American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems 2016; 1(1): 39-47 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajomis doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15 Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy Patrick Cerna 1 , Seifu Neda 2 1 Department of Information Technology, Haramaya University, Oromia, Ethiopia 2 Department of Statistics, Haramaya University, Oromia, Ethiopia Email address: pcerna@acm.org (P. Cerna), n_seifu@yahoo.com (S. Neda) To cite this article: Patrick Cerna, Seifu Neda. Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy. American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems. Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016, pp. 39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15 Received: October 31, 2016; Accepted: November 28, 2016; Published: January 14, 2017 Abstract: An environment of high service quality laboratory infrastructure management will greatly improve the process of teaching and learning. Haramaya University commits to achieve such major goal of excellence in teaching and learning through service-oriented and conducive learning environment facilities. Thus, this study determines that service quality of the university’s instructional laboratories as timely and needed. To gauge its current service quality, SERVQUAL is used as one of the most effective and popular evaluation tool to work on. Thereby, the study adapted five (5) academic colleges (i.e. CCI, CNCS, CAES, CVM, and CHMS) and one (1) IOT institute. There are 375-sample size of college students, Technical Assistants, and Academic Staffs and out of that value, only 283 has been considered for analysis and interpretation. From the returned sample, 236 (83.10%) were males and 48(16.90%) were females. Majority of the respondents were undergraduate students with 171 (60.41%), followed by staff with 58(20.42%), then post-graduate students with 31 (10.92%) and Finally Technical Assistant (TA) with 26 (8.45%). Among all the colleges, in terms of fulfilling the expectation of customer (staff/students) as based on Average mean gap, CNCS rank 1 st (-1.72), followed by CAES (-1.73), then CCI (-1.77), then IOT (-1.84), then CVM (-2.10), and finally CHMS (-2.13). It is evident from the wide gaps score as perceive by the users’ perceptions of service quality offered by the Instructional Laboratories did not meet their expectations in general. The study further recommends that in order to reduce the large gaps in the service areas relating to Customer – Staff and Students, with the management should consider providing more training to staff not only to technical skills in handle facilities in the laboratory but to enhance their customer service skills. Keywords: SERVQUAL, Total Quality Management, Instructional Laboratories, Haramaya University 1. Introduction Service quality is becoming a major issue to attain in each and every higher educational institution worldwide. In college and universities, students are mainly treated as customers in providing a conducive environment for their learning process. Furthermore, such service quality does not only limit to the teaching competency of the professors but also the service quality of the institution’s facilities. As such quality of education services provided by the institution of higher learning can be gauged through the perspective of students who are engaged in various services and activities within the campus. One of those services is the instructional laboratory facilities as a practical and valid support application of its corresponding theoretical learning done inside the classroom. According to Feisel and Rosa [1], laboratory instruction has not received a great deal of attention during the last decades of the last century. Studies conducted by Selamatet. al. [2] on the effective management of computer laboratory in a university shows that, on average, respondents agreed that a conducive learning environment would increase their motivation. Students are the primary customers in the education sectors and their perception and expectation of