Students staying on campus

Even though it is becoming easier to take online classes, students are on campus more than they were ten years ago, according to university association VSNU.
By Peter Keizer / Translation by Alain Reniers

Students require more physical meeting and study spaces, which the universities provide, VSNU says. They invest significantly in a more efficient layout of educational buildings and the quality of accommodations.

The universities say that this increases academic success. Students are also more satisfied when they can meet and work together on campus. ‘Ten years ago, the tendency was to work at home and to stimulate long-distance education and to partially replace the physical campus with a virtual one. Since 2016, however, the ambition is to facilitate the student on campus as much as possible’, VSNU reports in a press release (in Dutch).

Privatisation

Because it is increasingly difficult to predict student numbers – in part due to the increasing amount of foreign students – universities lease parts of their accommodation or take part in flexible construction. ‘Moreover, the function requirements of educational spaces and labs also change faster and faster due to changes in educational methods and research themes’, VSNU says.

IN 1995, real estate was privatised and the universities owned their own buildings. Ever since, the institutions say that the quality of the buildings has improved significantly. Nearly half (49 percent) of the buildings are now in a good to very good technical state of repair in comparison with 36 per cent in 2006. About 16 per cent of the campus is in a bad to very bad technical state of repair.

The investments in real estate have not had a good effect everywhere. In 2012, it was revealed that various institutions entered into high-risk financing packages for millions of euros.

Dutch

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