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This study was conducted to investigate the impact of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and internal design on the performance of students in university dormitories in Tehran and North Cyprus.

Using a survey questionnaire, 298 students living in student dormitories in Tehran and North Cyprus were surveyed for data collection.

Research has shown that the academic performance and well-being of students are heavily impacted by factors related to IEQ and internal design. The study conducted in Tehran and North Cyprus has identified the most effective components of IEQ and internal design for student dormitories. The study suggests that proper ventilation, furniture design, temperature control and lighting design are key factors that significantly affect IEQ and internal design. Control and lighting design are key factors that significantly affect IEQ and internal design.

Originality: The study utilizes a comparative study designed to analyze the differences and similarities between the two locations.

This paper aims to present findings from an EU-funded international student-led energy saving competition (SAVES) on a scale previously unseen. There are multiple accounts of short-term projects and energy saving competitions encouraging pro-environmental behaviour change amongst students in university dormitories, but the purpose of this research is to provide evidence of consistent and sustained energy savings from student-led energy savings competitions, underpinned by practical action.

A mixed-methods approach (pre- and post-intervention surveys, focus groups and analysis of energy meter data) was used to determine the level of energy savings and quantifiable behaviour change delivered by students across participating university dormitories.

This research has provided further insight into the potential for savings and behaviour change in university dormitories through relatively simple actions. Whilst other interventions have shown greater savings, this project provided consistent savings over two years of 7 per cent across a large number of university dormitories in five countries through simple behaviour changes.

An energy dashboard displaying near a real-time leaderboard was added to the engagement in the second year of the project. Whilst students were optimistic about the role that energy dashboards could play, the evidence is not here to quantify the impact of dashboards. Further research is required to understand the potential of dashboards to contribute to behavioural change savings and in constructing competitions between people and dormitories that are known to each other.

SAVES provided engagement with students, enabling, empowering and motivating them to save energy – focusing specifically on the last stage of the “Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action” framework. Automated meter reading data was used in the majority of participating dormitories to run near real-time energy challenges through an energy dashboard that informed students how much energy they saved compared to a target, and encouraged peer-to-peer learning and international cooperation through a virtual twinning scheme.

Findings from energy saving competitions in universities are typically from small-scale and short-term interventions. SAVES was an energy-saving competition in university dormitories facilitated by the UK National Union of Students in five countries reaching over 50,000 students over two academic years (incorporating dormitories at 17 universities). As such it provides clear and important evidence of the real-world long-term potential efficiency savings of such interventions.

In residential buildings, personal choices influence electricity and water consumption. Prior studies indicate that information feedback can stimulate resource conservation. College dormitories provide an excellent venue for controlled study of the effects of feedback. The goal of this study is to assess how different resolutions of socio‐technical feedback, combined with incentives, encourage students to conserve resources.

An automated data monitoring system was developed that provided dormitory residents with real‐time web‐based feedback on energy and water use in two “high resolution” dormitories. In contrast, utility meters were manually read for 20 “low‐resolution” dormitories, and data were provided to residents once per week. For both groups, resource use was monitored during a baseline period and during a two week “dorm energy competition” during which feedback, education and conservation incentives were provided.

Overall, the introduction of feedback, education and incentives resulted in a 32 percent reduction in electricity use (amounting to savings of 68,300 kWh, $5,107 and 148,000 lbs of CO₋₂) but only a 3 percent reduction in water use. Dormitories that received high resolution feedback were more effective at conservation, reducing their electricity consumption by 55 percent compared to 31 percent for low resolution dormitories. In a post‐competition survey, students reported that they would continue conservation practices developed during the competition and that they would view web‐based real‐time data even in the absence of competition.

The results of this research provide evidence that real‐time resource feedback systems, when combined with education and an incentive, interest, motivate and empower college students to reduce resource use in dormitories.

This is the first study to report on the effects of providing college students with real‐time feedback on resource use. The authors of this study are currently engaged in further research to determine: whether reductions in consumption can be sustained over time with and without incentives; the degree to which feedback affect attitude; and the degree to which findings are transferable to apartments and other residential settings.

