Future Campus explained

The campus of the future requires an inspiring, technological learning environment that moves with digitalisation and changing educational needs. The Future Campus project provides scenarios and inspiring examples from the Dutch education sector that guide that transformation and form a valuable basis for strategic choices being made now.

1. Why Future Campus?

Digitalisation, changing student needs and a new role for teachers are forcing the education field to rethink the campus. The campus is no longer just a physical place, but part of a hybrid learning environment that must combine flexibility, technology and meeting. The urgency for renewal is widely felt in the sector, but it is often still unclear where exactly we are changing to. Future Campus offers direction to that end.

2. What is the purpose of Future Campus?

The Future Campus project has developed scenarios that provide insights into possible futures of the campus. It has also researched case studies that provide inspiration to the sector. These cases and scenarios help institutions to make strategic choices that are future-proof. They make the impact of choices visible and stimulate the conversation about which campus fits which vision of education. In doing so, the project acts as a catalyst for innovation and awareness.

3. What is the contribution for institutions?

Institutions get with Future Campus:

• Inspiring and thoughtful future scenarios for campus development;
• A conversation starter to connect policy, vision and strategy within the institution;
• Insight into the long-term consequences of choices;
• Tools to link campus development to educational innovation.
• Through meetings, tools and knowledge sharing, SURF also provides a platform where institutions can learn from each other.

4. Why is this important?

The campus is a crucial link in students' learning experience and teachers' working environment. A well-thought-out, future-proof campus enhances educational quality, well-being and innovativeness. By thinking now about tomorrow's campus, institutions avoid disinvestment in buildings, technology or organisational forms that will not support the changing reality later on.

5. What is SURF's role?

SURF initiated Future Campus out of its role as a cooperative for innovation in education and research. SURF connects institutions, provides expertise and facilitates collaboration. Whereas it works together on many topics, this was not yet the case for campus innovation. The Future Campus project responds to the need to think together about the future of the campus, in line with the vision on education in the future. By making knowledge, experiences and scenarios widely accessible, SURF helps institutions to jointly give direction and concrete form to the campus of the future.

6. Collaboration Smart Campus and Future Campus

The SURF projects Smart Campus and Future Campus both focus on the future of education and research campuses, but differ in approach and time horizon:

• Smart Campus focuses on technologies that are already applicable now and in the near future to make the campus smarter and more efficient, and tests them through pilots.
• Future Campus looks to the distant future and develops strategic scenarios for what the campus might look like in 2040. This vision of the future places new demands on technology and infrastructure.

The projects complement each other through the interaction between vision and technology. The combination of these two perspectives provides insights that help shape future developments on the one hand, and make immediate improvements on the other. In other words: the long-term vision of Future Campus inspires the innovations within Smart Campus, while the concrete technological solutions of Smart Campus contribute to the realisation of those visions of the future.