Students’ residential preferences: a case study is dormitories of University of Mohaghegh Ardabili

Abstract

Researchers believe that the architecture of residential halls has a significant impact on various aspects of students’ lives, especially on the quality of their education. The purpose of this study was to extract and evaluate residential preferences affecting the architecture of dormitories for students in dormitories at University of Mohaghegh Ardabili in Iran. The seven extracted indicators formed the basis of the researcher-made questionnaire with 35 questions. Pre-tests were performed at University of Mohaghegh Ardabili and its Cronbach’s alpha was obtained with a coefficient of 0.930. The size of the study sample was 250 students from among students, which was confirmed by Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) method. The analysis of the exploratory factors was examined by two software 8.8 Lisrel and 26 SPSS and by the factor model test of the second order and the binomial test (ratio). We concluded that students’ residential preferences in the case study include indicators of dimensions, service and welfare, location, privacy, landscape, flexibility, and materials with a positive and direct impact. Statistical analysis showed that flexibility is the most important indicator and landscape is the least important indicator for students.