Abstract
Abstract : South Africa’s higher education landscape has gone through some turbulent waters of late. Students play a fundamental role in this intensive university service delivery system. This study’s aim was to evaluate students’ needs, frustrations, challenges, experiences and emotions as actors within a people intensive higher education service delivery system. It places the student as the center of the service design approach and highlights several areas of exploration wherein students are actors within the system. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Several group interviews were conducted with students. The collected data was analysed using an inductive content analysis approach. The main results indicated that overall the students’ experience and emotions are positive, albeit a few areas of improvement is needed. Students need extra attention during their first year of study and some of the service departments need improvement. The contributions of this study are on the practical implementation of an improved service design and eliminating these service gaps.