Quality and loyalty to the course in higher education

Abstract

The growth of demand in the sector of higher education in Brazil has increased competitiveness between higher education institutions (HEIs), especially on private institutions, due to high requirement of the target market mainly in relation to quality of service offered and, in consequence to the possibility of getting a job after graduation. This work aims to identify, through a case study, which factors contribute to the student to be loyal to the course chosen in a public institution of higher education, remaining in the chosen course and recommending it to future students in higher level courses. In this study the constructs quality, image, satisfaction and loyalty were analyzed. To identify the relationship between these constructs the technique structural modeling equations was carried out. As a result of the analysis it was found that the student's loyalty stems directly from his or her general satisfaction with the course.