.stl export has low geometry resolution

I am having trouble getting a usable .stl file when exporting figures created in MakeHuman from Blender (and I get the same result exporting directly from MakeHuman). I have tried this with Blender 3.5 and 2.78b with the same result.

Exporting from MakeHuman in the .dae format gives a decent high resolution geometry:

However, exporting either from Blender or MakeHuman to .stl gives a model like this:

The intended use of this is 3d printing in a small scale. I have scoured tutorials for exporting MakeHuman figures, and I cannot find any information about addressing this issue. Also, although Shapeways purports to support the .dae format, it fails when attempting to import the .dae file.

I should be grateful for any guidance on how to address or even understand this problem. Thank you in advance.