CHICAGO, March 30, 2026 — Sodexo is teaming up with The Princeton Review rating service to determine how the caliber of a college’s dining options figures into a student's decision to stick with their current school.
The parties say the research project will be jointly conducted over the course of a year. A foundational element will be a nationwide survey of college administrators about the retention influence of such factors as menu options, food quality, and the foodservice department’s commitment to sustainability, the participants said.
The data will be generated anew rather than co-opted from the ratings and rankings of college services currently compiled by The Princeton Review.
The timeline provided by the partners indicates findings from the research will be released piecemeal during the next year, with the full download aired in the fall of 2027.
The project will be overseen by an advisory board of college administrators, including Ken Toong, associate vice chancellor of auxiliary enterprises for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Toong was the 2013 winner of the Silver Plate in the Colleges and Universities (C&U) category. He currently serves on the C&U Foodservice Leadership Council of IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
Previous research from Sodexo, one of the nation’s largest foodservice management concerns, has shown that a college or university’s foodservice operations are a key consideration in choosing an institution of higher learning. The new report intends to look beyond the application process, to why students remain with a certain school instead of transferring to another institution.
The Princeton Review is revered and feared in C&U foodservice because of its influential annual rankings of colleges by the quality of their foodservices.
However, the partners in the new research undertaking stressed that information from the student surveys conducted for the Review’s Best Campus Food rankings will not be factored into the retention report.
The Princeton Review has no affiliation with Princeton University.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.
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