In recent decades, the student population in dormitories has increased notably, primarily attributed to the growing number of international students. Dormitories serve as pivotal environments for student development. The coordination and compatibility among students can significantly influence their overall success. This study aims to introduce an innovative method for roommate selection and room allocation within dormitory settings.

In this study, initially, using multi-attribute decision-making methods including the Bayesian best-worst method and weighted aggregated sum product assessment, the incompatibility rate among pairs of students is calculated. Subsequently, using a linear mathematical model, roommates are selected and allocated to dormitory rooms pursuing the twin objectives of minimizing the total incompatibility rate and costs. Finally, the grasshopper optimization algorithm is applied to solve large-sized instances.

The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison to two common alternatives, i.e. random allocation and preference-based allocation. Moreover, the proposed method’s applicability extends beyond its current context, making it suitable for addressing various matching problems, including crew pairing and classmate pairing.

This novel method for roommate selection and room allocation enhances decision-making for optimal dormitory arrangements. Inspired by a real-world problem faced by the authors, this study strives to offer a robust solution to this problem.

The purpose of the current research is to examine the student’s residential satisfaction (SRS) of dormitories in Tehran and Shiraz. Providing homes for non-native students is considered as one of the key issues in university development.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative measurements (mixed methods) was used to compare some of the design features between middle-rise and high-rise student housing. Questionnaire forms were distributed between male students of “Shahid Beheshti University” and “Shiraz University” dormitories. Cluster sampling is done among residential blocks in each university. Students assessed perceived attributes of dormitories by indicating their satisfaction from different categories. The obtained data were analysed by SPSS software and the Mann-Whitney test.

Findings show that although in comparing two samples with only some of the criteria, Shahid Beheshti University dormitory was ranked higher, generally Shiraz University dormitory was more successful in meeting resident’s satisfaction. Among the physical features, the pleasant views and landscape are important components which are related to aesthetic preferences.

More research examining student/environment interactions is needed to pay close attention to cultural aspects. The consideration of culturally diverse individuals in the assessment may also provide valuable insight into the students’ residential satisfaction.

In sum, the design implications resulting from the data analysis act as a step toward an evidence-based design approach. Housing designers can integrate the research findings with design solutions. They take active part in the design process by developing new methodologies to highlight their role in creating high-quality student housing.

The relationship between students and their residential environment has been a mainstream topic in environmental psychology. Some previous studies have focused on socio-demographic characteristics, whereas others have dealt with the physical characteristics of the student housing that affect SRS.

The purpose of this study (mixed-method) was to examine the effectiveness of two types of marketing interventions on water conservation behavior and to compare behaviors to self-reported conservation claims.

This paper consists of four phases (advertisement selection focus group, behavioral trace field study, self-report survey and follow-up focus group). In the USA, residing in a dormitory typically includes a fee for water without quantity restrictions. The subjects for this research were college students who lived in dormitories at a medium-sized university in southeastern USA where metering individual water consumption is not possible.

The results of the field study phase of student water conservation behaviors were not congruent with the participants’ self-reported behaviors. Phase 2 yielded results contrary to published laboratory experimental research in which cause-related claims were effective.

This research was limited by a single sample (one university), time (13 weeks) and the inability to measure individual consumption behavior. However, valuable findings were obtained, and suggestions surfaced for future research.

Using eco-feedback technology and advertisements may result in significant cost savings. While findings were somewhat inconclusive, there was evidence that the use of the eco-feedback technology could result in cost savings for the subject university.

The behavioral trace study is one of the first field research studies in the marketing discipline designed to examine resource conservation behavior in an impactful way. Further, this research used a single sample triangulated methodology across Phases 2, 3 and 4.

This study aims to integrate the theory of planned behavior (TPB), norm activation model (NAM) and stimulus–organism–behavior–consequences theory (SOBC) with the moderators to investigate the main determinants of energy-saving behaviors as well as how group-level factors and media publicity significantly facilitate the energy-saving intention-behavior linkage among dormitory students in higher education institutions (HEIs).

A valid sample of 325 dormitory students resided in universities of Vietnam and a three-step analysis approach via SPSS 28.0 and AMOS 25.0 were used to test the hypothesized model.

