Developing an integrated Kano-QFD-SWOT approach to recommend prioritised institutional requirements based on social and academic expectations of Arabic international students at three Queensland universities

Developing an integrated Kano-QFD-SWOT approach to recommend prioritised institutional requirements based on social and academic expectations of Arabic international students at three Queensland universities

The internationalisation of higher education continues to increase and contribute to national economies as higher education institutions increasingly rely on the revenue stream from tuition fees paid by international students. In recent years, the population of students who study abroad has dramatically increased which has led to increasing competition globally to attract these students. Higher education institutions are consequently focused on enhancing the quality of their offerings and student experience to meet or exceed demands and expectations in order to stand out and be attractive in this ever-increasing competitive global education market. This study presents a method for integration of the Kano model into the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to identify and meet the needs of Arabic International Students (AIS) at three Queensland universities. The use of the Kano-QFD analysis fills a major gap in university planning because most methodologies used to determine strategies to recruit, enrol and support international students do not focus on either capturing the international students' voice or align these institutional requirements (IRs) to enhance the opportunities for successful completion of a degree and to meet students' personal and professional expectations.

A Kano survey instrument was developed to generate student requirements (SRs) through focus group interviews and a piloting exercise. In addition to the Kano survey instrument, a review of policy and in-depth interviews with staff who have direct contact with international students were conducted to identify applicable university requirements to begin the QFD analysis. A house of quality (HOQ) was then developed from the data collected by the Kano survey instrument and the processes used to identify university priorities based on the institutional requirements corresponding to the student requirements. The results of this study demonstrate the benefits of applying the Kano-QFD-SWOT analysis model to identify and analyse the strategic implications about AIS for each of three cases representing different types of universities in Queensland. The findings confirm that the application of the Kano model is useful for improved comprehension of student needs and expectations, while its integration in the QFD matrix will assist universities to determine the most important elements needed to improve educational services quality design linked to strategic decisions made by these universities.

This study offers major contributions to both practice and theory regarding the quality provision for international students in higher education by providing empirical quality measurement tools to assist universities in targeted and effective decision-making. The unique application of the Kano-QFD-SWOT in this study contributes to an approach that will be useful for research in other contexts to better discriminate the needs of other groups of students. In addition, integration in the QFD matrix as applied in this study, will help HEIs to determine the most important service development activities required to achieve maximum student satisfaction.

The research findings suggest the use of the Kano model is instrumental for extracting students' needs and expectations while integrating it with the QFD matrix will assist universities to determine elements of educational services quality improvement. The study offers major contributions both in practice and theory about the provision of education quality of international higher education students by providing empirical tools for universities in their effective decision-making processes.

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