Student housing as a learning space

ABSTRACT

This paper is an initial exploration of the significance of students’ accommodation as spaces for learning. In interviews, students of Geography and Planning discuss the spatiality of studying, and how their student housing features in this. The diversity of student living and studying emerges clearly. Yet there are some commonalities, notably the significance of the materiality of accommodation as a factor that shapes and is in turn shaped by students’ agency. Their accounts underline the ways they seek to shape key aspects of their lives, and the reflective, learning, approach many take to this task. The paper concludes by drawing out implications for university tutors and lecturers. It also suggests avenues for further research.