Campus og studiemiljø - Bygningsstyrelsen

minor significance. Instead, the possibility of renting out to others
and thereby creating a profit is of primary significance.
Danish universities are subject to a rent scheme, which implies
that governmental institutions within e.g. the research and teaching
field pay rent for the buildings they use, most of which are let by the
Danish University and Property Agency. This gives the universities
flexibility, as they can terminate a lease at short notice, if they do not
need it or require it for expansion.
Aarhus University additionally collaborates with a property company
under the auspices of the Aarhus University Research Foundation.
The company constructs buildings and then lets them out,
primarily to the university. The property company has been an
active player in the extension of computer scientific learning and
research environments at the Katrinebjerg area, which were bought
and developed by the company. The property company lets out areas
to both businesses and Aarhus University. Consequently, several
subjects within the institute of computer science today coexist side
by side with private consultancies from the IT sector.
When it comes to being able to act quickly to changing area and
functional needs on campus, the challenge is an increased risk and
financial uncertainty. For instance, it may be difficult for universities
to be bound to an area which they are not sure that they will be able
to let out, e.g. to small newly started businesses. The physical presence
creates synergy and is decisive when a university expands. It
may mean increased focus on the existence of e.g. cheap and flexible
areas with low operating costs.
strategic use of accommodation for foreign visitors
The modern university not only offers attractive learning and
research environments, but also attractive accommodation options
for its foreign visitors. The studies indicate that several universities,
also Danish ones, consider the number of foreign visitors on campus
as directly proportional to the number of attractive residences for
foreign researchers and students. The residences are a significant key
in a strategic effort to establish an international study and research
environment. Residences also ensure life on campus and are therefore
included as an urban development factor for the campus.
Foreign universities work with residences on campus to a much
higher degree than Danish universities. American and Anglo-Saxon
universities in particular consider housing options along with the
educational programme, but universities from the European mainland
are also interested in integrating housing on or around campus.
There are historical and cultural reasons why Danish/European
students and researchers primarily live outside campus, as Wilhelm
and Elbe describe in their article. A typical Danish campus
– in contrast to an American – is built as a place of work, and it is
situated as a supplement to the city, just as business areas are. This
explains why housing, shopping facilities and varied cultural spare
time offers for young people are not a natural feature around campus
as it is seen in the USA. In Denmark, we also have a cultural
desire to make young people independent, including by giving
strategi / strategy
them a life where they are physically away from studies and teaching.
Similarly, it is traditional that researchers and teachers do not
spend their spare time at the university, but instead participate in
social life and make use of the cultural offers outside the university.
In spite of these fundamental differences it is, however, worth
noticing a couple of housing initiatives abroad, as the ideas can be
transferred to e.g. accommodation for foreign students or visiting
researchers in Denmark.
Many American universities such as MIT, where 40 % of the undergraduate
students are foreigners, deliberately attempt to make
student life merge with private life. This is done, for instance, by integrating
learning and group rooms at the residence halls, which are
also used for teaching. This is a structure known in Denmark from
the folk high schools, where learning and spare time also merge.
MIT considers housing a good way of ensuring quick integration,
which is particularly important to a researcher or student who is
only visiting for a short time.
MIT also deliberately locates attractive researcher family accommodation
in buildings where students live, in order to further contact in
that way. This is supported by activities such as offers about communal
eating. In practice, this means that the researcher and his/
her family feel at home among the students, and that discussions
continue after class in a more private setting. MIT has experienced
better and quicker integration between visiting researchers and students
as a result of the researcher being accommodated at residence
halls on campus.
ETH Zürich is planning to construct a number of four-room housing
options on campus, because they would like to have an attractive
offer for students and foreign researchers with a family. They are
financed by sponsors and will be rented out via a property company.
The accommodation is deliberately designed as four-room units
so that they can be used either for flat sharing with three to four
students or as spacious researcher family units. This will also make
them attractive to ordinary families, so that in times of recession the
units might be let out to interested parties in the area.
In Denmark, a number of new, attractive foundation-funded student
hostels have been built in Copenhagen, including the Bikuben
and the Tietgen on the University of Copenhagen’s South Campus
in the Ørestaden district. The offer here is attractive independent
accommodation for young people, with the chance of interacting
with peers. The interest in these housing units seems to be growing
among students, and this probably means that this type of network
accommodation, where you benefit from the resources of each other,
is generally gaining popularity among Danish youth. However, these
student hostels are built by donors without the involvement of the
university or anybody else.
One of the challenges when offering accommodation to foreign visitors
is to clarify who owns and runs the residences. In Denmark, the
municipalities are generally under obligation to provide housing,
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