Improving on-campus quality of life: Using importance-performance analysis on recreation facilities in Universiti Utara Malaysia

• Main Authors: Kasim, Azilah, Dzakiria, Hisham
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: School of Tourism Development, Maejo University, Thailand and Asian Tourism Management Association 2012
• Subjects: GV Recreation Leisure; LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/19544/1/IJATM%203%201%202012%2047%2063.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/19544/; http://www.tourism.mju.ac.th/download/Journal/ATM/3.Vol_3_2012/1.V3_N1_Apr_2012/V3_N1_Apr_2012.pdf

This study applied the Important-Performance Analysis (IPA) - a long established and proven tool to develop organizations’ management strategies in achieving service quality - to assess the quality of recreation provision in the Northern University of Malaysia (NUM).Thus the study measured respondents’ perception on selected attributes i.e. 1)accessibility; 2) adequacy of facilities; 3) suitability of services and facilities; 4)availability of support services and facilities; 5) maintenance of services and facilities; and benefits of services and facilities provided in all recreation sites in NUM. To add depth to the findings, two open ended questions on whether NUM should add more recreation facilities and why; and ideas on how recreation services and facilities in NUM can be improved were added.Using a quantitative survey on a sample of 1185 students, IPA on five attributes shows two belonging to the ‘strength’ quadrant’ (adequacy and suitability), two to the ‘opportunity’ quadrant (maintenance and support services/facilities) and one in between the two quadrants mentioned (accessibility).This means that recreation provision in NUM is adequate and suitable, with some required improvement in accessibility, and an emphasis on maintenance and support services and facilities. One important finding however is that despite the abundant nature recreation resources available, respondents perceived very little benefit from those resources, thereby implying very little awareness of the value of nature based recreation.Such is evident when even addition of open ended questions, which otherwise proved useful in shedding light on type of facilities users would like to see, and how recreation provision in the campus can be improved, cannot tap respondents information on how nature based recreation can be improved to add value to their quality of life. This paper ends with a discussion of a few implications of the study.