Investigating International Students’ Perception of Foodservice Attributes in Malaysian Research Universities

Anisa Zahwa Akbara,Heesup Han,Bee-Lia Chua,António Raposo

doi:10.3390/su13158190

Anisa Zahwa Akbara, Heesup Han + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158190

Copy DOI

Abstract

University foodservice is expected to satisfy students’ food needs and is one of the necessities at a university. However, serving a community of international students who are multicultural is not an easy task. Thus, it is necessary to recognize international students’ needs and wants in order to increase their satisfaction with the overall on-campus dining experience. This study conducted an importance–performance analysis to examine international students’ perceived importance and perceived performance of university foodservice attributes. Using a self-administered questionnaire, a total of 620 international students who were studying in Malaysian research universities comprised the sample of this study. The results showed that food price was the most satisfactory foodservice attribute as perceived by international students. Food quality was deemed unsatisfactory and represented the main weakness. Results from this study can assist in determining how international students perceive the quality of the key attributes of on-campus foodservices and identify fields in which improvements are required.

Highlights

The admissions of global students remain important to the university sector in Malaysia, since Malaysia sought to be acknowledged as a world-class higher education center by the year 2020 [1]
The empirical findings of this research demonstrated that interactional quality, food quality, atmospheric quality, food price, and food selection attributes in each importance–performance analysis (IPA) quadrant were positioned by the mean values of importance and performance
The results are effective in predicting international student satisfaction and provide strong empirical support for the importance–performance analysis, which assumes that international student satisfaction will be influenced less by attribute performance when the self-stated importance of the attribute is low

Summary

Introduction

The admissions of global students remain important to the university sector in Malaysia, since Malaysia sought to be acknowledged as a world-class higher education center by the year 2020 [1]. Foreign students generate international business possibilities and ties to world trade, become diplomatic allies, and encourage interest in foreign policy [2]. To maintain international students in this competitive setting, significant efforts are needed. Efforts were made to attract foreign students by improving the reputation of Malaysian higher education institutions. Research Universities (MRU) program has provided Malaysian universities and research institutions with an awareness of the research culture. Among the initiatives are (1) targeting the enrolment of global students, (2) improving Malaysian universities’ world ranking,

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion