Interest in Canada's Student Housing Market Growing Rapidly

Only 16% of undergraduate students live in on-campus housing according to the 2011 Canadian University Survey Consortium (see Table 8). Twice that number live in rental housing off-campus. How would you describe the type of off-campus housing that undergrads live in? After my experience today at the Canadian Student Housing Symposium I can guarantee that a decade from now student housing off-campus will be described in a very different way.


The symposium was hosted by Derek Lobo and his company Rock Apartment Advisors.  In the morning we received insight into the Canadian rental market over the past half century, heard about how to finance student housing and heard from Campus Living Centres (CLC), American Campus Communities (ACC) and Domus Student Housing on management of student housing. The second half had us travel to three ACC properties at the University of Buffalo in Amherst, New York.

Student Housing has been changing over the past decade and in the next decade the change will become bigger and much more noticeable. Hot tubs, large game rooms, indoor basketball courts, model suites available year round to attract new residents, in-unit laundry, a bathroom inside each bedroom and walk-in closets are just some of the features now included. 

About 100 people attended today's symposium with the vast majority looking to or already investing in purpose built student housing properties. The days of student's renting basement apartments is about to become a thing of the past. For-profit student housing providers are learning, adjusting and offering impressive properties for reasonable rates.

How do you feel about these changes to the Canadian student housing market?



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The Animal House teachable moment

Earlier in my career I would hear references made to how living in residence was like the 1978 movie Animal House.These references faded over time until recently when I heard it again. Having never seen the movie I decided it was time I sat down and watched it. Turns out I will never get those two hours back!

Animal House was awful! Aside from being a comedy with little humour and no plot line the story has virtually no resemblance to what it is actually like to live in residence aside from the fact that accommodations were "provided" on a college campus. For instance, residence is not a frat house, alcohol consumption is greatly exaggerated (see social norms study) and accommodations are hardly a dump (see most beautiful residences).

Should you encounter someone who uses Animal House as an analogy for living in residence stop them immediately and counter them with points like these:

• “Powerful learning occurs in situations where people come to know each other as friends”  (Chickering & Reisser, p. 399). -- see Persuasion for more evidence
• Students who live on campus are more likely to persist in higher education
• You can start a company and make millions or billions

What poor analogies have you heard someone make about a student's experience or the supports in place to help students be successful?

Persuading my colleagues outside student affairs

In an increasingly interdependent world where many points of view must be weaved together for any initiative to achieve success being persuasive is an important skill. Different strategies can be used to be persuasive.   

One strategy you can use to persuade someone is to relate your point to your audience's experience. To that end, I have recently started to explain to colleagues how our lives, in general, have seen a blurring of the lines between personal and professional in an effort to convey that our students learn inside and outside the classroom. I believe that institutions who understand this phenomenon, and leverage it, can greatly enhance learning and development opportunities for students. 

Using evidence to make a point is another obvious strategy that can be used to persuade someone. When it comes to the power of living on campus I have found myself going back to the 2007 submission I made to Ryerson's Master Planning exercise where I opened with the following:

“Powerful learning occurs in situations where people come to know each other as friends”  (Chickering & Reisser, p. 399).  On a university campus these friendships can form in many places, but one of the best locations for friendships to form is in a residence hall.  Living in residence has been proven to enhance the student experience.  The following points from Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) summarize some of the key findings of research on residence living. When compared to students living off-campus, students living on-campus are:

• more likely to participate in extracurricular activities
• report more positive perceptions of the campus social climate
• tend to be more satisfied with their college experience and report more personal growth and development
• engage in more frequent interactions with peers and faculty members
• more likely to persist to graduation

What is your favourite persuasive technique? 


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Re:educating Higher Education

Are we on the precipice of major change to higher education? The internet has dramatically altered the way we listen to music, access news, read books, view movies, buy products and much more. The way we learn has, so far, remained largely unchanged while other industries have been turned upside down and inside out. 

The signs that major change is coming to those of us in higher education are all around us. Consider these developments:

• Government debt levels are so high that public funding that has been available to higher education for the past half century will diminish significantly or even end altogether
• Knowledge and information is accumulating more rapidly, requiring people to learn and develop almost constantly to remain relevant in the workforce
• For-profit education institutions are much more active in the education field - The University of Phoenix is a high profile example
• Online education has been growing more rapidly than traditional forms of education - MOOCs, such as Coursera, are the latest evolution in online education

Shrinking resources are often a catalyst for change in an organization. When growing demand, increased competition and new methods to deliver services are added to the mix, change expands beyond an organization to a whole industry. 

