Student housing registration and placement inefficiencies at a South African university

Abstract

As higher education is increasingly becoming globalised, quality assurance is one of the most important mechanisms that can be used to ensure the competitiveness of higher education institutions in South Africa. The competitive market place both in private and public higher education sectors, require people at all level in an organisation to think of ways to continuously improve their products or service that they deliver to customers. This can only be achieved within higher education institution if staff and management can demonstrate their commitment to quality improvement through their active contribution to outstanding performance. By providing higher quality service to students, contribute to the positive assessment of the university in its services rendered to its clients. This research seeks to determine the inefficiencies that impact adversely on service delivery as identified in the student housing registration and placement system, and to investigate ways of continuously improving the various processes and procedures. The primary research objectives of this study include the following: > To review the current student housing registration and placement system. > To determine client satisfaction as it relates to the current student housing registration and placement system. > To investigate and design an improved student housing registration and placement system that is efficient, workable, fast and user-friendly. > To develop a mechanism to continuously improve the quality of the system. It is anticipated that the research will lead to an improvement of student housing registration and placement application processes, which in tum will contribute to the overall improvement of service delivery. Furthermore it will enhance communication with the students and staff involved in the registration and placement process.