IMPACT OF STUDENT ROLE BEHAVIOUR IN VALUE CO-CREATION ON UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN SRI LANKA.

Abstract

With the commanding competition in the higher education sector, there has been global growth in private higher education universities to meet the increasing demand. Recently, private higher education has started to move from the traditional marketing concept of ‘student as a customer’ to ‘co-creation’ of value, with the intention of maintaining the quality of education while facing high competition in the private education sector. The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of student role behavior on value co-creation and undergraduate experience at a private university in Sri Lanka. The study was quantitative in design, using a self-administered questionnaire with a sample of 370 students from the Business Management Faculty and the Faculty of Computing of a selected private higher education institution. SPSS Statistics V21.0 software was used for the analysis. Key areas of the study include identifying the role of a student, the level of co-creation behavior, and using a validated model of higher educational institutions to measure students’ educational experience. The key findings of the study show that the majority of students in the university play a mixed role (irregular), partly as customers, and partly as co-creators. Educational experience is also better for co-creators than for their irregular counterparts. Hence, there is a significant positive relationship between role behavior in co-creation and educational experience. Feedback, helping, and responsible behavior had a significant positive impact, while the age of the student had a significant negative impact on educational experience. Academic level significantly moderates the relationship between role behavior and educational experience. Residual analysis ensured the accuracy of the final model, and the adequacy of the model was 51% (Adjusted R-squared=0.51). Moreover, this study adds valuable insights by exploring student-centered learning and active engagement as key drivers of academic success. Universities can design their curriculum by adding more practical aspects rather than focusing solely on theories. A well-balanced curriculum is therefore important for universities. This will facilitate and promote the entire process and lead to improved thinking patterns and the implementation of new solutions.