Exploring gender differences in students’ satisfaction with hostels in higher education institution campuses in india are we designing considering students could be girls?

Abstract

Students’ hostels are an essential component of higher education campuses where students come from far off places. The design quality of hostel buildings, public spaces and various amenities play an important role in students’ satisfaction with the educational institution. This has a direct and indirect impact on the quality of the teaching-learning process. With the emergence of private sector higher education campuses, there is an emphasis on the quality of hostels to attract the students. However, the design of hostels continues to follow the ‘gender-neutral’ approach. The only difference in the hostels for boys and girls are the design of wash rooms. This paper presents the results of the assessment of gender differences in student’s satisfaction with the hostels in higher education campuses in India. Five educational campuses catering to different disciplines are chosen and data was gathered through the use of questionnaire administered to 176 students selected through random sampling. The study revealed that there are subtle but important differences in the requirements of boys and girls in terms of thermal comfort, privacy, public spaces, wash rooms, and the spatial distribution of facilities, etc. The results of this study provide a possible direction to architects and management of educational institutions to adopt a gender-sensitive approach while planning and designing of hostels and related facilities