Understanding university students’ perceptions of classroom environment: A synergistic approach integrating grounded theory (GT) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP)

University classrooms play a crucial role in students' educational experience, as they spend a significant amount of time in these spaces. Understanding students' perceptions of the classroom environment is essential for improving classroom design and management. Adopting a user-centric approach, a novel research design combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods is employed to develop and validate an evaluation framework for classroom environment evaluation. Specifically, this study utilises grounded theory (GT) methodology to identify and prioritises the indoor environment parameters that students consider important. A classroom environment performance evaluation framework for the classrooms within a Hong Kong university was then developed based on the qualitative findings using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The framework was then used to examine students' perceived importance of the university classroom performance among different sub-groups. The findings reveal that “facilities and services” emerged as the most critical parameter, emphasizing the importance of effective post-occupancy management. Intriguingly, there are minor differences in importance rankings between genders and education levels, with males emphasizing “indoor air quality” and females prioritizing “thermal comfort”. Moreover, distinct priorities are observed between various classroom types; students in lecture theatres focus on “seating plans” and “temperature”, while those in general classrooms prioritise “seating layout” and “fire safety”. These findings emphasise the need for effective post-occupancy management, while also highlight nuanced preferences based on gender, education levels, and classroom types, thereby offer crucial insights for designers to tailor indoor environments that better align with diverse student needs and preferences. Furthermore, a human-built environment interaction model is developed to summarise the research findings and provide insights for future research directions. This comprehensive approach enhances understanding of students’ preferences and experiences in university classrooms.