An investigation into student food choice.

Abstract

This dissertation will explore student food choice, investigate the main influences on students' decision-making, and analyse the connection between student eating habits and their programme of study. There has been much literature surrounding food choice and consumers, but very little research has been conducted focusing on students and their main influences along with the impact that their university degree could have on their food choice. In order to achieve the set objectives, this research adopts a mixed method approach which uses both a focus group, followed by an online survey which was derived from the results of the focus group. Key findings from this research include: the finding that a large number of students eat out and eat take-away food frequently; the most important influence on student food choice is taste, while there was a large proportion of the sample that noted the importance of social media; and the impact of university degree programme was inconclusive when broken down into International Hospitality and Tourism Management (IHTM) students, where an even split between the students meant that the objective could not be conclusively proved that an IHTM degree programme had an impact on food choice, in comparison with the general results which found conclusively that there was little impact on food choice from degree programme.