Abstract
This article examines how students’ geographical background influences their satisfaction
with university hall of residence. The reason for this study is bore out of the fact that the
diversity of geographical background is a major issue in post-apartheid South Africa as
most students’ comes from diverse background. Moreover, few studies have been conducted
to explore relationships between cultural differences and the housing satisfaction of
university students in South Africa. The primary data for the study was collected through a
structured questionnaire survey distributed to a sample of 60 occupants’ from a female hall
of residence at the Doornfontein campuses of the University of Johannesburg. The findings
from the survey revealed that 26.67% of the students reside in urban areas while 73.33% of
the students reside in rural areas, township and informal settlement. Further findings
revealed that the urban students were less satisfied with specific features in the hall of
residence while student’s who reside in the rural area, ‘location’ and informal settlement
were more satisfied. However a unified finding in the study revealed that students’ from
different geographical background were satisfied with the neighbourhood facilities.
Diversity of geographical classification is a major issue in many societies as no society is
mono-ethnic. Hence there is a need to determine the influence of geographical diversity in
students housing so that universities can better serve students’ needs.