Let’s talk about sticky campuses. As strange a topic as it might sound to anyone outside of space management circles, for those of us in the know it’s very real!
Empty space, drag to resize
Why?
Because post-Covid, fewer students seem to be ‘sticking around’ between classes. And universities are thinking about the spaces they can create to change this.Is yours one of them? Then you’ll want to read this. 👇
Quieter campuses are understandable - Covid had a massive impact on the way lots of us study and socialise.
But while online interactions have their place, the universities we speak to are keen to reinstate their thriving student communities too.
A big part of the challenge will lie in designing spaces that today’s students want to use.
But before that can be done, you need to know what your students are thinking!
We recommend pulling together a student survey. It’ll give you a ton of insight into why some aren’t keen to hang around, and what might make them want to.
There’s a knack to creating the right questions too. You’ll want practical ones that uncover what stops them from sticking around. And some that get them thinking about what they might like to see (but that won’t encourage unrealistic answers like ‘a free bar’ 😂).
Here we’ve put together our ‘starter for ten’ – ten questions to help you start to put together your very own student survey:
- Does the timing of your classes make it difficult for you to stay on campus in between them?
- Are there any transport/ financial/ logistical issues that make it difficult for you to be on campus in between classes?
- Are you experiencing any health or other issues that make it difficult for you to be on campus as much as you’d like to be?
- Are there any facilities or resources not currently available on campus which you’d actively use if they were available?
- Do you have difficulty finding quiet and comfortable spaces to study or work from on campus?
- Do you socialise on campus? If so, where?
- Thinking about the spaces you socialise in, what do you enjoy/ dislike about them?
- On a scale of one to ten, how much of a sense of belonging do you feel on campus?
- Thinking about your answer to this last question, what made you choose the rating you did?
- What one thing do you feel would create more of a sense of community on campus?
Of course, these questions are just a start point in terms of thinking about how you can make your campus stickier, but we hope they’re useful. And if you’d like to chat more about this or any other space management issue you’re currently facing, why not get in touch with us at
[email protected]?
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