Ironically, we are about to learn a whole lot about the higher learning industry in the coming years. In an effort to kick start the dialogue "the Globe and Mail will introduce Re:education [tomorrow], an ongoing series that explores the legacy of Canada's university system and identifies new opportunities to thrive in the 21st century. Re:education examines several threads of our current model from the evolution of the lecture hall to digital learning and the role of the private sector in overcoming financial strains. The series has been shaped with commentary and insights from industry influencers and thought leaders from Canada and abroad." 

Check out more here: www.ourtimetolead.ca and be sure to join the discussion beginning tomorrow (Saturday, October 6).
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Networking Beyond PSE: Chambers of Commerce

To work in student affairs is to collaborate with others. Our partnerships on campus go from physical resources to faculty and everyone in between. Extending partnerships beyond our institution's borders to businesses, community groups and local leaders is not as common, or at least not done in as consistent a manner.


The Canadian Chamber of Commerce just released a report, Canada's Skills Crisis: What we heard (found here), which states one of four key priorities for the chamber is "Improving the connections between educators and employers to balance supply with demand for skilled trades and highly skilled occupations."

Countless opportunities exist for collaboration between educators and business, especially when one considers: collectively student affairs professionals have access to over 1 million students who are enrolled in post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada and the chamber represents "192,000 businesses of all sizes in all sectors of the economy and in all regions"

Getting a job is the main reasons students enrol in PSE today (CUSC, p27). Expanding our network beyond our campus community will help us better meet the most important need our student's express. Tapping into an established network, like your local chamber, will be one of the fastest and most efficient ways to do this. The Canada's Skills Crisis: What we heard report indicates we have a willing partner who can facilitate connections between us and businesses.

Lifelong learning requires Lifelong learning advisors

The best sales people stay in contact with their clients long after the initial sale. In my experience, I rarely hear from a sales person again after I buy a product or service. If I do hear from a sales person it will typically be to sell me more of the same; never to follow up on the previous sale or simply to grow our relationship.

Sadly, colleges and universities are poor at sales. A significant amount of resources are put into marketing higher education to traditional students - those coming directly from high school. An excellent example of this is the Ontario University Affairs. Marketing and sales are not the same though. Marketing makes (potential) clients aware of a product or service whereas sales secures a commitment from clients to generate revenue.  

Any good problems present good opportunities and learning is no exception. Consider that
the amount of knowledge that exists is doubling as fast as every year and future job needs are nearly impossible to predict. This situation presents an infinite number of opportunities to "sell" learning. In other words, people will need to continually be learning to keep up with new knowledge and skills required to remain relevant and effective in the employment market.

As the need to learn continues increasing in importance the opportunities to guide learners how to learn efficiently and effectively will grow. This guidance will be supplied best from someone who knows you, your background and the previous knowledge you've gained. Who better to fill this role then colleges or universities. We have the expertise, data and relationships to be lifelong learning advisors to our students. All we need is the system to bring these factors into alignment. Career centres are well positioned to leverage this opportunity. A website like Linkedin or job listing sites like Workopolis or Monster could also fulfill this need. All that's left now is to see who will capitalize on this emerging opportunity.



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Name Tags for Everyone!

Have you ever been introduced to someone only to forget their name 10 seconds later? I have on many occasions. Coming into my new role in housing at uWaterloo where I would be responsible for 100 full-time staff and 200+ student staff I'll admit I was a little concerned with how I was going to remember everyone. Fortunately a solution was already in place.

Long before I arrived one of the housing staff, I believe one of the cleaning staff, suggested all of the full-time staff should wear name tags. Obviously a simple solution. Smart too. Yet few staff in higher education have adopted name tags. The result is missed opportunities.

One obvious missed opportunity is the barrier to strike up a conversation with a colleague. Another is making higher education a little easier for our students. Staff or students who can identify (other) staff and then address them by name will be that much more comfortable and more likely to engage in conversation. For new students this can be invaluable. I've been stopped by random people - students, parents and staff - walking round the uW campus over the past couple of weeks likely in large part because I'm wearing a name tag.  While I have not always had the answer people have engaged with me at a time they needed assistance. Student affairs staff are known to be helpful and often identify strongly with qualities related to helping others. Wearing name tags will help us help others even more.