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One of Neil Prince's first impressions of the University of Guelph, as he toured the campus in his final year of high school, was that the food was very good - good enough to influence his decision to attend the Southern Ontario school.

Guelph was among the first Canadian campuses to revamp its dining facilities, introducing market-style cafeterias with meals prepared freshly at various stations. The offerings include thin-crusted pizzas made in a wood-burning oven and Japanese stir-fries made on a teppanyaki-style grill.

Undergraduate dining, long associated with lining up at a cafeteria trough, has gone high end as universities increasingly try to market their campus life outside the classroom as a way to woo students in a competitive environment.

"I've always appreciated that we don't have to eat pizza and French fries all the time," says Mr. Prince of Burlington, Ont.

Schools have hired food service managers with restaurant and catering experience used to accommodating a fussy clientele who expect the latest food trends to be available to them.

"We never assume we have a captured audience," says Thomas Bain, manager of food services at the University of Victoria.

"We know students will go off-campus or pack their own lunches if we are not competitive."

The university's food services recently opened BiblioCafe in the main library, where students on study breaks can snack on plates of pâté and brie, Sicilian olive tapenade or sandwiches with poached chicken and gourmet smoked cheese.

At the University of British Columbia's Place Vanier, an undergraduate residence, students in the mood for pizza can grab a multigrain slice covered with roasted vegetable masala. Those hankering for pasta have a choice of butternut squash agnolotti in fresh sage butter, red onion and chili flakes or whole wheat linguini with prawns in roasted cherry tomatoes and lemon oil.

The chefs at Place Vanier go through 36 kilograms of fresh garlic and 14 kilograms of fresh ginger a week. The chicken is marinated in olive oil, the eggs are free range and the bread crumbs are multigrain.

Top university food service operations are soliciting feedback instead of shrugging off complaints about mystery meat or lack of vegetarian options, Mr. Prince says.

The 22-year-old biology student is chairman of the University of Guelph's hospitality services committee, a group designed to convey student concerns to food service staff, such as a desire for low fat yogurt at the cafeterias or longer night hours at a mini-mart located at a student residence.

No concern is too small, Mr. Prince says. "It could be as simple as saying the peas are cold."

At the same time, eateries run by staff and elected student federations presiding over massive budgets rival their commercial counterparts.

In 2006, the University of Waterloo's Federation of Students in Ontario renovated Bombshelter, one of the restaurants in the federation building, transforming the grungy pub into a restaurant offering fare such as fried calamari, shrimp cocktail and spinach and artichoke dip, says Del Savio Pereira, who oversaw food operations last year as vice-president of administration and finance for the student federation.

"We don't just serve a burger," says Mr. Pereira, who trained as a chef before starting an undergraduate degree at Waterloo.

"It's an Italian provolone burger."

Technology companies Research In Motion and Google have held Christmas parties in the student federation facilities, using student-run catering operations, headed by a chef hired from a local hotel, Mr. Pereira says.

"We do weddings and faculty events," he says. "We do it all."

Schools have also been moving away from payment plans that force students to purchase a set amount of meals in favour of so-called declining balance plans in which students put cash on debit cards that can be used at eateries throughout the campus.

An average meal plan is about $2,800 for an academic year, says Ed Townsley, president-elect of the Canadian College and University Food Service Association. Varsity athletes and other big eaters can opt for more expensive plans, at about $4,500, he says.

Mr. Townsley, also the department head of retail services at the University of Guelph, says schools can keep their prices low because food service operations generally only have to balance their budgets without the added pressure of generating profits for investors.

Many institutions have developed in-house food service operations, a move they say helps them control quality, while others continue to outsource.

In either case, indirect costs such as rent and utilities are often subsidized, so a popular Greek-style lamb doner sandwich in a pita at University of Victoria, where food services are run in-house, paired with a bowl of freshly made Indian dal sells for $5.95, for example.

"Our model is to pay the bills," says Mr. Townsley,

who has held several posts at hotel restaurants, including director of restaurants at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.

"Restaurants can charge what the market will bear. You can charge $20 for a salad in downtown Toronto.

"It's a different market on campus."