This study yields that external stimuluses (subjective norms and perceived behavioral control) positively and strongly stimulate energy–energy attitude, while internal stimuluses (ascription of responsibility, awareness of consequences) arouse personal norms. Both internal and external stimuluses were found to have serially mediation effects on energy-saving behaviors via attitude toward energy saving, personal norms and energy-saving intention. Remarkably, group interaction and media publicity exert prominent positive moderation effects on the energy-saving intention–behavior relationship.

The findings of this research can be valuable for HEIs and policymakers to inspire university students’ energy conservation behavior for sustainable development goals.

This study contributed to the proenvironmental literature by adopting the SOBC paradigm that strengthens the integration of TPB and NAM models to explore the main determinants of dormitory students’ energy-saving behaviors, explain the underlying mediation mechanisms of organisms and behavioral responses and illustrate the moderation role of group-level factors and media publicity.

The majority of research on energy feedback has been conducted in residential households; in this study, the authors aim to examine the effectiveness of similar initiatives in a college environment. The our goal was to see how much additional electricity savings could be induced using feedback beyond average savings achieved by goal-setting and to provide students information on how to conserve.

All participants set goals related to personal environmental behavior and received electricity-saving tips. Half of the participants were exposed to real-time, group-level, ambient and direct feedback of electric use for their dormitory floor through an iPad display. The control group received no feedback.

The group that received the real-time feedback reduced its consumption, whereas the control group did not. The feedback group’s change in consumption was significantly greater than the control group’s. The results are discussed in the context of injunctive norms, reminders, ambient feedback and numerical feedback, as well as the theory of planned behavior.

Further research could test for long-term effects, whether the interventions applied in this study would be effective in other university contexts and whether the interventions would influence other environmental habits apart from electricity consumption on campuses.

This is one of the first energy feedback studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of group-level data, let alone specifically in a college dormitory and has implications for influencing conservation behavior of residential college students worldwide.

The main objective of this research is to analyze the living and learning experience of foreign students at Jinan University (JNU). The study aims to elicit two basic purposes; first, to help JNU administrators to measure the level of satisfaction of students and response to their needs. Second, to assess the existing facilities in the context of quality of education, the syllabus, credit system, choices of available courses, foreign faculty, teaching resources, effective dissemination of knowledge, behavior of administration and teachers, quality of food versus price, dormitory conditions, library resources, and other necessary facilities for productive learning.

To recognize the issues of foreign students and obtain their responses, this research has relied on several techniques. We have created a questionnaire and applied a systematic sampling technique. The questionnaire has been divided into several categories and sub-categories.

Findings of this study have confirmed that majority of the foreign students at JNU are satisfied with the learning and living conditions.

Though our study is subject to limitations, yet it provides some valuable insights. Due to lack of resources and time, we have limited our sample size to 27. However despite having few respondents, the overall feedback represents the entire population. Additionally, this study is mainly focused on foreign student’s living and learning experiences satisfaction. Hence, no dependent and independent variable relationship is being determined or argued.

However, as indicated by the respondents, JNU needs to improve its learning facilities, as well as induction of additional foreign faculty, availability of English text books, security of student dormitories, expansion of sports facilities, renovation of university roads, and installation of new equipment in the laborites. Such conclusion provides the administration and other stakeholders with valuable indicators of how well the JNU is meeting with the expectations of international students and how resources might best be directed to improve further services.

Our approach is unique and inventive, as so far there has been very little research that has been carried out on this topic on Chinese Universities. This study serves as a benchmark in measuring the living and learning experience of foreign students at JNU. The results of the research would be useful for planning and improving the quality of services and help the administration in formulating better policies for international students.

Higher education researchers are often challenged by the difficulty of empirically validating causal links posited by theories or inferred from correlational observations. The instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy is one approach that researchers can use to estimate the causal impact of various higher education–related interventions. In this chapter, we discuss how the body of quantitative research specifically devoted to higher education has made use of the IV estimation strategy: we describe how this estimation strategy was used to address causality concerns and provide examples of the types of IVs that were used in various subfields of higher education research. Our discussion is based on a systematic review of a corpus of econometric studies on higher education–related issues that spans the last 30 years. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion of the use of IVs in quantitative higher education research and a discussion of good practices when using an IV estimation strategy.