A Composite Indicator Dimension Reduction Procedure with Application to University Student Satisfaction

Quality of life or listed company rating are examples of complex variables which are not directly observed. Complex variables may be studied through a composite indicator based on other variables (partial components) that are observed and directly measured. Other examples of complex variables arise in the context of university service evaluation. The university experience is central in the life of the young and universities should provide a high level student support. To this end, a careful evaluation of university services is necessary. This evaluation is complex because it involves many partial aspects, therefore university student satisfaction should be measured through a composite indicator based on partial variables. The focus of the paper is on the reduction of the number of partial indicators under consideration to construct a complex indicator. An empirical solution is proposed. To be useful, the procedure should be quick and compact so that it may be widely used by practitioners. The steps of the procedure are presented and a practical application is discussed. More precisely, the method is applied to data from a sample survey conducted on students of the University of Padova that are at the end of the study process. We consider the quality of many services, such as registrar’s offices, structure of exams, student socialization and reached skills.