ABSTRACT
In the past, resident satisfaction has been used as an important indicator in evaluating student housing quality and services. The recent increase in students? population in universities and the diversity of these student needs makes their housing an issue of serious attention. This work however reports the result of a survey of residential satisfaction of the post graduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the response pattern through an empirical case study emphasizing on the functionality, conformability of the use of spaces and facilities provided for a typical student hostel of some randomly selected types using structured questionnaires, personal observations and interview. Various components of housing satisfaction were identified; the framework was expanded to address physical and social variables. The result however reflects different perceptions of respondents, ranging from their satisfaction with provided facilities to expectations of the facilities. The implications of these results was used to measure satisfaction, that is the difference between expectation and provision, this was analysed, discussed and finally recommends by way of making a proposal, integrating these variables as design parameters to enhance better performance of such developments.