Specifics of Educational Process in Architectural Space of Russian and Chinese Universities

Abstract

Given globalization and internationalization of higher education, and technological and organizational changes in the domain over the last two decades, requirements to the infrastructure, architecture and design of universities have changed drastically. The architecture of each university is viewed as a kind of an intricate system, in which the architecture and the overall style largely define the social networks and the nature of educational interactions. The advancing pace of technological progress in the digital society poses new requirements to the university infrastructure, thus stressing on the need to thoroughly study the impact of the university architecture and infrastructure on the educational process. According to global ratings, Chinese universities are becoming more and more popular with foreign students. The trend is largely triggered by the convenience of the university infrastructure there, which includes modern design, interactive educational premises, comfortable campuses, and restricted access to the areas. At the same time, Russian universities are also witnessing the increasing number of Chinese students. However, foreign students, including those from China, are far from being satisfied with the infrastructure and architecture of Russian universities. Nevertheless, the recent advancements in the Russia-China cooperation in the area of higher education compels Russian universities to enhance the educational infrastructure and adjust it to the needs of Chinese students. However, no meaningful research has been conducted so far in this domain. Within the framework of our research project, we aimed to define the architectural image of Russian and Chinese universities from the eyes of students and come up with the list of key requirements to the infrastructure of a contemporary university. The research aimed to gauge key requirements to the university infrastructure and design specifics of Russian and Chinese universities, and to assess their impact on the nature of interactions in the educational sphere. Questionnaire-based research covered three universities in Yekaterinburg. The overall audience of the project comprised 500 Chinese and 500 Russian students who are either studying or sharing apartments with the Chinese ones. The qualitative part included overt observation over the educational process in Russian and Chinese universities. According to the results, the architectural style of universities is becoming a key factor of educational interactions. A long distance between academic buildings and campuses undermine the intensity and uninterruptedness of the educational process, while the lack of comfortable, modern, and technically advanced premises deteriorates the value of the education for all students and shapes their negative perception of the overall educational process. We developed a typology of architectural and social space of universities. According to students, architectural buildings of 20th century associate with the classical university education, and the fundamental science and knowledge; those of the 1960s-1980s are seen as the aesthetical unappealing and comfortless Soviet-era holdovers, whereas modern architectural buildings are regarded as the centers of innovative activities and science. The study was able to identify architectural characteristics, develop recommendations to improve the architectural space of Russian and Chinese universities.