Evaluation of Administrative Support Services for Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Empirical Review

Abstract

Administrative support is concerned with the provision of secretarial and administrative services to students, faculty, and other customers of educational institutions. In effect, any assistance provided by administrative staff to students and faculty that benefits the institution's overall well-being constitutes an administrative support service. Despite their complementary role in the teaching and learning process, it appears from the literature that administrative support services receive little attention when it comes to students’ evaluation of university services for quality assurance. This article reviews digitally available scholarly research on administrative support services in higher education. The purpose of the review was to justify the inclusion of administrative support in students' evaluations of university services for quality assurance. To do this, the study reviewed scholarly works on administrative support services in higher education. In all, 43 research articles were analyzed in terms of six criteria, namely 1) nature of administrative support in higher education 2) administrative support as service 3) customers of higher education administrative support 4) quality as necessity in administrative support 5) justification for quality assuring administrative support service 6)justification for use of students’ to evaluate administrative support services. The study found that administrative support and teaching services have a direct symbiotic relationship. Quality assurance of teaching services without the same being done for administrative support services does not provide a complete picture of the overall service quality and well-being of higher education. Again, the study found that a lot of resources go into the recruitment and maintenance of administrative staff. To ensure efficiency effectiveness and accountability of this staff, there is the need for frequent evaluation. The study recommends periodic student satisfaction surveys to ascertain students’ level of satisfaction with administrative support services.