Samenvatting

Purpose– The present paper aims to explore to what extent the quality of facility services can be related to the differences in educational achievements in higher education. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on the first preliminary analyses of a national online survey among 1,752 lecturers of 18 Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences. Via explorative desk research, additional data were gathered regarding the educational achievements, size and religious identity of the institutions. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression were used to test the propositions. Findings – The results seem to indicate that the perceived quality of facility services that are education-related and provide personal comfort to teachers have a positive relationship with study success. Layout, fitting out, and general facility services show no statistically significant relationship with study success, whereas (traditional) workplaces have a negative relationship. Also, we found that the size of the education institution strongly negatively relates to study success, and institutions with a Christian identity outperform non-Christian institutions. Practical implications– These preliminary research findings suggest that a prime consideration in learning space design is the facilitation of social interaction, creating a (virtual) small-scale learning environment in large institutions. Originality/value - This paper suggests that facility services can assist the quality of higher education.