DETERMINING THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ LOYALTY AMONG STUDENTS OF LANGUAGE COURSES: A CASE OF UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB

Abstract

This study is conducted to find determinants of student loyalty to their university generally and University of the Punjab, specifically. The determinants of student loyalty have been studied before, but the majority of the studies have covered just main determinants of loyalty such as student satisfaction, service quality and university image, but ignored university switching cost as a factor of student loyalty, interrelationships of all these antecedents and their collective impact on student loyalty. Despite many studies on student loyalty, the literature still lacks the comprehensive definition of student loyalty. This study has been conducted to fill these knowledge gaps and propose a comprehensive model depicting elaborate relationships of all important antecedents of student loyalty. This study has covered perceived academic quality, perceived administrative quality, physical facilities, student satisfaction, university image, and university switching cost as determinants of student loyalty. The data is analyzed through Exploratory Factor Analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS. The results reveal the significant impact of student satisfaction and perceived university image on student loyalty. This study has important implications for academics to enhance student loyalty.