Letter to the editor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Letter to the editor - Essay Example In essence, the tax forced energy raise in energy prices and also costs job. Many businesses have to strain their resources and change business operation techniques to compete well in the marketplace. In essence, exaggerated carbon taxes have been attributed the rapid lose of competitiveness of Australian products in the global market. This is especially due to an increase in the product prices to be able to cover the production costs emanating from the introduction of the high carbon tax. On commencement of the carbon tax, Australian carbon prices tripled those of the European countries. The European Emission Trading Schemes generates $23 million as compared to $77.3 million per week in Australia. As such, Australian exports are higher in prices. These high taxes increases the cost of production and the weight laid on consumers who in turn consume fewer products. The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) find it tricky to monitor prices or take action against organizations that try to exploit consumers or other business by charging unjustly high prices. Notably, businesses and households use price signal as an explanation for lowered consumption of particular products. According to statistics, consumers are likely to turn to using up cheaper imports. This has built uncertainty for investment; hence, companies prone to emission of carbon will be afraid to invest further considering the high tax payment. This also renders high competition from other energy plants. As a result, some industries will end up withdrawing from business; hence, an economic downturn. From above perspective, the controversial carbon policy is both beneficial and detrimental. In line with the set standards on climate change in the Kyoto Protocol, Australia must be committed to trimming down the emission of greenhouse gases. However,

Guantanamo Bay Closing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Guantanamo Bay Closing - Essay Example In 2002, more than hundreds of Afghani prisoners were detained in this prison and did not have any rights, which were defined by the Geneva Conventions. However, they were given minimum rights in the year 2006 (Londras, 52). This paper seeks to analyze and investigate the 'Guantanamo Bay closing", it impact on U.S security and international security, in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources. After the September eleventh attack on United States, detention camp was made at Guantanamo base for detainees who were believed to be terrorists. After the U.S invasion in Afghanistan, majority of the suspected Afghani terrorists were move into Guantanamo detention camp(Fletcher, 125). These prisoners were considered to be the associated with Al Qaeda. Guantanamo Bay served as a detention center, where these prisoners were interrogated in order to get information on future terrorist attacks and to track down other terrorists groups. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary, had authorized special interrogative methods which were used to compel the detainees to give information regarding terrorist groups and their activities. This was done in order to prevent international terrorism. However, methods such as invading prisoner's privacy, chaining them, exposing them to humiliation, etc were used for interrogation (Fletcher, 129). These acts were subjected to severe criticism. Media, human rights activists and peacekeepers severely criticized these methods and declared them inhumane practices, which violated human rights. In the year 2006, former President George Bush declared that suspected terrorists would be held at Guantanamo Prison. However, minimum rights were given to these prisoners (Mariner, 312). In 2009, President Barack Obama became the President of United States and took measures to close the Guantanamo Bay's prison (Brophy-Baermann & Conybeare, 200). United States of America is considered to be the country, which believes in liberty and human rights. According to critics, the methods devised by Donald Rumsfeld in order to break silence of the prisoners were inhumane and barbaric and they violated basic human rights. Prisoners were forced to wear female underwear on their heads, chained, lashed or exploited sexually so that they break their silence (Fletcher, 131). The military had the authority to use these methods in order to gain information on terrorists groups and activities. According to media reports, these strategies were specially devised for these detainees and were considered to be general procedure for interrogators. Reports also indicate these interrogators threatened detainees if they didn't cooperate with them. Several human right organizations believed that this was violation of human rights. Arguments against Guantanamo Bay Closing Although more than billion of innocent people are subjected to inhumane treatment and tyranny by governments of different countries such as Sudan, China, Somalia, etc, majority of human rights organization have concentrated on Guantanamo Bay Prison. It has been subjected to severe criticism because it had introduced special methods for interrogation. Although it has violated human rights, proponents have failed to articulate a rational and practical rationale for its closing.

