Relocating to suburbs may not be best option for universities

A student at Beijing Film Academy on Sept 7, 2015. [Photo/ Chinanews.com]

An increasing number of Chinese universities plan to expand by building new campuses in suburban areas. China Youth Daily highlights the latent risks of universities relocating away from city centers with regard to talent recruitment and teacher-student relationships. It suggests that universities should think twice before rushing to relocate.

After years of enrollment expansion, many universities want to build new campuses in the suburbs as they are struggling to accommodate more students.

Local governments of suburban areas are also keen to attract universities as the new campuses will encourage further development around them and so push up the local land prices.

However, it is possible that a relocated university will become culturally isolated from the city center, dealing a blow to the traditional closeness between teachers and students. Aged professors who live in the urban districts, for instance, would be unlikely to travel hours to the new campuses except to give compulsory courses.

Admittedly, they can communicate via social media tools in their spare time, but that is hardly as efficient and inspiring as face-to-face interactions. Besides, students in the new campus might be granted limited access to certain public facilities, such as theaters, arts galleries, and libraries, which are mostly located in city centers.

For a university with a unique cultural environment and long history, which cannot be replicated elsewhere, moving to a new campus is not the best choice, despite the increased student capacity. They should take all the aforementioned issues into consideration before making any decisions about relocating.