A research report on the catering facilities at London Mtropolitan University

Introduction
Over the last 10 years British people have become more concerned about their eating habits and how the quality of food affects their health .So in order to improve their heath and to reduce the risk of some chronic disease like Diabetes, Hypertension and obesity which are directly related to the bad eating habits and cause dangerous consequences on the long term ; many research have been done in this area especially in schools to ensure that children are served a balanced diet and since London Metropolitan University is well known for it’s a cosmopolitan atmosphere; as there was a significant increase in the number of foreign students from different cultural backgrounds who may have different eating habits from British students so it would be beneficial to know if they are satisfied with the quality of catering facilities at London Metropolitan University and to what extent the University meet their needs.

Aim

The purpose of this research: Firstly, to investigate if the overseas students are satisfied with the catering facilities at London Metropolitan University .Secondly, if they are not satisfied way? Thirdly, to use their recommendations in order to improve the catering facilities in a way that suits all the students.

Findings
Regarding the frequency of using the catering facilities, there was a range of responses 32% of the students said that they used them once week. 28.5% indicated 2-3 times per week. 17% used them everyday .10% of the student used them more than 3 times week .so encouragingly the majority used them.
In term of the food prices interestingly, about three quarters of those interviewed said that the prices were affordable while fifth of the students considered them expensive and only one student said that they were cheap.
When it comes to the kind of food that they usually eat from the canteen we found no significant difference as most of the students eat the different sorts of food.


Figure (1)

The Pie chart shows that just above the half of the students considered the quality of food fair and approximately 43% said that it is good quality and only 3.6% of students indicated that it is poor quality.
The majority of the student was satisfied with the quality of the drinks in the canteen and quarter of the population was dissatisfied.
Figure (2) (students Vs opinions)
Regarding the statement, there is enough variety of food in the canteen the bar chart above disappointingly shows that 11 students out of 28 disagreed or strongly disagreed and just 5 students agreed. However, a significant number of respondents had no opinion.
When we asked if they need any special diet Just above half of the students said that they have no special diet. In contrast there were a significant number of students who need a low fat diet as 35% of the females and 27% of the males stated that. 14% of the interviewed students wanted more hallal food.
When we asked them if they could add just one dish to the menu it would be. A significant number want to add more salads and vegetables and many other students wanted food from their countries e.g. Pieroggi, Curry, Spanish omelet , Chinese food and few students wanted homemade food.
Moving on to the other aspects of catering facilities and starting with serving time the majority of the interviewees cited that they sometimes spend long time to be served although there was a significant number who said that they never spend long time.
Regarding the cleanness of the dining area just half of the student indicated that it is clean most of the time whilst the quarter said sometimes it is clean and 10.7 % indicated that it was never clean.
With regard to the level of ventilation the majority of the respondents said sometimes it is well ventilated .Roughly the same number of students said most of the time or no opinion.
Interestingly, 11 out 28 declared that they were sometimes satisfied with the portion size and 8 out 28 said never.
Encouragingly, the majority said that the staff paid attention to customers.
Disappointedly, 18 out 28 said that they sometimes can find place to sit and 5 out 28 said never.
N.B: The last question will be discussed briefly in the discussion and conclusion to avoid repetition because it is more related to recommendations.

Discussion and analysis

The results reveal that the majority of the students used the catering facilities and they indicated that they were satisfied with the quality of food and drink served as well as most of them stated that the food prices are affordable which might mean that there is a high satisfaction rate and that the university meets their needs to some extent.
On the other hand, a significant number of the students stated that they were not satisfied with the variety of food which came as the first priority in their suggestions for improving the catering facilities. So many of them wanted more vegetarian food, low fat food, hallal or especial food from their countries. This could indicate that the University could be doing even more to ensure the full satisfaction of all students, especially the international students.
There was another interesting point as many students stated that they were never satisfied with the portion size of the food which might be worth considering because the majority of the students eat their lunch at the university.
Moving on to the quality of service and staff the results show that the majority of the population sometimes had to spend a long time to be served due to the crowd and the insufficient number of the staff and that gave us reason why some students suggested self service. In contrast a significant number of the respondents said they never had to spend long time which could be related to the time table .It might therefore be worth if the university increase the number of the staff during the lunch time.
There was also an interesting difference which was that the majority of population said that most of the time the staff paid attention to the customers but a significant number said sometimes and some students said never which might be also connected to crowding.
Regarding the quality of the dining area the majority of the student indicated that sometimes there were not available places to sit, sometimes the canteen was well ventilated and most if the time the dining area was clean although a significant number of interviewees said the dining area was sometimes clean. This would seem to indicate that the University needs to improve some aspects regarding the quality of the dining area.

Conclusion and Recommendations

To bring the paper close, I summarise the main points here: The international students have special needs that might be different from the British students because they have their own eating habits and they need more food variety.
There are some aspects that can be generalized to both International and native students especially those are related to improving the quality of the staff and the dining area.
As the international students represent high percentage of London metropolitan students, it would be worth if the University maintain high standards to meet their expectation.
Here are some recommendations in order to improve catering facilities at London Metropolitan University:
1. Enriching the menu with more food variety and adding recipes from the other nations.
2. Serving more vegetarian food, salads, hallal meat and low fat diet.
3. Employing more staff in order to accelerate service and to keep the dining area clean.
4. Improving the dining area ventilation system.
5. Widening the dining area to increase the number of available seats.6. Ensuring that the staff pays more attention to their customers