Marks and Spencer, Method of Operation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marks and Spencer, Method of Operation - Essay Example It is currently an international company with a whopping over 840 stores in more than 30 countries in the world. This joint venture was not without its challenges especially with its growth and expansion to various other countries other than Britain. It has experienced periods of financial crisis owing to poor sales to a point where they had to sell some of their stores off to other parties among other tough decisions they have been made to make to save the company from crumbling. Nevertheless, they have also had periods of high sales which in turn translated into great profitability and expansion. Their have adopted various strategies in an attempt to maintain and expand their customer base as both external and internal forces are threatening the very core of this business with a history of a long time in operation. Part of these strategies includes the adoption of new marketing strategies that are powerful enough to retain their customers and attract more customers to themselves. Notable also is the expansion of the products they sell where in addition to the traditional engagement in the sale of cloth and food, recent additions to the products base include technological products as well as furniture and homewares. Following is a PEST analysis of the company that will undertake to elaborate the current economic standing of this company and the prospects that are available to it. Marks a Political factors Marks and Spencer have adopted an international inclination towards the attracting of customers to the purchasing of their products. This means that the political factors that affecting their businesses depends on the political environment found in the countries where their stores are based for example the stores based in Britain will operate under the political environment found in Britain while those based in china will operate under china's political environment. Considering that the greatest number of the Marks and Spencer stores (600 out of the approximately 840 in the world) are based in Britain, then I will undertake the pest analysis of the Marks and Spencer stores based in Britain. The political environment in Britain is stable in the sense that Britain is relatively peaceful with no major identified or reported cases of violence making the establishment, growth and expansion of business units realistic and favourable. This contributed greatly towards the establishment and the eventual success of the Marks and Spencer stores as they were offered the chance to grow. It should however be noted that the period of the Second World War gave the growth of this business unit enough challenge. The taxing policy in Britain is relatively low thus allowing for a conducive environment for the establishment and maintenance of a business unit since the business units are hardly suppressed by overtaxing. Adoption of friendly taxing policies is a real plus in the development of business enterprises (Bevan 2001 pp 56-58). Britain is a member of a number of trade unions and other organizations with whom they carry out trade. It is a member of the European Union therefore trades under minimal restrictions with all the other members of this union. This is good for the development of international trade for the business units found in the geographical area covered by it (Richardson 2002p42). At the same time, Britain has developed diplomatic relationships with a great number of nations globally- a stint that makes her

Time Management Essay Example for Free

Time Management Essay Time Management skills are essential for successful people these are the practical techniques which have helped the leading people in business, sport and public service reach the pinnacles of their careers. The 80:20 Rule This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the 80:20 Rule. This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. While the ratio is not always 80:20, this broad pattern of a small proportion of activity generating non-scalar returns recurs so frequently as to be the norm in many areas. If you work for an organization, calculate how much you cost it each year. Include your salary, payroll taxes, the cost of office space you occupy, equipment and facilities you use, expenses, administrative support, etc. If you are self-employed, work the annual running costs of your business. If you work normal hours, you will have approximately 200 productive days each year. If you work 7 ½ hours each day, this equates to 1,500 hours in a year. From these figures, calculate an hourly rate. This should give a reasonable estimate of how much your time is worth this may be a surprisingly large amount When you are deciding whether or not to take a task on, think about this value are you wasting your or your organizations resources on a low yield task? ________________________________________ Personal Time Management for Busy Managers by Gerard M Blair Time passes, quickly. This article looks at the basics of Personal Time Management and describes how the Manager can assume control of this basic resource. The Eff words The three Eff words are [concise OED]: †¢Effective having a definite or desired effect †¢Efficient productive with minimum waste or effort †¢Effortless   seemingly without effort; natural, easy Personal Time Management is about winning the Eff words: making them apply to you and your daily routines. What is Personal Time Management? Personal Time Management is about controlling the use of your most valuable (and undervalued) resource. Consider these two questions: what would happen if you spent company money with as few safeguards as you spend company time, when was the last time you scheduled a review of your time allocation? The absence of Personal Time Management is characterized by last minute rushes to meet dead-lines, meetings which are either double booked or achieve nothing, days which seem somehow to slip unproductively by, crises which loom unexpected from nowhere. This sort of environment leads to inordinate stress and degradation of performance: it must be stopped. Poor time management is often a symptom of over confidence: techniques which used to work with small projects and workloads are simply reused with large ones. But inefficiencies which were insignificant in the small role are ludicrous in the large. You can not drive a motor bike like a bicycle, nor can you manage a supermarket-chain like a market stall. The demands, the problems and the payoffs for increased efficiency are all larger as your responsibility grows; you must learn to apply proper techniques or be bettered by those who do. Possibly, the reason Time Management is poorly practised is that it so seldom forms a measured part of appraisal and performance review; what many fail to foresee, however, is how intimately it is connected to aspects which do. Personal Time Management has many facets. Most managers recognize a few, but few recognize them all. There is the simple concept of keeping a well ordered diary and the related idea of planned activity. But beyond these, it is a tool for the systematic ordering of your influence on events, it underpins many other managerial skills such as Effective Delegation and Project Planning. Personal Time Management is a set of tools which allow you to: eliminate wastage be prepared for meetings refuse excessive workloads monitor project progress allocate resource (time) appropriate to a tasks importance ensure that long term projects