Abstract:
The main purpose of this research was to study the living conditions and problems in the dormitories of Chulalongkorn University in order to aid the university and relevant units to improve and develop them. The target population is undergraduate students who live in the dormitories of Chulalongkorn University in the academic year 2008. The methodology of the study was questionnaires, interviews, and observation. The research findings follow. 1.Dormitory management is under the office of student affairs. There are approximately 3,000 students living in the Chulalongkorn dormitory. This dormitory consists of five buildings; two are male dormitories and three are female dormitories. The buildings can be categorized into high-rise buildings of 14 floors equipped with elevators and low-rise buildings of 3-5 floors. Each building has services and facilities such as shower rooms, toilets, laundry rooms, common rooms and living rooms. The room area is about 18-27 sq.m./room - approximately 6-8 sq.m./person. There are 2 types of rooms: three beds/room and four beds/room. The university also provides personal amenities to each student and shared utilities in each dormitory. 2.The study found that there were more female students than male students living in the university dormitory. Most of them come from the Northeastern part of Thailand. Almost all the students are Buddhists. They come from government officials families or families of personnel under government privatization. The residents are mainly first-year students who study science and technology, with a GPA between 2.51 and 3.51. Reasons for staying at the university dormitory are the convenience of living close to university, low cost and safety. Many students spend 11-16 hours per day in the dormitory. They wake up between 6.30-7.30 am on weekdays, and 2-4 hours later on weekends. Students usually return to the dormitory at around 4.30-5.30pm. They usually go to bed at 11.00-1.00am, though one or two hours later on their days off. As the dormitory is near the university, residents choose to walk to classes by leaving the dormitory 15 minutes prior to class time. More than 50 percent of the students eat in the dormitory canteen, especially on weekends. The study shows that twenty percent of students do not have breakfast. Students spend most of their time studying and doing home work in their room. Their recreation is surfing the internet; 56 percent of students do exercise within university grounds. 3.The top five physical problems are noise pollution from the traffic on Phayathai road, small size of the rooms, insufficient facilities, noise from roommates and noise from adjoining rooms. Regarding the social life in the dorm, the top five problems are privacy, lots of dormitorys required activities, wasteful use of utilities, dormitorys rules and regulations and problems from roommates. Male dormitory residents tended to have more issues compared to female dormitory residents. Recommendations are that furniture should be adjusted to be optimal with room size and living conditions of undergraduate students. Providing a room for doing academic activities, such as reading, within the dormitory is also recommended to reduce crowding and lack of privacy problems. The green belt of trees should be provided between the dormitory and the road to reduce external noise pollution.