Enticing students back to campus is not a simple endeavour

As we reconstruct the university experience after the Covid pandemic, the question of how we get students to return to campus is increasingly asked. The current generation of university students has experienced fragmented in-person education, disrupted by lockdowns and border closures, in addition to increased financial pressures that require working extended hours. The combination of becoming accustomed to the convenience of online learning and being unfamiliar with the benefits of campus-based study, as well as cost-of-living pressures, means student attendance can no longer be taken for granted.

Fundamental to supporting students to return to campus are rich, engaging educational offerings on campus, and this has been written about extensively. There are, however, some other factors worth exploring.

The first is that there is a binary nature to some of the discussion that deserves to be challenged. Students are said to be either on campus or learning remotely. Study is either in person or it is online. Yet the post-Covid world is more complex and interesting than these binaries suggest.

Those who study predominantly online might still benefit from short periods of intense inperson study (for example at the

start of a degree or for a capstone). The Australian government recently announced A$67 million (£35 million) to extend a network of Regional University Centres to additional underserved areas. These regional study hubs allow those studying online at a variety of universities to access reliable internet, support and a cohort of peers, which has been shown to increase participation and retention in areas with low university enrolment.

Likewise, those studying predominantly face to face will still expect to do so in a digitally rich environment. Pharmacy students at Griffith University, for example, spend part of their on-campus time in a highly sophisticated virtual environment that teaches them modern pharmaceutical practices.