are not neglected plan each day efficiently plan each week effectively and to do so simply with a little self-discipline. Since Personal Time Management is a management process just like any other, it must be planned, monitored and regularly reviewed. In the following  sections, we will examine the basic methods and functions of Personal Time Management. Since true understanding depends upons experience, you will be asked to take part by looking at aspects of your own work. If you do not have time to this right now ask yourself: why not? Current Practice What this article is advocating is the adoption of certain practices which will give you greater control over the use and allocation of your primary resource: time. Before we start on the future, it is worth considering the present. This involves the simplistic task of keeping a note of how you spend your time for a suitably long period of time (say a week). I say simplistic since all you have to do is create a simple table, photocopy half-a-dozen copies and carry it around with you filling in a row every time you change activity. After one week, allocate time (start as you mean to go on) to reviewing this log. Waste Disposal We are not looking here to create new categories of work to enhance efficiency (that comes later) but simply to eliminate wastage in your current practice. The average IEE Chartered Engineer earns about 27,000 pounds per annum: about 12.50 pounds per hour, say 1 pound every 5 minutes; for how many 5 minute sections of your activity would you have paid a pound? The first step is a critical appraisal of how you spend your time and to question some of your habits. In your time log, identify periods of time which might have been better used. There are various sources of waste. The most common are social: telephone calls, friends dropping by, conversations around the coffee machine. It would be foolish to eliminate all non-work related activity (we all need a break) but if its a choice between chatting to Harry in the afternoon and meeting the next pay-related deadline Your time log will show you if this is a problem and you might like to do something about it before your boss does. In your time log, look at each work activity and decide objectively how much time each was worth to you, and compare that with the time you actually spent on it. An afternoon spent polishing an internal memo into a Pulitzer prize winning piece of provocative prose is waste; an hour spent debating the leaving present of a colleague is waste; a minute spent sorting out the paper-clips is waste (unless relaxation). This type of activity will be reduced naturally by  managing your own time since you will not allocate time to the trivial. Specifically, if you have a task to do, decide before hand how long it should take and work to that deadline then move on to the next task. Another common source of waste stems from delaying work which is unpleasant by finding distractions which are less important or unproductive. Check your log to see if any tasks are being delayed simply because they are dull or difficult. Time is often wasted in changing between activities. For this reason it is useful to group similar tasks together thus avoiding the start-up delay of each. The time log will show you where these savings can be made. You may want then to initiate a routine which deals with these on a fixed but regular basis. Doing Subordinates Work Having considered what is complete waste, we now turn to what is merely inappropriate. Often it is simpler to do the job yourself. Using the stamp machine to frank your own letters ensures they leave by the next post; writing the missing summary in the latest progress report from your junior is more pleasant than sending it back (and it lets you choose the emphasis). Rubbish! Large gains can be made by assigning secretarial duties to secretaries: they regularly catch the next post, they type a lot faster than you. Your subordinate should be told about the missing section and told how (and why) to slant it. If you have a task which could be done by a subordinate, use the next occasion to start training him/her to do it instead of doing it yourself you will need to spend some time monitoring the task thereafter, but far less that in doing it yourself. Doing the work of Others A major impact upon your work can be the tendency to help others with theirs. Now, in the spirit of an open and harmonious work environment it is obviously desirable that you should be willing to help out but check your work log and decide how much time you spend on your own work and how much you spend on others. For instance, if you spend a morning checking the grammar and spelling in the training material related to you last project, then that is waste. Publications should do the proofreading, that is their job, they are better at it than you are; you should deal at the technical level. The remaining problem is your manager. Consider what periods in your  work log were used to perform tasks that your manager either repeated or simply negated by ignoring it or redefining the task, too late. Making your manager efficient is a very difficult task, but where it impinges upon your work and performance you must take the bull by the horns (or whatever) and confront the issue. Managing your manager may seem a long way from Time Management but no one impacts upon your use of time more than your immediate superior. If a task is ill defined seek clarification (is that a one page summary or a ten page report?). If seemingly random alterations are asked in your deliverables, ask for the reasons and next time clarify these and similar points at the beginning. If the manager is difficult, try writing a small specification for each task before beginning it and have it agreed. While you can not tactfully hold your manager to this contract if he/she has a change of mind, it will at least cause him/her to consider the issues early on, before you waste your time on false assumptions. External Appointments The next stage of Personal Time Management is to start taking control of your time. The first problem is appointments. Start with a simple appointments diary. In this book you will have (or at least should have) a complete list of all your known appointments for the foreseeable future. If you have omitted your regular ones (since you remember them anyway) add them now. Your appointments constitute your interaction with other people; they are the agreed interface between your activities and those of others; they are determined by external obligation. They often fill the diary. Now, be ruthless and eliminate the unnecessary. There may be committees where you can not productively contribute or where a subordinate might be (better) able to participate. There may be long lunches which could be better run as short conference calls. There may be interviews which last three times as long as necessary because they are scheduled for a whole hour. Eliminate the wastage starting today. The next stage is to add to your diary lists of other, personal activity which will enhance your use of the available time. Consider: what is the most important type of activity to add to your diary? No:- stop reading for a moment and really, consider. The single most important type of activity is those which will save you time: allocate time to save time, a stitch in time saves days. And most importantly of all,  always allocate time to time management: at least five minutes each and every day. For each appointment left in the diary, consider what actions you might take to ensure that no time