The study on the decomposition of university satisfaction gap between the capital and non-capital area

This study examines the gap in university satisfaction between capital area and non-capital area institutions in South Korea, focusing on the long-standing perception of regional disparities. Drawing on data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel II (KEEP II), we employ a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to disentangle the observed satisfaction gap into two components: the “characteristic effect,” driven by quantitative differences in student- and institution-level characteristics, and the “coefficient effect,” stemming from qualitative differences or varying returns to these characteristics. The results show that capital area university students report higher levels of satisfaction compared to their non-capital area counterparts. Of the total gap, approximately 36% is attributable to the characteristic effect, while around 64% is explained by the coefficient effect. Further simulation analyses, wherein we exchanged student and institutional characteristics between the two regions, partially narrowed the gap but did not eliminate it entirely. Based on these findings, the study concludes by offering policy and institutional recommendations to reduce the concentration of resources in capital area universities and enhance student satisfaction across all regions.