Haworth white papers: higher education institutes around the world are undergoing radical change as they swap old-fashioned lecture rooms for flexible learning spaces, according to an expert in educational environments.
A global shift towards large, open-plan "learning studios" is transforming universities and colleges as they adapt existing buildings and build new ones.
The trend is forcing many institutes to look beyond their traditional city-centre locations to more suburban locations where there is more space to provide these more land-hungry facilities.
"It's a quiet revolution," said Andrew Harrison of Spaces That Work, a consultancy that specialises in learning environments, pointing out that the change is part of the same shift that has seen the workplace transformed by the rise of flexible shared workspaces.
"Education on every level is moving from passive learning with a speaker at the front and everyone just listening, to much more active learning where people are more engaged in the processes of learning."