Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore the degree of university residence hall students’ preferences for some facilities and amenities. With a case study of a developing country, this paper also aimed to determine whether the mean score of these preferences differed significantly with regard to students’ gender, nationality, race and study level. Structured questionnaires were administrated to 850 residence hall students, and 752 questionnaires were usable out of these numbers. The result of the study indicated that free internet access, lockable storage space and mirror inside student’s room, water machine and variety of food in food stall were the 5 most preferred facilities in the residence halls. Additionally, this study highlighted the importance of some specific facilities such as kitchen, laundry monitoring system and 24 h available taxi from students’ perspective. It was found that students had a great interest to these facilities as well. The research further uncovered a significant difference among male and female students, race and study level on their degree of preferences. Undergraduates, Chinese, and female students reported greatest preferences for all types of facilities and amenities. No significant difference was found in the preference mean scores of students from different nationalities.

Key words:     Facilities and amenities, university residence hall, gender, students’ preferences, race, nationality, study level.