In a recent article for the Australian Educational Researcher, James Thompson (University of Melbourne) and Claudia A Rivera Munoz (UMelbourne) examine the reasons why university students come to campus. Drawing on interviews with 20 students, Thompson and Rivera Munoz explored the influence of academic, convenience, social, and health-related factors on students’ decisions to go to, spend time on, or leave campus. Among their findings, the authors indicated that the quality and atmosphere of the campus—including factors such as noise, light, and presence of crowds—influenced the amount of time students spent on campus. Students also valued the strong social connections that they formed on campus, often travelling to campus for social and extracurricular activities or citing social connections as a reason to attend classes in person.
