The history of the quality concept is as old as the production activities of man. As a result of the globalization and increasing interaction between countries, quality has also become a competitive element. Quality includes the concepts of input, process, product and output. As for university education, it focuses on the many aspects of university students' campus life, measuring their needs and desires, which are among the basic components to be considered in the educational planning together with those of the community and the country. Increasing the level of quality in education requires a holistic approach dealing with all the dimensions within the whole process between input and output, including social, physical and financial opportunities besides the interaction between lecturers, students, administrators and materials. In this case, increasing quality in education and training requires that it aim to reach the best in the mentioned elements. The main purpose of higher education institutions is to raise competitive individuals in both national and international context, which has made students’ level of satisfaction in university life more important. The university life includes not only the dimensions of education but also the different dimensions such as social opportunities offered to students and participation in the processes of management. In this study, which is a descriptive one, the data were collected on voluntary basis through the "Quality of Life in University Scale", which contains the dimensions mentioned above, developed by Doğanay and Sarı (2004) and the personal information form developed by the researchers. The aim of the study is to find out whether or not candidate teachers’ perceptions about the quality of university life differ significantly in terms of different variables. 1133 female and 512 male students studying at different departments in a Faculty of Education at a state university during 2017-18 scholar years were included in the study. In the study, no significant difference was found in terms of gender. However, significant differences were found between the students’ perceptions of quality of life in terms of school preference order, department, type of accommodation and income level. The findings of the study were discussed within the related literature and several recommendations were made accordingly.
Quality of life, candidate teacher, university, educational planning.