Russian students will take part in the survey examining their vision of a state-of-the-art and convenient campus with quality infrastructure. The survey will help to reveal the most popular campus facilities, check day-to-day cost allocation, and identify the needs related to transport infrastructure of campuses. The participants will specify the scarcest services.

This survey is part of the market research for developing the scenarios on university campuses in Russian cities by order of VEB.RF. The survey participants will include students from Saint Petersburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Tiumen and other Russian cities. The students’ proposals will be used in a model of the state-of-the-art campus for Russian cities being developed by Strelka KB.

Global university competitiveness witnessed in the current higher education system may be addressed by inter-university campuses meeting the demand for student accommodation. Such solution is effectively applied in the US, Great Britain, India, Spain and other countries. Inter-university campuses are usually located in districts with good transport accessibility and provide comfortable living, studying and communicating environment. Campuses often include shops, cafes and other commercial facilities satisfying everyday needs of students and improving their living conditions. In addition, campuses are often urban focus points or places of interest; they may include important cultural sites such as museums or cultural centres.

Strelka KB’s specialists will analyse students’ requests, study global best practices for creating university and inter-university campuses and respective economic impacts to develop a model of a convenient and state-of-the-art campus for Russian cities. Preliminary results of the survey will be published in November 2020.

Students and local residents may take part in the survey clicking the link: https://campus-students.ru/survey (survey for students) and https://campus-citizens.ru/ (survey for local residents).

“Such projects are unique for Russia and are based on a repayable finance model involving private investors, provided that the project is co-financed by government funds. Having developed the business and financial model for student campuses, VEB.RF and the Russian Ministry of Education offer to create university campuses in the new format as the core of urban development. The project describes a state-of-the -art campus as a modern area containing sports facilities, coworking space, classrooms, technology parks, libraries and, of course, accommodation places for students and teachers. This is a fundamentally new model that will offer “clever” area combining a university with campus and surrounded by necessary infrastructure. Plans are under way to carry out such projects in Saint Petersburg, Perm and Tomsk,” VEB.RF’s Deputy Chairperson and Member of the Board Svetlana Yachevskaya said.

“Russian universities need to increase the number of domestic and foreign students. According to the Export of Education federal project, 425,000 foreign students will study through on-campus mode in Russian universities by 2025, which is 1.5 times more than in 2020. Ensuring improved living conditions for students, young researchers and professors will help to satisfy the growing demand for campus accommodation and fulfil the requirements applicable to accommodation quality. Compact and functional rooms inhabited by students are often a place where most audacious pioneering projects are discussed. Definitely, students that are currently living in dormitories are best aware of necessities required for convenient living. I would like to emphasise that the lack of quality educational infrastructure is a problem not only for students but also for universities lacking talented nonresident applicants who are not ready to rent a room or a flat for the duration of studies,” co-founder and partner of Strelka KB and General Director of Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design Varvara Melnikova said.