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Informal spaces are becoming increasingly important for Providing high-quality touch-down space and other work settings enables study
the university. The Blizard Building, Queen Mary University and group learning work. Learning Grid, University of Warwick, MJP Architects.
of London, SMC Alsop. Photo: Morley von Sternberg Photo: Marc Goodwin

are quite likely to have a job as well. The students of today are
trying to balance increasingly complex lives because they are
having to work to finance their education and to blend that with
all the other activities they want to engage in during their time
at university – working, living and learning all mixed up together.
Some people have already predicted the end on the university as
we know it. Peter Drucker, for instance, suggested back in 1997
that end was nigh for the traditional university experience; that
in 30 years’ time the traditional university would be a relic, an
unsustainable dinosaur like the US healthcare system. But DEGW
isn’t of that school. We believe the role of the university, including
its physical learning environments, will continue to be vital in the
future. We don’t believe that the university faces extinction, but we

15 Further and higher education