32 | ESTATES MANAGEMENT | CAMPUS SERVICES
support activities, which the competitive marketplace creates more pressure to deliver. For more affl uent institutions, of course, fees may also provide the means to concretise their masterplans, whereas others may face similar pressures, albeit with fewer resources. “The rise in tuition fees has certainly meant students expect more – they want an exceptional all round experience to add to the degree certifi cate they’ll walk away with at the end of their studies,” corroborates Ian Dunn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience at Coventry University. “That means bringing academic, social, extra-curricular and employment factors fi rmly into the frame for each and every student, to ensure they’re get ing value for money.”
BLURRED LINES Catering for a myriad of needs – often simultaneously – has encouraged universities to fi nd new ways of using their premises, which defy conventions and overstep orthodox boundaries. “We’re already exploring the notion of ‘disrupting’ traditional ideas of academic lecturing to students, by engineering and adapting our learning spaces to be open and inclusive areas for the discussion and sharing of ideas – rather than a
one-way fl ow of information from the lecturer at the front of the room to students sit ing facing them,” explains Dunn. Coventry’s Disruptive Media
Learning lab has been designed to stimulate such new approaches. Opened in autumn 2014 on the top fl oor of the Frederick Lanchester Library, the facility includes a number of innovative teaching and learning spaces designed to inspire collaboration and innovative pedagogy, including an indoor ‘mound’, which resembles “an island in the middle of the lab,” says Dunn, “on which students can sit and study, while the world races on around them.” At the University’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME), a collaboration between the educator and the Unipart manufacturing group, students can gain vocational experience in what has been characterised as a ‘faculty on the factory fl oor’. “Students at AME study and work alongside industry professionals and researchers in a ‘live’ manufacturing environment, with a unique opportunity to engage with genuine industry projects,” elaborates Dunn. “The idea is that when they graduate, they already have front-line industry experience that they know is sought after by employers.” “Flexibility is key,” advises
“The rise in tuition fees has certainly meant students expect more – they want an exceptional all round experience to add to the degree certificate they’ll walk away with at the end of their studies”
ABOVE: The Hub at Coventry includes several informal study zones and is open 24 hours a day BELOW: Jonathan Coulson, a Director at development strategy advisers Turnberry Consulting
Turnberry Consulting’s Coulson. “Boundaries are becoming blurred – in terms of disciplines, and between teaching, learning and physical spaces – and this is likely to continue.” Coventry’s High Performance Engineering lab, sited in its Engineering and Computing Building, off ers a further example of this functional synthesis. Occupying an open-plan environment, the facility has been designed to encourage students from various disciplines to work alongside each other on practical, activity led projects – as they might in an actual factory set ing. The building also contains a dynamic lecture theatre ‘in the round’, which has an ampitheatre design that brings students far closer to discussions, and can be split into two separate, semicircular arenas. “Fashions and technology will
inevitably evolve, so to retain value and functionality the best approach a campus can take is to have a master plan and buildings that are designed to have the ability to adapt,” Coulson counsels.
BASICS BACKED Large-scale projects designed by world-renowned ‘starchitects’ can garner critical praise and possess the 'wow' factor, but less spectacular amenities are nonetheless greatly in demand. “Students expect good Wi-Fi everywhere, and comfortable buildings,” reports Russell Smith,
the University of Bradford’s Estates Manager. “They will expect the
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