The fact I can read this from Ireland and it applies perfectly to the universities here shows how globally driven this issue is! Campus's will respond to the business decisions of the universities and they have some big decisions to be make! P.s. Giant chessboards solve all problems.
"If placemaking is the main reason students are coming to campus, isn't that a pretty damning indictment of everything else the campus is supposed to be for?" -- Exactly. If universities had stuck with their original purpose of exploring ideas and critical thinking, in-person gatherings would be a no-brainer. But with the "here, learn this" model, paying for brick-and-mortar and collecting all that debt is an often foolish choice.
Great piece. I've just finished my BA (35 years late!) at UQ. Post pandemic, with everything online, tertiary education might be efficient but it's soul-less. No one makes friends, there is little argument, banter, exchange of ideas or laughs in tutorial. I'm a big fan of the old-school model of in-person everything.
Thanks for reading Kate! I think UQ (being more of a prestige institution) is the perfect example of a university that could pull off the return to the old school model.
Great article, Riley. You make some excellent points and some Australian uni's are adopting your 'Strategy 2' rapidly given large student attrition when offering hybrid/online (e.g. Monash). But with a move towards cities, 2 comments for your consideration and comment:
1. CBD's are struggling to get occupancy up with the WFH phenomenon, so what may urban uni's offer that others can't?
2. Uni's pushing to consolidate their campuses into CBD high-rise offerings will struggle to offer the socialising effects that their old 'flat' campus could (e.g. Vic.U, Edith Cowan, W.Syd.U, etc) unless whole floors of their new 'vertical campuses' offer only socialising venues. Is this what you had in mind?
Thanks Matt - the question of the vertical campus model I think is still very much up in the air (no pun intended). I've seen a couple of floorplan designs for high rise towers and the floor plates were extremely inefficient and required almost double the number of elevators compared to a commercial floor plate - so a very expensive typology that may not be worth the money.
But yes ultimately I think these buildings will need to have large chunks of space dedicated to socialising and interaction. Ideally this would be done on the ground plane and maybe the first couple of floors. A great example of a commercial building that does this well is 80 Ann Street in Brisbane by Woods Bagot. It basically utilises the entire ground plane and first floor for public-facing functions - it's easy to see a way this could be achieved in a city campus context. You'd also probably want some more private / study focused collaboration spaces on an elevated floor that was not accessible by the public.
Sorry, my question wasn't phrased very well and primarily relates to university staff and their needs. The trends towards work-from-home (WFH) offerings by employers has really taken off post-pandemic and CBD's have suffered accordingly, so wouldn't the location of campuses not necessarily be as critical as they once were?
Just so I’m understanding you, are you asking why would city campuses have a higher attendance rate than a suburban campus when CBD jobs have dropped in attendance too?
There are other ideas and experiments in higher education being tried. e.g. https://www.saintconstantinecollege.org/. I know there was an experiment going on in Pittsburgh, but I can't remember the name or find anything about it, so maybe it failed. But the idea was no/low overhead: students pay lecturers directly, meet in public spaces, almost zero administration. Not sure if the Australian system of higher ed is flexible enough to allow for this kind of experimentation.
I'm not sure how to read your last section: are you sympathetic to the idea that the internet/fully online education is dehumanizing, or are you rejecting that? Because I do think we need to include questions about pedagogy, community, the nature of education, the nature of humanity...
The Reformed Theological College in Geelong read the writing on the wall a few years ago and started renting space in the Melbourne CBD, moving all their lectures and most of their staff into the city. I don't have insider knowledge of how that's going for them, but my sense is that the move has paid off.
Thanks Ryan that is so interesting - I agree that the solutions will probably emerge from those smaller institutions who have that flexibility as you say.
I absolutely am sympathetic to the neo-luddite position (said with affection and love haha). I honestly think so much of the world's problems are stemming from phones / social media etc and all of the promises of these technologies have turned out to be pretty empty, while the unforeseen consequences have been enormous.
The fact I can read this from Ireland and it applies perfectly to the universities here shows how globally driven this issue is! Campus's will respond to the business decisions of the universities and they have some big decisions to be make! P.s. Giant chessboards solve all problems.