is wasted: plan to avoid work by being prepared. Thus, if you are going to a meeting where you will be asked to comment on some report, allocate time to read it so avoiding delays in the meeting and increasing your chances of making the right decision the first time. Consider what actions need to be done before AND what actions must be done to follow-up. Even if the latter is unclear before the event, you must still allocate time to review the outcome and to plan the resulting action. Simply mark in your diary the block of time necessary to do this and, when the time comes, do it. Scheduling Projects The most daunting external appointments are deadlines: often, the handover of deliverables. Do you leave the work too late? Is there commonly a final panic towards the end? Are the last few hectic hours often marred by errors? If so, use Personal Time Management. The basic idea is that your management of personal deadlines should be achieved with exactly the same techniques you would use in a large project: †¢check the specification are you sure that you agree on what is to be delivered †¢break the task down into small sections so that you can estimate the time needed for each, and monitor progress †¢schedule reviews of your progress (e.g. after each sub-task) so that you can respond quickly to difficulties Like most management ideas, this is common sense. Some people, however, refute it because in practise they find that it merely shows the lack of time for a project which must be done anyway. This is simply daft! If simple project planning and time management show that the task can not be done, then it will not be done but by knowing at the start, you have a chance to do something about it. An impossible deadline affects not only your success but also that of others. Suppose a product is scheduled for release too soon because you agree to deliver too early. Marketing and Sales will prepare customers to expect the product showing why they really need it but it will not arrive. The customers will be dissatisfied or even lost, the competition will have advanced warning, and all because you agreed to do the impossible. You can avoid this type of problem. By practising time management, you will always have a clear understanding of how you spend your time and what time is  unallocated. If a new task is thrust upon you, you can estimate whether it is practical. The project planning tells you how much time is needed and the time management tells you how much time is available. There are four ways to deal with impossible deadlines: †¢Get the deadline extended †¢Scream for more resources †¢Get the Deliverable redefined to something practical †¢State the position clearly so that your boss (and his/her boss) have fair warning If this simple approach seems unrealistic, consider the alternative. If you have an imposed, but unobtainable, deadline and you accept it; then the outcome is your assured failure. Of course, there is a fifth option: move to a company with realistic schedules. One defence tactic is to present your superior with a current list of your obligations indicating what impact the new task will have on these, and ask him/her to assign the priorities: I cant do them all, which should I slip?. Another tactic is to keep a data base of your time estimates and the actual time taken by each task. This will quickly develop into a source of valuable data and increase the accuracy of your planning predictions. There is no reason why you should respond only to externally imposed deadlines. The slightly shoddy product which you hand-over after the last minute rush (and normally have returned for correction the following week) could easily have been polished if only an extra day had been available so move your personal deadline forward and allow yourself the luxury of leisured review before the product is shipped. Taking this a step further, the same sort of review might be applied to the product at each stage of its development so that errors and rework time are reduced. Thus by allocating time to quality review, you save time in rework; and this is all part of project planning supported and monitored by your time management. Finally, for each activity you should estimate how much time it is worth and allocate only that amount. This critical appraisal may even suggest a different approach or method so that the time matches the tasks importance. Beware of perfection, it takes too long allocate time for fitness for purpose, then stop. Monitoring Staff Your Personal Time Management also affects other people, particularly your subordinates. Planning projects means not only allocating your time but also the distribution of tasks; and this should be done in the same planned, monitored and reviewed manner as your own scheduling. Any delegated task should be specified with an (agreed) end date. As a Manager, you are responsible for ensuring that the tasks allocated to your subordinates are completed successfully. Thus you should ensure that each task is concluded with a deliverable (for instance, a memo to confirm completion) you make an entry in your diary to check that this has arrived. Thus, if you agree the task for Tuesday, Wednesday should have an entry in your diary to check the deliverable. This simple device allows you to monitor progress and to initiate action as necessary. Long term Objectives There are many long term objectives which the good Manager must achieve, particularly with regard to the development, support and motivation of his/her work-team. Long term objectives have the problem of being important but not urgent; they do not have deadlines, they are distant and remote. For this reason, it is all too easy to ignore them in favour of the urgent and immediate. Clearly a balance must be struck. The beauty of Time Management is that the balance can be decided objectively (without influence from immediate deadlines) and self-imposed through the use of the diary. Simply, a manager might decide that one hour a week should be devoted to personnel issues and would then allocate a regular block of time to that activity. Of course if the factory is on fire, or World War III is declared, the manager may have to re-allocate this time in a particular week but barring such crises, this time should then become sacrosanct and always applied to the same, designated purpose. Similarly, time may be allocated to staff development and training. So if one afternoon a month is deemed to be a suitable allocation, then simply designate the second Thursday (say) of each month and delegate the choice of speakers. The actual time spent in managing this sort of long term objective is small, but without that deliberate planning it will not be achieved. Once you have implemented Personal Time Management, it is worth using some of that control to augment your own career. Some quiet weekend, you should sketch out your own long term objectives and plan a route to them. As you would any long term objective,  allocate time to the necessary sub-tasks and monitor your progress. If you do not plan where you want to go, you are unlikely to get there. Concluding Remarks. Personal Time Management is a systematic application of common sense strategies. It requires little effort, yet it promotes efficient work practices by highlighting wastage and it leads to effective use of time by focusing it on your chosen activities. Personal Time Management does not solve your problems; it reveals them, and provides a structure to implement and monitor solutions. It enables you to take control of your own time how you use it is then up to you.

