ORAS’s role in facilitating study places
We see the shortage of study places as a problem on our campus. The number of students is growing fast, but the number of study places is not growing as quickly. The university therefore needs to invest heavily in order to provide every student with a place to study. For this ORAS is in constant dialogue with the university to improve the study places on campus in three areas.
Quantity
At the university, the quantity of study places is being increased by the construction of new buildings such as Pulse and Echo, but also by optimising the current study environments. As ORAS, our role in this is to push for the construction of additional buildings and to lobby for more study places in these new construction projects. ORAS has also been working on opening up instruction rooms (such as in Pulse) for self-study when they are not in use for teaching. This has been standard practice since 2020.
TU Delft can also facilitate more places when building opening hours are extended. In recent years ORAS has been working hard on this aspect and it was thanks to ORAS that XXL opening hours are used in the 'Learning strip' (Pulse, Library, IO, Aula) during exam weeks. Echo will hopefully be added to this.
Quality
The study place guide checks the quality of study places at our university. This guide, co-developed by ORAS, tests whether a workplace meets certain quality requirements. If this is not the case, the places will be renovated.
New workplaces are also always tested by ORAS for comfort, among other things. For example, ORAS recently tested the furniture of Echo and the new type A study places in the cone of the Library.
Each year, ORAS also conducts surveys in which students can indicate what they miss about their study place. This has been an important factor, for example, for the many study places with only a monitor in the Library. However, we would like to emphasise that there will also be places with a complete PC; not everyone has all the necessary software or even a laptop. This is why there will also be computers as well in, for example, the quiet room in the Library.
If there are substandard study places on the campus, please let us know via faciliteiten@oras.nl.
Findability/Utilisation
Finding study places has been a problem for years. Certain places are (sometimes unrightfully) much more popular than others, purely because they are better known. This problem is also recognised by the university and a solution must be found. ORAS's showpiece in this respect is the findability tool. This tool provides a clear overview of all study and project rooms and their specifications such as daylight, presence of PC’s, electricity, etc. ORAS has been lobbying for this tool to provide up-to-date overviews of occupancy so that every student can check from home where a free study place is. In 2022, this will probably be integrated into the tool using wifi-data. The first pilot version of the tool has been launched and can be found at https://spacefinder.tudelft.nl/en/ https://spacefinder.tudelft.nl/en/.
Study places in times of Covid-19
During the pandemic, the university was partially closed. The (re-)opening of the university was crucial for the wellbeing of students. ORAS recognised this problem and has been a pioneer in opening and scaling up several study landscapes by achieving the following list.
- At every meeting with the Executive Board ORAS was the main speaker during discussions about study landscapes and in this way took up the cause for all students (with results).
- Thanks to ORAS, Pulse has reopened for study places. Initially only in the evenings, but later also during the day between timetabled instruction classes.
- ORAS has also been the Library's regular sparring partner when it comes to reducing no-shows, controlled scaling up, the 'social seats', the number of shifts to be reserved per week and the practicalities of the MAPIQ reservation system.
- Furthermore, ORAS has written a protocol to open Drebbelweg for study places.
- ORAS has, with help of alumni, tried to open up office buildings for study places.
- Thanks to ORAS, theatre the Veste was opened for study places.
- Finally, ORAS has also been busy with the opening of student associations as study places so that their own members could come and study and the demand on campus was partly relieved
Echo
Completion: January 2022 In use: June 2022
The new Echo building is the first building on our campus to be energy generating. With the climate targets set for 2030, this is certainly a step in the right direction. The building is an education building, intended to facilitate instructional spaces for education. Nevertheless, ORAS will ensure that teaching areas are used as study areas outside timetabled hours. We are also planning to add Echo to the Learning Strip, which will allow for XXL opening hours during exam weeks. All Echo specifications are covered in this chapter.
Auditorium Echo
With the growth of studies such as Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, the big auditorium hall in the convention center is increasingly used to accommodate these huge groups of students. However, this is undesirable because the auditorium is intended for conferences and not for lectures. After all, every lecture given is one less potential conference. Echo has a room the size of the auditorium. Because such a large hall is not always needed, it can be divided into three small halls by means of a moveable wall that can be put up in five minutes. The large hall can be divided into 3 smaller halls of 300/200 students.
Debate Hall
Debate room with 87 chairs.
Instruction rooms
- 2 large halls of 144 places
- 4 halls of 64 places
- 3 halls of 56 places
ORAS will of course ensure that these rooms are open for self-study outside of the scheduled hours
Study places
- Type A (quiet places): ~150 places
- Type B (places with soft sound allowed): ~72 places
- Type C (places in open environments): ~255 m22
Do you have ideas on how to improve the study places on campus? Let us know via faciliteiten@oras.nl
