Evaluating Students’ Satisfaction with Their University and City: A Case in Turkey

Abstract

University satisfaction is not limited to academic processes, pedagogical interactions, or on-campus experiences. The city environment in which students live outside the university can also affect students’ satisfaction levels. This research aims to define the city and university satisfaction levels of students enrolled in a state university in Turkey, and to determine the relationship between students’ city and university satisfaction levels. The research was designed with a descriptive and relational design within the scope of quantitative research methods, and the sample consists of 1071 university students. A significant difference was found between city and university satisfaction and gender, education level, size of the family residence, and geographical region. The research concluded that city satisfaction is a significant variable in explaining university satisfaction. As students’ city satisfaction increases, university satisfaction also increases. City satisfaction explains 33% of the total variance in university satisfaction. Services and facilities that will increase university students’ city satisfaction positively affect university satisfaction. This result shows that the city and the university have complementary qualities. At the same time, the results show that university satisfaction of students cannot be reduced to pedagogical and academic activities and on-campus experiences. In this context, it is possible that the university satisfaction level of the young people who study in a city is high, where the level of city satisfaction is high in terms of basic needs, social and cultural interactions, feeling of safety, entertainment opportunities, sports activities, adequate transportation, and travel services.