64 per cent. This factor has appeared not be very important to the
students included in the survey sample. 135
The Cronbach’s alpha statistics are substantially higher than the threshold, which
indicates the robust reliability of the data under analysis. The reliability statistic for the
last variable career prospects cannot be accomplished because it has only one item
considered in the confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the results of the factor analysis
show that the private universities as a whole should be more careful with those
identified factors listed in the Table II by which they can achieve higher quality of
education and it, in effect, these will help to push up the overall performance and
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productivity of the private universities.

The structural equation modeling yields the path coefficients which are obtained by
the bootstrapping procedure of data analysis and the results are presented in Figure 2.
The standardized path coefficients for the factors which are significant in the model
are presented in the Table III. The results of this path analysis show that one variable
among the eight, namely, cost of education (CE) is not a statistically significant influence
on the quality of education in the private universities in Bangladesh. Though the
variable of cost of education was found not be statistically significant, it appeared to
be influencing the quality education negatively. It implies that cost of education in
private universities in Bangladesh might be relatively costly which needs revising for
low income people. The other seven have statistically significant positive effects on the
rating of attitude towards quality education of the universities in this study.

V9 V8 V7 V4
0.76
0.67
0.71 0.69 V3
3 2 0.81
V10 0.81 0.71
AS FC V2
V15 0.70
0.69
4
V1
V17 0.61
LS 0.46 0.51
V19
0.41 0.44
5
V20 0.73 1
0.85 CS 0.59
V21 1.00
0.51 QE V48
V25 6 0.50
0.65
V27 0.52 GF
0.52
V31 0.54 0.14 0.37
0.47
V30 7
V32 CP 8 9
0.68 0.79
CE FA V45
V39 Figure 2.
0.69 0.84 0.70 0.61
Measurement model
0.71
V41 V42 V43 V44 with item loadings
V40
 QAE The results obtained in the bootstrapping path analysis are consistent with the results
24,1 found in the factor analyses because the item loadings of individual factors identified by
the confirmatory analysis appear to be quite high. This fact suggests that there was
intuitive consistency between the factor analysis and path analysis. Thus, to enrich
quality education in the private universities, all these variables are important to be
considered by policy planners to formulate an efficient and egalitarian private higher
136 education system in Bangladesh.

6. Conclusions
Private education in Bangladesh is getting more competitive with the remarkable
increase in the number of the privatized academic institutions in the country. Ineluctable
forces of globalization, in fact, in this new millennium make this growth path
more complex and challenging. Despite the relentless and continuous effort of the
private educational institutions, the quality dimension has not yet been achieved to the
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level of expectation. The cost of private education is another dimension, which is

somewhat expensive in Bangladesh which deserves more efforts to bring costs down for
more egalitarian ends. However, the system is proceeding gradually towards more
improvement. Nevertheless, all the focused problems should be addressed more
rigorously to ensure the quality of education in Bangladesh meets the desired levels of
expectation. This study has shed light on the dimensions perceived by students to be
associated with the quality of education. These dimensions are faculty credentials,
administrative services, library services, general faculties, career prospects and
financial aids. The study also concluded that while, in general, the per capita national
income has increased in the recent years in Bangladesh, the cost of education in private
universities in the country is not reasonable due to the imbalance between increasing
tuition fees and the number of financial aids and scholarships.

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Corresponding author
Mohammad A. Ashraf can be contacted at: mashraf@eco.uiu.ac.bd
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