Comparing service quality among public universities. Which is a stronger service perception predictor: country of origin or institutional affiliation?

Purpose Service quality perceptions in higher education play a crucial role in student satisfaction. While service quality measurement is an established stream of research in higher education, there remains a notable gap in understanding how and to what extent the cultural background of students and the higher educational context predict service quality perceptions. Similarly, there is a need to understand what service quality gaps can be identified between two higher education institutions in two different national contexts… Design/methodology/approach This study aims to fill these gaps by using a comparative approach based on an adapted SERVPERF and PAKSERV method to compare international student service quality perceptions in two national contexts, in the USA and in Hungary. Introducing a comparative measurement tool, SERV-COMP, this study further intends to reveal service quality gaps across different cultural and national contexts. Findings Results show that students’ regional background is a meaningful determinant of their service quality perceptions in higher education, with Western origin students generally being more critical than their South Asian peers, while institutional affiliation has less predictive power for perceived service quality in the examined sample. Originality/value The research introduces a novel SERVPERF-based comparative tool to analyse and contrast international students’ service quality perceptions in Hungary and in the USA, enabling culturally sensitive insights and improvements in higher education experiences across different national and cultural contexts.