Designing and Building for the Class of 2020

The ways in which students learn, work, and interact are changing at such a rapid pace that future higher education facilities will require radical rethinking during the next decade. Now's the time to start planning for the Class of 2020. Excerpted from BD&C Report By Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor, BD&C, September 1, 2006 (more)
 
The nation's colleges and universities have a decade until they welcome the Class of 2020 to campus. That's just 10 years for schools to prepare for the demands these students will make on both their academic programs and physical facilities. Judging by the presentations at this summer's joint conference of the Society of College and University Planners, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, and the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, the student population entering college 10 years from now will require a radical rethinking of campus facility design. Building Teams need to start working with colleges and universities to plan some of the most significant changes to happen to academic facilities in recent memory-to design and build multipurpose academic buildings with flexible spaces that accommodate formal, informal, and group learning and residence halls that offer true live/work/play
environments.

Key components of future academic facilities excerpted from Building Design & Construction magazine July 2007
                        • Shared academic buildings
                        • Flexible/adaptable classrooms and lecture halls
                        • Larger but fewer classrooms and lecture halls
                        • Circulation space as collaboration space
                        • Multipurpose areas
                        • Group study space/lounges
                        • Accessible technology
                        Key components of future residence communities
                        • Student communities with living, recreation, academic,
                        and retail spaces
                        • Flexible building designs for varied student
                        populations
                        • Designated social hubs
                        • Mix of group work space and quiet study lounges
                        • Private living environments
                        The freshman class of 2020
                        Statistics
                        16 million: The number of undergraduate students
                        expected to be enrolled in the nation's colleges.
                        80%: The increase in minority-student enrollment.
                        Hispanic-Americans will account for the most significant
                        gains, followed by Asian-Americans and African-Americans.
                        7.8%: The decrease in Caucasian student enrollment.
                        31%: The increase in enrollment of older students (aged
                        24 or older).
                        41%: Approximate percentage of male undergraduate
                        students (the number of female undergraduate students is
                        already starting to surpass male student enrollment.)
                        Behaviors
                        Multitaskers Collaborative learners
                        Constantly connected Device-rich
                        Highly visual Experimental
                        Action-oriented Just-in-time learners
                       
  Sources: National Center for Education Statistics;
                        Society for College and University Planning; Education
                        Testing Services; DEGW North America.