An Analysis of Students' Satisfaction with Their Academic Program

Postsecondary institutions are faced with many questions regarding the value and effectiveness of their academic programs, heightened by the economic milieu of education and the rise of student consumerism. This study examined whether students' orientations regarding educational “purpose and process” and “relative fit” with faculty orientations were associated with students' satisfaction with their academic program. The findings suggested that dissatisfied students had educational orientation profiles noticeably divergent from peers moderately and highly satisfied. Moreover, dissatisfied students were least congruent with faculty while highly satisfied students had orientations most congruent with faculty. Further support was therefore advanced for a person-environment model in assessing student satisfaction, in this instance an environment shaped by faculty educational views. Discussion centered on various implications of student-faculty incongruence from both a student and an institutional perspective.