Different Forms of Love Essay -- essays research papers

When looking at poetry it is easy to look at the structure of the poem for a better understanding. Many poets use rhyme, meter, and other forms of structure when configuring their poems. Some other poets use free verse. Free verse is when you don’t consider rhyme or meter into your work, instead it’s thoughts put together making a poem. Some of the poems that I will be looking at today do in fact use rhyme in most all of the verses. In both of the works I’m going to look at rhyme is clearly apparent. Most if not all of the lines in the two poems ends in continuing rhyme. The two poems I will be talking about are, My Papa’s Waltz and The Mother. Both of the poems have the same underlying theme, love.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My Papa Waltz is a poem dealing with a daughters love for her father. The poem is told from the daughter’s voice. She shows how much love she has for her father even though he isn’t a perfect person. â€Å"The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. (451) This is the opening stanza to the poem. The poet is telling you that this father is dancing with his child but that he is so drunk; you can actually smell the booze on him. The line referring to the small boy makes you truly think and almost smell the booze for yourself. It makes you realize just how much a child can see and understand at a young age. The reference to holding on like death makes you almost think that this was a fast paced...

Animal Farm, by George Orwell :: Animal Farm Essays

One of the things I like about small presses is that they'll take chances on authors who write about things outside of the mainstream. III Publishing has been one of my favorite sources for libertarian/anarchist fiction and science fiction ever since I picked up and totally enjoyed The Last Days of Christ the Vampire. Now they bring us two fine contributions to anarchist SF literature. If you loved George Orwell's Animal Farm, you'll love this "sequel." Many who have read Orwell's classic missed the basic underlying anti-authoritarian message, instead reading it as an allegory about the Soviet Union. In Anarchist Farm we find an extension of the philosophies underlying Animal Farm, but this time with a more upbeat outcome. Contemporary concerns such as ecocide and animal rights are also woven into this readable book. In fact, it is written in a style appropriate for teenage readers. As in Animal Farm, the main characters here are animals and they talk. They also have cute names. Pancho is a pig who has escaped from the regime that has taken over the farm portrayed in Animal Farm. He is befriended by some wild animals, who are later revealed to be the "Forest Defenders." The Defenders turn out to be very similar to Earth First! Pancho eventually finds a farm whose owner has recently died. In response to the death of their benevolent owner, the animals turn the farm into a successful anarchist collective. As the months roll by, the animal start to worry about what might happen to them when the humans come to auction off the farm. The ending will surprise you. It should also be mentioned that the book also deals with monkeywrenching and its consequences. Anarchist Farm is funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring. It's an excellent sequel to Animal Farm. Let's hope that a few more readers "get it" this time. A.D. is a science fiction story set in the U.S.A. in the near future. Radical changes have altered the very political geography of the continent: the Klux Klan Klan and other white supremacists control what was the southern U.S., the Nation of Islam controls what was the Midwest, and the West Coast is all that remains of the old U.S. "liberal democracy." Fred Hampton Rush Sr. is a middle-aged black man living in Chicago, which is now the capital city of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America.

Student Satisfaction in Jose Rizal University

Introduction Students’ opinions about all aspects of academic life are now sought by educational institutions worldwide, generally, in the form of a satisfaction feedback questionnaire. It is this student satisfaction survey, within the context of student satisfaction in JRU Jose Rizal University. In the Philippines, Higher Education (HE) students were considered to be the â€Å"primary customers† of a University ,even before they were liable for the payment of â€Å"up-front† tuition fees. Students are the direct recipients of the service provided.As if to confirm this status of the â€Å"student as customer†, the Commision on Higher Education (CHED) has introduced a National Student Survey. This survey is aimed at first year students to seek their views on a number of aspects of teaching, assessment and support provided by their university and its courses. The results will ultimately be used by the school to produce league tables of university performanc e. The position of a university in any league tables will impact ultimately on its image.Image has a strong impact on the retention of current students and the attraction of potential students. Indeed recruitment and retention of students has been moved to the top of most universities’ agendas by CHED due to their desire to increase the JRU student population in line with Government targets. Poor retention rates may have adverse funding consequences for University . This paper takes the view that student satisfaction, retention and recruitment are closely linked.Thus student satisfaction has become an extremely important issue for universities and their management. The aim is to try to maximise student satisfaction, minimise dissatisfaction and therefore retain students and so improve the institutions performance across a number of league tables. Taking these criticisms into consideration the questionnaire used in the satisfaction survey asked only for perceptions of performa nce of a range of service aspects (as well as importance) but did not aim to collect data associated with expectations.Indeed, the survey questionnaire was designed around the concept of the service-product bundle. This concept is discussed in the next section. The service-product bundle The outcome of service delivery is a tangible product, and a â€Å"bundle† of goods and services as the product offering . The service-product bundle refers to the inseparable offering of many goods and services including what Jose Rizal University has to offer its students. This bundle consists of three elements: (1) the physical or facilitating goods; 2) the sensual service provided – the explicit service; and (3) the psychological service – the implicit service. For a university the facilitating goods include the lectures and tutorials, presentation slides, supplementary handout documents/materials and the recommended module text. It also includes the physical facilities such as the lecture theatres and tutorial rooms and their level of furnishing, decoration, lighting and layout as well as ancillary services such as catering and recreational amenities.The explicit service includes the knowledge levels of staff, staff teaching ability, the consistency of teaching quality irrespective of personnel, ease of making appointments with staff, the level of difficulty of the subject content and the workload. The implicit service includes the treatment of students by staff, including friendliness and approachability, concern shown if the student has a problem, respect for feelings and opinions, availability of staff, capability and competence of staff.It also includes the ability of the university’s environment to make the student feel comfortable, the sense of competence, confidence and professionalism conveyed by the ambience in lectures and tutorials, feeling that the student’s best interest is being served and a feeling that rewards are consist ent with the effort put into course works /examinations. All of the above are based on students’ perceptions of the various parts of the service and the data is usually collected via some form of feedback questionnaire.Why collect student feedback? (1) to provide auditable evidence that students have had the opportunity to pass comment on their courses and that such information is used to bring about improvements; (2) to encourage student reflection on their learning; (3) to allow institutions to benchmark and to provide indicators that will contribute to the reputation of the university in the marketplace; and (4) to provide students with an opportunity to express their level of satisfaction with their academic experience.The last bullet point as the rationale behind the survey undertaken for the particular research project described in this paper. Keeping customers satisfied is what leads to customer loyalty. Research conducted by Jones and Sasser Jr (1995) into thirty orga nisations from five different markets found that where customers have choices the link between satisfaction and loyalty is linear; as satisfaction rises, so too does loyalty. However, in markets where competition was intense they found a difference between the loyalty of satisfied and completely satisfied customers.Put simply, if satisfaction is ranked on a 1-5 scale from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied, the 4’s – though satisfied – were six times more likely to defect than the 5’s. Customer loyalty manifests itself in many forms of customer behavior. Jones and Sasser Jr (1995) grouped ways of measuring loyalty into three main categories: (1) intent to re-purchase; (2) primary behaviour – organisations have access to information on various transactions at the customer level and can track five categories that show actual customer re-purchasing behaviour; viz, recency, frequency, amount, retention, and longevity; and 3) secondary beha viour – e. g. customer referrals, endorsements and spreading the word are all extremely important forms of consumer behaviour for an organisation. Translating this into university services, this covers intent to study at a higher level within the same institution, how frequently and recently a student used ancillary services, such as the library, catering and IT services, and lastly the willingness to recommend the institution to friends, neighbours and fellow employees. Issues impacting on student satisfaction Price et al. 2003) recently reported on the impact of facilities on undergraduate student choice of university. They surveyed a number of universities over two years in order to determine students’ reasons for selecting a particular university. The average results for the two years were fairly similar – the top eight reasons being; it had the right course, availability of computers, quality of library facilities, good teaching reputation, availability of â€Å"quiet† areas, availability of areas for self-study, quality of public transport in the town/city and a friendly attitude towards students.Clearly, students’ perceptions of a university’s facilities are one of the main influences on their decision to enrol. Coles (2002) found that student satisfaction is decreased when class sizes are larger in earlier cohorts, and when students are taking compulsory core modules rather than optional modules. The quality of any of the service encounters, or â€Å"moments of truth† (Carlzon, 1989) experienced by customers forms part of their overall impression of the whole service provided, (Dale, 2003) and by implication, their impression of the organisation itself.As Deming (1982) commented, most people form their opinions based on the people that they see, and they are either dissatisfied or delighted, or some other point on the continuum in between. In order to deliver high quality services to students, universiti es must manage every aspect of the student’s interaction with all of their service offerings and in particular those involving its people. Services are delivered to people by people, and the moments of truth can make or break a university’s image (Banwet and Datta, 2003).In order to deliver total student satisfaction, all employees of a university should Ad here to the principles of quality customer service, whether they be front-line contact staff involved in teaching or administration, or non-contact staff in management or administrative roles (Gold, 2001; Low, 2000, cited in Banwet and Datta, 2003). In a recent survey conducted with 310 all male Saudi Arabian students attending the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Sohail and Shaikh (2004) found that â€Å"contact personnel† was the most influencing factor in student’s evaluation of service quality.However, physical environment, layout, lighting, classrooms, appearance of buildings and gr ounds and the overall cleanliness also significantly contributed to students’ concepts of service quality. Galloway (1998) studied the role of the faculty administration office in one UK University on student perceptions of service quality. He found that it impacted directly on students and influenced their perceptions of the quality of the whole institution. The office performance also had a direct impact on academic and technical staff within the faculty.These front-line