Quality of Vegetarian Cafeteria Services and Students’ Overall Satisfaction with their University

Abstract

A major challenge for students at the university level is to adjust to the food provided by the campus’ cafeteria, and the adjustment is further complicated when a school offers a vegetarian diet (Hartwell, Edwards, & Brown, 2011). The purpose of this study was to ascertain students’ perceptions of vegetarian cafeteria service quality and their overall satisfaction with their university. A survey design using a sample of 100 dormitory students at a Southeast Asia university revealed there was moderate satisfaction with the cafeteria service quality and with the university, but there were concerns with the pricing of the food. There was no difference in the students’ perception of cafeteria service quality or their satisfaction with their university when compared by class level, major, meals eaten in the cafeteria per day, or gender. A moderate correlation was found between cafeteria service quality and student satisfaction with their university (n = 100, r = .40, p = 0.05)