Yes perhaps we just haven’t tried enough giant chessboards
"If placemaking is the main reason students are coming to campus, isn't that a pretty damning indictment of everything else the campus is supposed to be for?" -- Exactly. If universities had stuck with their original purpose of exploring ideas and critical thinking, in-person gatherings would be a no-brainer. But with the "here, learn this" model, paying for brick-and-mortar and collecting all that debt is an often foolish choice.
Exactly mate! Love your work btw
🍻
Great piece. I've just finished my BA (35 years late!) at UQ. Post pandemic, with everything online, tertiary education might be efficient but it's soul-less. No one makes friends, there is little argument, banter, exchange of ideas or laughs in tutorial. I'm a big fan of the old-school model of in-person everything.
Thanks for reading Kate! I think UQ (being more of a prestige institution) is the perfect example of a university that could pull off the return to the old school model.
Great article Riley. Let's review some of these Brules (bullshit rules) that we are still blindly following in some more detail.
Great article, Riley. You make some excellent points and some Australian uni's are adopting your 'Strategy 2' rapidly given large student attrition when offering hybrid/online (e.g. Monash). But with a move towards cities, 2 comments for your consideration and comment:
1. CBD's are struggling to get occupancy up with the WFH phenomenon, so what may urban uni's offer that others can't?
2. Uni's pushing to consolidate their campuses into CBD high-rise offerings will struggle to offer the socialising effects that their old 'flat' campus could (e.g. Vic.U, Edith Cowan, W.Syd.U, etc) unless whole floors of their new 'vertical campuses' offer only socialising venues. Is this what you had in mind?
Thanks Matt - the question of the vertical campus model I think is still very much up in the air (no pun intended). I've seen a couple of floorplan designs for high rise towers and the floor plates were extremely inefficient and required almost double the number of elevators compared to a commercial floor plate - so a very expensive typology that may not be worth the money.
But yes ultimately I think these buildings will need to have large chunks of space dedicated to socialising and interaction. Ideally this would be done on the ground plane and maybe the first couple of floors. A great example of a commercial building that does this well is 80 Ann Street in Brisbane by Woods Bagot. It basically utilises the entire ground plane and first floor for public-facing functions - it's easy to see a way this could be achieved in a city campus context. You'd also probably want some more private / study focused collaboration spaces on an elevated floor that was not accessible by the public.
https://www.woodsbagot.com/projects/80-ann-street/
Btw not sure what is meant by your first question, could you please rephrase?
Sorry, my question wasn't phrased very well and primarily relates to university staff and their needs. The trends towards work-from-home (WFH) offerings by employers has really taken off post-pandemic and CBD's have suffered accordingly, so wouldn't the location of campuses not necessarily be as critical as they once were?
Just so I’m understanding you, are you asking why would city campuses have a higher attendance rate than a suburban campus when CBD jobs have dropped in attendance too?
There are other ideas and experiments in higher education being tried. e.g. https://www.saintconstantinecollege.org/. I know there was an experiment going on in Pittsburgh, but I can't remember the name or find anything about it, so maybe it failed. But the idea was no/low overhead: students pay lecturers directly, meet in public spaces, almost zero administration. Not sure if the Australian system of higher ed is flexible enough to allow for this kind of experimentation.
I'm not sure how to read your last section: are you sympathetic to the idea that the internet/fully online education is dehumanizing, or are you rejecting that? Because I do think we need to include questions about pedagogy, community, the nature of education, the nature of humanity...
The Reformed Theological College in Geelong read the writing on the wall a few years ago and started renting space in the Melbourne CBD, moving all their lectures and most of their staff into the city. I don't have insider knowledge of how that's going for them, but my sense is that the move has paid off.
Thanks Ryan that is so interesting - I agree that the solutions will probably emerge from those smaller institutions who have that flexibility as you say.
I absolutely am sympathetic to the neo-luddite position (said with affection and love haha). I honestly think so much of the world's problems are stemming from phones / social media etc and all of the promises of these technologies have turned out to be pretty empty, while the unforeseen consequences have been enormous.