Educational Alternatives, Volume 14, 2016

Abstract: It is well known that higher education institutions nowadays are affected by many serious structural factors which create a very intense competitive situation among these HEIs. In addition, the existence of institutions strongly depends on attracting students and in the retention of students. The reputation of institutions, the quality of institutional facilities, the quality of academic departments, the level of satisfaction, participation and engagement of students and academic staff, overall satisfaction …etc. are all important indicators in attracting students and in the retention of students. Institutions in Oman need to study and identify the above important indicators. In this paper, two surveys for students and academic staff are proposed, validated and tested in a pilot experiment. The surveys are to be applied, studied and analyzed in 40 private HEIs. The measures of internal consistency / reliability and item-inter correlation coefficients are performed to test the accuracy of the surveys’ instruments. The numerical results and conclusions are then discussed. The results of testing the surveys show that the scales of measurement have a high internal consistency and that the items of the surveys have good item-inter correlation coefficients.