staff in their turn had a direct impact on students, potential students and other clients. The main predictors of quality for students were found to be: . office has a professional appearance; . staff dress smartly; . never too busy to help; and . opening hours are personally convenient. Banwet and Datta (2003) believed that satisfied customers are loyal, and that satisfied students were likely to attend another lecture delivered by the same lecturer or opt for another module or course taught by her/him.In their survey of 168 students who attended four lectures delivered by the same lecturer, covering perceived service quality, importance and post-visit intentions, they found that students placed more importance on the outcome of the lecture (knowledge and skills gained, availability of class notes and reading material, coverage and depth of the lecture and teacher’s feedback on assessed work) than any other dimension.This supports the findings of Schneider and Bowen (1995) who deduced that the quality of the core service influences the overall quality of the service perception. For universities the core service delivery method is still the lecture. Overall Banwet and Datta (2003) found that students’ intentions to re-attend or recommend lectures was dependent on their perceptions of quality and the satisfaction they got from attending previous lectures. This is supported by the research of Hill et al. (2003) who utilised focus groups to determine what quality education meant to students.The most important theme was the quality of the lecturer including classroom delivery, feedback to students during the session and on assignments, and the relationship with students in the classroom. Research by Tam (2002) to measure the impact of Higher Education (HE) on student’s academic, social and personal growth at a Hong Kong university found that as a result of their university experience students had changed intellectually, socially, emotionally and culturally. This growth was evidenced as students progressed from one year to another as their university career developed.Is this also the case with student’ perceptions of service quality and satisfaction? A number of researchers have suggested that this might indeed be the case (Hill, 1995; O’Neil, 2003) although obtaining valid and reliable data to support such a stance is difficult. This study aims to determine if there are differences in those aspects of a university service that stud ents consider important, as well as their satisfaction levels, associated with their year/level of study, i. e. first, second and third. MethodologyA quantitative survey was designed to elicit student satisfaction levels across the University’s service offerings. The questionnaire consisted of __ questions informed by previous research studies and subdivided into the various categories of the service product bundle including, lecture and tutorial facilities, ancillary facilities, the facilitating goods, the explicit service and the implicit service. At the end students were asked for their overall satisfaction rating and whether they would recommend the University to a prospective student.The satisfaction questions were preceded by a series of demographic questions that would allow the sample population to be segmented. These included, interalia, questions regarding gender, age, level of study, mode of study and country of origin. Participation in the survey was entirely volu ntary and anonymous. The length and complexity of the questionnaire was influenced, in part, by the balance between the quest for data and getting students to complete the survey. The questionnaire was piloted among 100 undergraduate volunteers.The length of time it took them to complete the survey was noted and at the end they were asked for any comments regarding the validity and reliability of individual questions. They were also asked if there was anything â€Å"missing† from the questionnaire. Based on the feedback received a number of questions were amended and the design of the questionnaire altered slightly. It took on average 12 minutes to complete the questionnaire. In order to get as large and representative a sample as possible, we conduct survey question in first year student in all courses in were targeted.Staff teaching these modules were approached and permission sought to utilise for a few minuetes of their lecture time in order to explain the rationale behin d the survey and to persuade students to complete the survey in class. Generally this â€Å"personal touch† was successful in eliciting a good response. Over the course of the two weeks the survey was undertaken, only one person refused to complete the questionnaire. Researchers are divided as to whether or not determinants of satisfaction should be weighted by their importance because different attributes may be of unequal importance to different people.In this study both satisfaction and importance were measured. There is no such thing as the perfect rating scale. However, some produce more reliable and valid results than others. Devlin et al. (1993) determined that a good rating scale should have, inter alia, the following characteristics: . minimal response bias; . discriminating power; . ease of administration; and . ease of use by respondents. In order to accommodate these characteristics, the rating scale contained five points with well-spaced anchor points representin g the possible range of opinions about the service.The scale contained a neutral category and the negative categories were presented first (to the left). Thus, undergraduates were required to respond utilising a 5-point Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very unsatisfactory, 2 is unsatisfactory, 3 is neutral (neither satisfactory or unsatisfactory), 4 is satisfactory and 5 is very satisfactory. This type of scale provides a common basis for responses to items concerned with different aspects of the University experience.The importance that students place on each criteria was measured utilising a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 is very unimportant, 2 is unimportant, 3 is neutral (neither important or unimportant) 4 is important and 5 is very important. Respondents were asked to tick the box next to the number that represented their opinion on each item. A sample of 865 students from a total within the Faculty of 3800 was surveyed. The questionnaires were analysed using SPSS v. 11 and Q uadrant Analysis conducted in order to determine those areas perceived as being the least satisfactory with the greatest importance rating.Finally, respondent