campusreview. com. au on campus
CR: What does the research say in terms of the relationship between on-campus housing and retention rates for first-year students, as well as graduation rates?
MH: There’ s plenty of research that suggests living on campus not only improves retention rates for first-year students, but also has a direct impact on their likelihood of going on to complete their studies and graduate.
Research suggests, and we certainly see it in our own facilities in Australia, that students who live on campus tend to become more involved, they feel better connected with their university, and they acclimatise to university life quickly.
They are also more likely to have friends, to connect to resources, to get involved in university clubs and societies, and go to class, which is becoming more of an issue these days with technology coming into universities. It’ s well-known that a lot of the US colleges and universities require first-year students to live on campus. Increasing engagement and retention is a big part of the reason behind that.
In Australia, the first six weeks of university life are absolutely critical for every first-year student. They are more likely to drop out within that first six weeks of class than they are at any other time throughout the remainder of their first year of study. To address this particular issue, CLV and Griffith University created [ the V1 program ].
This program focuses on providing first-year students with a high level of support, starting well before they arrive on campus. Early engagement, regular peer-to-peer communication, creating a sense of community / belonging, and faculty engagement outside the classroom are all critical to success.
Is there any link between students who live on campus and academic performance? Again, there are numerous studies that show the link between living on or near campus and an increase in academic performance. Some studies indicate that the farther a student has to commute to campus, the more negative the impact on their academic performance.
Students who live on campus are typically in environments designed to be conducive to learning. They have access to groups of students in the same classes and therefore tend to spend more time on study.
Students living on campus … participate in more learning activities. In our own experience with the V1 program at Griffith University Village, we have made exactly the same link with university data, proving that as a cohort the first-year students at the village performed better academically than their peers who lived off campus.
How have the building and design of housing facilities transformed over time to improve the student experience and in what ways does that experience influence academic performance? I think a lot has changed from the days of the traditional halls of residence that dominated university campuses across Australia. There’ s a real desire these days for students to have their own bathroom facilities, and that’ s certainly influenced many of the recent on-campus developments in Australia.
But whilst students very much rate the quality and functionality of their bedroom and their apartment as key contributors to satisfaction, they also have a desire to see a variety of communal areas and recreational facilities, and that’ s definitely [ affecting ] the scale and size of new developments.
The thing is, those communal areas need to be designed with the understanding that every few years they will need to be revitalised as student tastes and trends tend to change. So there is definitely a functionality and flexibility required in communal spaces.
On many of our US campuses, where CLV has a large portfolio of about 20,000 beds, the student housing market is fiercely competitive. You are more likely to see a tanning bed or a bowling alley in a student housing facility there than you are to see a dining hall.
It has been quite a dynamic shift. The other keynote for us these days is Generation Z. It is the iPhone generation – wifi access wherever they go is absolutely non-negotiable for students and we’ re definitely seeing that technology upgrade happening across student housing.
From CLV’ s perspective, we use market-based research to determine what we’ re building. Back in 2011, we engaged a company called JWT Research( now known as EduWorld) to conduct a global study into students’ preferred accommodation types and amenities and how that changes during the student life cycle.
We’ ve definitely used the outputs of that study to help shape our recent developments, in particular one that’ s under construction at the University of Melbourne.
We actively support academic performance through our purpose-built facilities, such as the e-libraries, group study areas, project study areas – and high speed wifi running through those facilities is absolutely paramount.
It’ s known that the social experience is an important aspect for students who live on campus. Is this something you take into consideration and how has this type of thinking been embedded into your accommodation facilities? At CLV, we say our DNA is about our residential life program. We call it Live, Learn and Grow. It’ s a three-pronged approach that delivers an appropriate balance between community life, supporting academic success and promoting personal development. That program shapes not only the physical product we’ re designing and constructing, it also shapes the soft product we’ re developing.
When we look at the physical product – how it’ s impacting design – we very much design our communal and recreation facilities around the Live, Learn, and Grow ethos. Many of our facilities have TV lounges, games rooms, swimming pools, basketball half courts, etc, which are all there to support the live, or community, element of the program.
We design and construct group study areas and e-libraries to support the learn element and also communal kitchens and music practice rooms and the sort to support the grow element of the program.
Regarding the soft product, our business is run by people who are passionate about providing great customer service. Many of our staff come to us out of the hospitality sector, where customer service is the mantra they’ ve always lived by. We find that positive interactions with staff are a key driver of customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to repeat business and referrals.
We also put a lot of time into designing a residential life program that meets the needs and interests of our student demographic – understanding that demographic can change, year on year. The program itself needs to be flexible and adaptive.
There’ s definitely no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to designing an effective, engaging residential life program. n
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