THE HARVARD GRADUATE STUDENT HOUSING SURVEY

Group C8

CASE FACTS

Survey to access students housing experiences and desires

Allston Initiative : 2005

2001 survey used as secondary data source

CIRCUMSTANCES 2001 SURVEY

Graduates housed in HPRE operated housing complexes & privately rented apartments

Vacancies were few and waiting list

Equivalent rental structure for Harvard operated

and privately rented housing

Followed prevailing market rental rate Insufficient financial aid to counter high rents

CIRCUMSTANCES 2001 SURVEY

Insufficient rental vacancy to absorb students Students forced to live farther from campus Fear of -ve impact on campus life and loss of

graduates to competing campuses

Design smaller, satisfactory apts. in vicinity

MANAGEMENT PROBLEM- 2001 SURVEY

Objective : To increase the volume of students who rent HPRE operated houses, verse private homes, by 40% more among graduate school students.

optimize balance of location, price, and space to meet demand of students

MARKETING PROBLEM- 2001 SURVEY

Are cost, space, and location desired attributes to students (current + prospective) when choosing b/w student verse private housing.

The weight of importance between each variable.

Do students (current and prospective) choose a school verse another based on these variables.

Other variables and their weight

Students' background and degree affiliation influences on housing choice

FIRST DECISIONS FOR 2001 SURVEY

Purpose -Demand

Population - Students Audiences HPRE, deans etc

Survey Methodology - Online

RESULTS : 2001 SURVEY

Single students HPRE dorms; single with children HPRE apts.; married private apts. Pvt. apts.: More satisfaction for Real World Feel HPRE apts.: Satisfaction for convenience, closeness to friends, and Harvard comm. Feel Expectation 1/(Boston exposure) (Good Housing)Subject to Degree Choose Harvard

Pairwise comparison : Rent (48) vs. Time (52); Space (37) vs. Time (63); Space (28) vs. Rent (72)
62% walked to school

IMPACT: 2001 SURVEY

Per-school basis data, enabled each school to assess habits & expectations of its population

(Cost, location) more important than space

Led to design of Double-studio concept Close to schools Flexible design upgraded to single room apts.

CHALLENGES:2005 SURVEY

Allston Initiative
Vision Allston More community spaces and regular activities unlike old graduate apts. Housing with/without varied school composition Types of apts. to build

Get student data with minute details like dining, Entertainment habits; forms of socialization

Add/modify/remove questions from 2001 survey to come up with 2005 survey

MANAGEMENT PROBLEM- 2005 SURVEY

How to design housing facility for graduates as per Allston initiative

Should there be community spaces in housing facility Housing with/without varied school composition

How to predict the desirable apts. of the future

How to optimize balance of location, price and space to offer students unparalleled outstanding life and learning experience

MARKETING PROBLEM- 2005 SURVEY

Effect of student background and Degree affiliation on

choice of apts. residents

Effect of graduate degree affiliation on choice of community spaces

Get student data with minute details like dining, Entertainment habits; forms of socialization

Add/modify/remove questions from 2001 survey to come up with 2005 survey

Priority of desirable attributes in house selection

RESEARCH DESIGN

Descriptive Design

survey is attempting to learn market characteristics (interest, desires, perceptions, behaviors) of the target audience (students)

Cross-sectional design

since the survey will be given and information collected only once (survey will most likely not be given to the same audience of participants again)

Multiple cross-sectional

involve sampling each of the 10 different Harvard schools

SECONDARY DATA SOURCES

Internal and external data sources for past research performed on student housing.

External research performed on competing schools

housing.

External articles focusing on student opinions of student housing, especially Harvard students.

Results of 2001 survey

QUESTION/RESPONSE LAYOUT

Small, single iteration survey : within 25 mins Relevant to marketing research objective topics. Simple layout No jargons

Important features to be rated in response

Pairwise comparison of some important features Since it is web-survey, provide a counter of progress on web page

Provide more radio buttons than drop down lists

RECOMMENDATIONS
Include Staff as well in Survey process as vision for Allston is urban, community and campus environment. Questionnaire to students regarding housing with varied school composition Questionnaire to students examining student life in greater detail (socialization forms etc)

RECOMMENDATIONS

From previous survey we can keep

current housing Expectations from housing importance of housing features about yourself
Transportation sec.: in 4 years less chance to change Individual preference: results can be interpreted from previous survey and importance of housing features section of current survey

From previous survey we can remove

From previous survey we can modify