CONFERENCE
The UL Academic Centre is planned to be finished by 2023, but the first stage of development of Tornakalns campus – the new Academic Centre of Natural and Medical Sciences should open in autumn 2014.
UL Faculty of Social Sciences, the Department of Communication Studies carried out an electronic survey to find out how the UL students and staff are informed about the planned changes to UL infrastructure. An invitation to participate in the survey was sent to all LUIS database users, as well as published on the Internet www.lu.lv and www.lusp.lv. In total, the survey involved 1156 respondents. The valid survey size was 1147 responses.
More than half (54%) of the respondents had already heard of the UL Academic Centre before the survey. Taking into consideration the early stage of the project development the indicator of awareness is pretty high. All respondents who declared to be aware of the Centre were then asked how they first heard about it. As the most topical sources of information were mentioned acquaintances or friends, the media and the UL home page.
The survey showed that 78% of respondents – students and staff knew that the UL Academic Centre will be located in Tornakalns district. 85% of all respondents who study or work at the Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, the Faculty of Chemistry, and the Faculty of Medicine were aware of moving to Tornakalns.
The question about faculties which will continue their work in the new Academic Centre of Natural and Medical Sciences in 2014 was confusing for many respondents - only 0.7% of them precisely named three faculties (the Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Medicine) while for 27% of respondents it was a hard-to-answer question. 70% of respondents considered that the Faculty of Biology will also move to the Academic Centre of Natural and Medical Sciences, however, no changes are expected in 2014.
Respondents’ expectations on the design project of the UL Academic Centre coincided closely (90%) with facilities and amenities expected to be available for students and staff by 2023: premises for study and research work, a hostel, a sports hall, a gym, a stadium, a canteen, a Student Service Centre and entertainment centre. In addition, respondents were able to point to their own required facilities or services at the Centre. 42 respondents were of the opinion that the Academic Centre also requires a library, while 6 respondents considered that the UL administration should be located in this complex, so students could save time settling administrative matters. Other respondents indicated as necessary lecture-rooms for conferences, laboratories and auxiliary premises, a computer room open 24 hours a day, a parking place, a medical centre, a swimming pool, an assembly hall for cultural events, a children’s room, a bicycle parking place, a stop for public transport, office apartments for lecturers, a chapel, a hairdresser’s, shoe repair service, a park and a sauna.
The survey asked respondents to share their opinions on the following seven statements to find out the key reason - why UL needs the Academic Centre:
• It is common practice in universities around the world;
• Current buildings are inadequate for the modern university;
• It would save the UL resources;
• The construction can attract the European Union funding;
• It would provide comfortable life space both for students and academic staff;
• It would improve the quality of education;
• It would allow UL to become the Baltic Centre of Higher Education.
Analysing all the statements in general, it can be concluded that the most favourable opinions of “completely agree” or “agree” were made for statements: “Current buildings are inadequate for the modern university” (total 901), “It would provide comfortable life space both for students and academic staff” (total 672) and “It is common practice in universities around the world” (total 635). The most critical responses - “disagree” or “completely disagree” deserved statements: “It would improve the quality of education” (total 260) and “Current buildings are inadequate for the modern university” (total 249). Respondents also doubted such claims as “It would allow UL to become the Baltic Centre of Higher Education” (197 “disagree” and “completely disagree” responses), “It would save the UL resources” (190 “disagree” and “completely disagree” responses).
In addition, respondents were able to offer other options on the necessity of UL Academic Centre. 25 respondents took this opportunity to express their attitude towards the planned UL Academic Centre emphasizing that the new Academic Centre as a building complex will not improve the quality and level of education; the quality of education depends on qualification of academic staff. Besides some respondents were of the opinion that buildings themselves will not ensure that the University becomes the largest Academic Centre in the Baltic States. Four respondents highlighted the advantages of the Academic Centre such as: “The Academic Centre will provide students an environment in which all the necessary facilities will be easily accessible and available at short notice, as well as it will create a sense of community and the spirit of students”.
Another respondent pointed directly to the advantages of the Academic Centre - students of interdisciplinary study programmes need relatively long time to get from one faculty to another. UL is the first out of more than 50 Latvian universities which intends to build an Academic Centre or campus, hence three respondents stressed the opportunities of UL to raise their prestige, as well as the opportunity to gain new advantages among other universities. Seven respondents of those who expressed a separate opinion had a relatively negative attitude towards the complex of the new Academic Centre, or expressed the view that such Centre is not necessary at all. One of these seven respondents considered that “it is better to invest much more money in hardware, databases and other matters necessary for studies and research”. One respondent said that initially it would be useful to reconsider teaching methods, while another offered to create higher education partnerships of several accredited higher education institutions thereby reducing the competition that prevails among educational services.
The vast majority of respondents are students of the Faculty of Economics and Management and the Faculty of Social Sciences – these faculties have a large number of students. It can be mentioned as a positive fact that the activity of those students who studied at the Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, the Faculty of Chemistry, the Faculty of Medicine (these faculties will be moved to the new Academic Centre of Natural and Medical Sciences) were still higher than the rest of the students involved in the survey. However, the same students were less informed compared to the students of other faculties: 48% of all respondents from three faculties mentioned above had previously heard of the UL Academic Centre, but this figure is about 6% lower than the entire set of respondents - 54% respectively.
UL teaching and non-teaching staff is almost equally active. The vast majority of respondents came from the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Arts.
33% of respondents were males, while 67% - females. The difference between male and female subjects generally reflects the gender breakdown of UL students and staff.
The majority of the staff respondents were over 50 years of age which corresponds to UL percentage of staff by age (University of Latvia. Annual Report 2009).
Finally, of the 721 students surveyed, 257 or 36% are UL first-year bachelor’s students who will also have the greatest opportunity to continue their Master’s studies in the new Academic Centre of Natural and Medical Sciences.