Exploring higher education students’ satisfaction for quality improvement: A case study of the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine variables that affect students’ satisfaction in postgraduate programmes using a case study of students at the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS) at the University of Rwanda. It is important to study student satisfaction to understand how students feel about the quality of education, academic experiences, access to facilities, campus life, and extracurricular activities. A questionnaire was designed for the study, and data was collected from 81 students enrolled in master’s and PhD programs at the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science. In this study, a chi-square test was conducted to select factors associated with students’ satisfaction to be included in the model, and a multivariable logistic regression model was used for the analysis. The findings indicated that gender, level of study, programme of study, and the country of origin were not associated with student satisfaction. In contrast, curriculum relevance, accessing course materials, learning facilities, and the support from the ACE were statistically associated with students’ satisfaction. Therefore, the logistic regression model solely took into account variables which are associated with students’ satisfaction. This study uncovered the difficulties and opportunities affecting students’ satisfaction, and the findings showed that accessing course materials and satisfaction with centre support were statistically significant, while curriculum relevance and satisfaction with learning facilities were not. The findings from this study inform higher learning institutions and decision makers about how to improve the caliber and efficiency of higher education.