Factors influencing students' satisfaction in campus cafeterias : an empirical study on public universities at Klang Valley in Malaysia

Abstract

Cafeteria facilities are key component of a wholesome arrangement that impacts personal happiness for both native and foreign students. For university students, the first option for dining is on-campus foodservices which implies the importance of the quality of the cafeteria service. To preserve students’ happiness with on-campus foodservice, university foodservice must be reviewed and improved on a regular basis. Since university students who eat in the university’s cafeteria often communicate with each other, comments about the food service spread very quickly among people which, if negative, can often tarnish the credibility of a service provider even if one or two student is dissatisfied and give negative comments. Hence, considering the importance of students’ satisfaction this study was conducted with the goal of investigating the link between variables such as pricing, food quality, customer service, and atmosphere with students’ satisfaction. Convenience sampling method was used to collect quantitative data from 250 students at public universities in Klang valley of Malaysia which are IIUM, UPM, UM, UiTM, UKM and UTM. The survey was conducted via google form within a duration of 20 days from 15th August until 4th September 2021.The collected data was later analysed using regression analysis and factor analysis the help of SPSS software. The study revealed that students’ satisfaction was associated with the four independent variables. Moreover, all the factors had significant and positive influence on students’ satisfaction. From the regression analysis it was found that the customer service and price fairness had the most significant influence over student satisfaction which was followed closely by the other two variables which were food quality and atmosphere. This implies that even though all the factors considered in this study were significantly important to the students, the price fairness and customer service were most prioritized. The reason of this could be the financial hardship of students who try to control their expenses. However, towards the conclusion of the study, it was discovered that all of the independent factors included in the study had a substantial influence on the dependent variable, which was student satisfaction. As a result, the study found that all four hypotheses evaluated in this study were accepted and supported.