Internationalizing higher education: Country-of-origin and brand effect on evaluation of service quality on private higher education in Malaysia

As the higher education industry in Asia prospers, attracting international students is becoming more competitive for countries in the region, particularly for Malaysia. The establishment of foreign universities in Malaysia has contributed to a healthy competition in the private higher-education sector, as these foreign universities provide potential students more choices for degrees according to a university's country-of-origin (COO) and the university's brand name. Despite past discussions of various service quality perception models, the purported superiority of the available model to other potential instruments for service quality perception in higher education remains controversial. This paper offers a conceptual framework based on the interaction between the university brand name, university country-of-origin, and the combination of the two versions of service quality perception instruments: (a) SERVPERF scale by Cronin and Taylor (1992); and (b) HEdPERF scale by Firdaus (2006). The study will result in a thorough and updated version of service quality perception instruments for the private higher-education sector. Results from the application of this framework will also facilitate regional institutions' and policy makers' abilities to benchmark and position themselves against others in the industry.