"Universities tempt students with radical architecture"

The full version of the article that I have produced extracts from below appeared in the Guardian on Friday 30/05/08:

"Universities tempt students with radical architecture"

Question: Go to any university around the UK today, and what will be first thing you see (apart, of course, from the hundreds of students scurrying from lecture theatre to library to laboratory to sports field)? Answer: brand new buildings, lots of them, either newly constructed and glistening in the sunlight, proudly displaying their new towers, domes, canopies and all manner of strange shapes and colours; or otherwise being rapidly fabricated, and surrounded by a toiling gaggle of cranes, hoists, trucks and construction workers.
But what are all these buildings really for? Why do they look so dramatic, and are they any good?

Many of these new buildings are aimed foursquare at the students themselves. Hence, of course, highly distinctive student residences, such as the colourful and pepperpot-shaped constructions designed by the Edward Cullinan Architects for the University of East London at its Docklands campus. These kinds of eye-catching designs work to attract the attention of prospective students, not only because they offer a reassurance that they will have somewhere modern and decent to live (scrappy bedsits and scabby shared houses just don't cut it any more), but also so that they will remember a particular university when making their final decision about where to apply

Iain Borden Education Guardian, Friday 30 May 2008 09.36 BST Article history

Whichever site Inverness college chooses to support, it is worth considering just how big a part the design of any new building will play in influencing a student's choice of a place to study.