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Table 1. Facility and amenity factor loading and reliability.<br />

Items of facility and amenity Factor loading Cronbah alpha<br />

ATM machine 0.717<br />

Photostat and printing services 0.714<br />

Water machine 0.690<br />

Storage rooms for unused staffs 0.625<br />

Small library 0.616<br />

24 h study room 0.611<br />

Vending machine 0.552<br />

Lift 0.539<br />

Free internet access 0.539<br />

Laundry with washer and dryer at each floor 0.538<br />

Mirror in the room<br />

Hot water in the bathroom<br />

0.516<br />

0.516<br />

0.92<br />

Lockable storage space inside the room 0.515<br />

Visual tour in website 0.503<br />

Laundry monitoring system 0.499<br />

Fitness room 0.498<br />

Small mart 0.495<br />

24 h Taxi for emergency use 0.483<br />

Pin board in the room 0.429<br />

Variety of food in food stall (Chinese Malay Indian) 0.427<br />

Kitchen 0.358<br />

Indoor pool (specially for female) 0.340<br />

preferred facility. The next three important facilities were<br />

mentioned as mirror in the room (Mean 3.50, SD 0.69),<br />

water machine (Mean 3.43, SD .77) and variety of food in<br />

food stall (Mean 3.40, SD .80).<br />

In addition the students showed a great desire for<br />

facilities of pin board in the room (Mean 3.35 SD .74),<br />

Laundry with washer and dryer at each floor (Mean 3.33<br />

SD .82), ATM machine (Mean 3.31 SD .92), big storage<br />

space inside the wall of the room (Mean 3.24 SD .77) ,<br />

photostat and printing services (Mean 3.20 SD .92), 24 h<br />

study room (Mean 3.17 SD .93), small mart ( Mean 3.12<br />

SD .90), lift (Mean 3.08 SD 1.05) fitness room (Mean<br />

3.07 SD .91) laundry monitoring system ( Mean 3.05 SD<br />

.91) as well as storage room for unused stuffs (Mean<br />

3.00 SD .91) as indicated by mean score of higher than<br />

3.<br />

Besides, the facilities that might be generally found in<br />

the majority of university residence halls, this study also<br />

examined the students’ preferences for facilities such as<br />

kitchen, laundry monitoring system, 24 h taxi for<br />

emergency uses and indoor pool for female students.<br />

Among these facilities, students had the highest<br />

preference for laundry monitoring system (Mean 3.05, SD<br />

.91). This system is used by some universities from<br />

developed countries. With this system, students are able<br />

to check the availability of washing machines and dryers<br />

online through the internet. This system can easily help<br />

students to manage and save their time and instead of<br />

Khozaei et al. 7337<br />

queuing for using washing machines and dryers, they can<br />

use the machines in less crowded hours. The students’<br />

desire for having the kitchen in residence hall (M 2.95 SD<br />

0.99) and 24 h available taxi (M 2.95 SD 0.94) were also<br />

respectively high.<br />

Further it was of interest to understand whether male<br />

and female students differ significantly on their preferences.<br />

Accordingly an independent sample t test was<br />

conducted. Significant differences were found between<br />

male and female students on facility and amenity preferences.<br />

These facilities and amenities were more important<br />

for female students than their male counterparts.<br />

Table 4 presents the result of the independent-samples t<br />

test.<br />

A series of 1 way ANOVA were performed to examine<br />

students’ preferences in base of nationality, race, and<br />

study level. No significant differences were found between<br />

mean score of students from different nationalities.<br />

However a significant difference was found between race<br />

and facility and amenity preferences. Post hoc comparisons<br />

using the Tamhanes’T2 test indicated that the<br />

mean score for Chinese students (M=71.49, SD=8.76)<br />

was significantly higher than the Malay students<br />

(M=68.68, SD=12.64). Table 5<br />

The result of study also indicated a significant<br />

difference between study level (undergraduate, master by<br />

research, master by course work, PhD students) and<br />

facility and amenity preferences. Post hoc comparisons

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