Thomson, Elza.Pillay, Thavan Ekambaram.2010-11-122010-11-1220042004http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1705Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.FET Colleges are facing two main challenges in the new educational landscape in South Africa, namely; responding to the desired level of delivery to cater for all South Africans as a postmerged institution and responding to relevant programme demands in a globally competitive environment. This research explores the relationship between service quality and user satisfaction. A model that demonstrates how satisfaction can be seen as both a micro-level response to individual transactions, and a macro-level of service quality is proposed, namely the SERVQUAL model. Using an evidence-based approach, gaps between user expectations and perceptions are explored as well as the gap between expectations and managers perceptions of these. Based on this evidence some observations are made about ways in which Coastal KZN FET Colleges could make more use of the information derived from their own organisation user survey to improve their services. This generic study could easily be carried out at other FET Colleges in South Africa and internationally.enEducational evaluation.Theses--Business administration.Towards a conceptualisation of service quality at an educational institution.Thesis