The study of behavior and satisfaction of student and staff to The Royal Kathin Ceremony, Mahidol University

Abstract

          This survey research aimed to study the behavior and satisfaction of student and staff to The Royal Kathin Ceremony. The population of this research consisted of the total number of student and staff of Mahidol University (N=67,005). The 398 of sample size were selected by using simple random sampling. Self-administered questionnaire was used as a survey instrument for data collection. The descriptive statistics includes frequency, percentage, average, and standard deviation were used for satisfaction analysis.

          The results show that the major of participants get informed The Royal Kathin Ceremony from circular letter. The reason of them in participating was to accumulate merit increasingly. Mostly activity that the major of participants join in Thod Kathin Festival was donation. Participants donate with other staff and on behalf of faculty for The Royal Kathin Ceremony every year. The factors relating to their making decision of donation was The Royal Kathin Ceremony organized by Mahidol University that the average of donation was not more than 100 baht. In tem of ceremony participation, the result found that the decision of participants to join ceremony depends on the famous of temple, monk and sacred object.  The major of them have been to join in The Royal Kathin ceremony 1-5 times by shuttle bus offering by Mahidol University. The faculties suggested that they did not want to add other activities for The Royal Kathin Ceremony because it may be caused of burden for temple and community.

          According to satisfaction result, the major of participants had satisfied in The Royal Kathin Ceremony participation.The result shows that the student and staff had high level of satisfaction to The Royal Kathin ceremony in overall aspects. According to the average of satisfaction in each aspect, there were found the satisfaction in ceremony, donation, advertising, welcoming and accommodation, and venue and transportation respectively. In term of contents, the contents which had highest satisfaction were style of ceremony that offer souvenir/ holy object to the participants, suitability of offering The Royal Kathin Ceremony cloth and donation invitation style which received the donation from the original affiliation or donation box respectively. In addition, contents which had lowest level of satisfaction were the comprehensive and variety of advertising channels and food, and suitability and convenience of transportation respectively.

          Research suggestions were 1) advertising; the university should to use the integrated media which related to student’s interest, attitude, value, and familiar to promote ceremony and give an opportunity for student organization in advertising participation, 2) food and accommodation; the university should to confirm the number of participant to prepare enough food especially vegetarian food to comply with the ceremony 3) transportation; the university should to extent the transfer points for shuttle to the ceremony 4) participation; the university should to encourage the ceremony participation in university level by name the dean of each faculties to be host of The Royal Kathin ceremony, set of Kathin exhibition, and ask the faculties for the cooperation in avoiding the other activities on The Royal Kathin Ceremony day.