focus groups were assembled to discuss some of the issues that required more in-depth analysis and which, due to constraints of space and time, were not explicitly asked about in the original survey. Results A total of — questionnaires were returned, although not all had complete data sets. Table I details the demographic mix of the respondents. Based on all student responses, the most important (i. e. list of the top ten starting from the highest value) and least important (i. e. ist of the bottom ten starting from the lowest value) aspects of the University service are shown in Table II. As can be seen from Table II the most important areas of the University services are those associated with learning and teaching. Interestingly, given the recommendations of a Government White Paper (HEFCE et al. , 2003) that from 200 6 all newly recruited university teaching staff should obtain a teaching qualification that incorporates agreed professional standards, the most important aspect of the service is the teaching ability of staff, closely followed by their subject expertise.The consistency of teaching quality irrespective of the teacher is also considered by the respondents as important, recognising that teaching quality can be variable. The students also recognise the importance of the lecture and tutorial, which is not surprising given that for most universities that is still the core service offering and is very much linked to the teaching ability and subject knowledge of staff. Teaching and learning support materials were Table 1. 1 Demographic mix of respondents GenderMale Female46 54 NationalityHome(Filipino)International89 4 Mode of StudyFull-time Part-time sandwich Level of studyLevel1 Level2 Level3 Note: Sandwich students are those whose program of study includes a year in industry Table 2. 2 Most important and least important aspects of service RatingMost ImportantLeast important 1Teaching ability of staffDecoration in lecture facilities 2Subject expertise of staffVending machines 3IT facilitiesDecoration in tutorial rooms 4LecturesFurnishings in lecture facilities 5Supplementary lecture materialsRecreational facilities TutorialsAvailability of parking 7Consistency of teaching quality irrespective of teacherThe layout of tutorial/seminar rooms 8White boardThe layout of lecture facilities 9The Learning Resources CentreThe on-campus catering facilities 10The approachability of teaching staffThe quality of pastoral support Note: Blackboard is a virtual learning environment that students can access off and on campus also ranked highly, particularly supplementary handout materials and the use of Blackboard for enhancing student learning.These are mostly associated with the explicit service delivered to the students and the facilitating goods. With regard to facilities, stude nts have ranked the importance of IT facilities very highly, reflecting the usefulness of connection to the Internet for research purposes and software packages for producing high quality word-processed documentation for coursework assignments and dissertations. This links well with the high ranking of the Learning Resource Centre where IT facilities can be accessed and books and journals ourced in â€Å"hard† copy or electronic copy. Table II also shows those areas of the service that students find relatively unimportant. These are mostly associated with the lecture and tutorial facilities and the ancillary services, for example, layout and decoration of lecture and tutorial facilities, catering facilities and vending machines. A further analysis was undertaken to determine whether different segments of the respondent population had similar or different rankings of the University services’ attributes with regard to importance and unimportance.With regard to mode of st udy, Table III shows the rankings for students studying full-time with the University. Whilst acknowledging the fact that 80 per cent of the sample population is full time students, the rankings of those service aspects considered most important are very similar to those for the sample population as a whole, the only difference being that â€Å"supplementary tutorial materials† replaces â€Å"approachability of staff†.Once again the majority of aspects considered least important are associated with the facilities and ancillary services When the views of Part-time students are considered, a number of interesting differences in their priorities are worthy of discussion. Table IV shows the rankings of service aspects for part time students. The IT facilities drops from third to tenth in their importance rankings, perhaps indicative of the fact that they have access to IT facilities at work and/or at home, thus rendering it less important relative to other aspects of servi ce.Blackboard (a virtual learning environment that allows teaching staff to make learning and other material available via the internet), on the other hand rises from 10th to 7th in importance indicating its usefulness as a teaching aid for students who do not attend the University on a daily basis and who may miss classes due to work or family commitments. Interestingly, the â€Å"helpfulness of technical staff† is considered unimportant, again reflecting their access to such help at work or a greater level of expertise on their part through working with IT on a daily basis. RankingMost importantLeast important Teaching ability of staffDecoration in lecture facilities 2Subject expertise of staffDecoration in tutorial rooms 3IT facilitiesVending machines 4LecturesFurnishing in tutorials 5TutorialsFurnishing in lectures 6Supplementary lecture materialsAvailability of parking 7Consistency of teaching quality irrespective of teacherRecreational facilities 8The Learning Resources CentreThe layout of tutorial/seminar rooms 9Supplementary tutorial materialsThe on-campus catering facilities 10BlackboardThe layout of lecture facilities Table III. Most important and least important service aspects for full-time students RatingMost importantLeast important Teaching ability of staffRecreational facilities 2Subject expertise of staffVending machines 3Consistency of teaching quality irrespective of teacherDecoration in lecture facilities 4Teaching and learning equipment in lecturesFurnishings in lecture facilities 5The Learning Resources CentreDecoration in tutorial rooms 6LecturesQuality of pastoral support 7BlackboardThe on-campus catering facilities 8Supplementary lecture materialsThe layout of tutorial/seminar rooms 9Supplementary tutorial materialsHelpfulness of technical staff 10IT facilitiesThe lecture facilities overall