A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. [2] This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls.
By extension, a corporate campus is a collection of buildings and grounds that belong to a company, particularly in the technology sector. Examples include Bell Labs, the Googleplex and Apple Park. [3]
Campus comes from the Latin : campus, meaning "field", and was first used in the academic sense at Princeton University in 1774. [4] At Princeton, the word referred to a large open space on the college grounds; similarly at the University of South Carolina it was used by 1826 to describe the open square (of around 10 acres) between the college buildings. By the end of the 19th century, the term was used widely at US colleges to refer to the grounds of the college, but it was not until the 20th century that it expanded to include the buildings as well. [5]
The tradition of a campus began with the medieval European universities where the students and teachers lived and worked together in a cloistered environment. [6] The notion of the importance of the setting to academic life later migrated to America, and early colonial educational institutions were based on the Scottish and English collegiate system. [6]
The campus evolved from the cloistered model in Europe to a diverse set of independent styles in the United States. Early colonial colleges were all built in proprietary styles, with some contained in single buildings, such as the campus of Princeton University or arranged in a version of the cloister reflecting American values, such as Harvard's. [7] Both the campus designs and the architecture of colleges throughout the country have evolved in response to trends in the broader world, [8] [9] with most representing several different contemporary and historical styles and arrangements.
In 1922, a lecture by Patrick Abercrombie at the British Town Planning Institute contrasted the American campus to the style of Oxbridge colleges, saying: "generally with us the park-like garden and trees are to one side of the college buildings, in contrast with the formally enclosed quad with its clipt grass. In the Campus method the departments of the university are scattered about a park and are actually among the trees." However, he did also note that Trinity College Dublin had "what is called elsewhere a Campus" on its 28-acre (11 ha) site in central Dublin, and that William Wilkins had "attempt[ed] an English Campus" on the 20-acre (8.1 ha) site of Downing College, Cambridge. [10]
The first true campus universities in Britain were not established until the late 1940s, with the University of Reading moving to its Whiteknights campus in 1947, University College Swansea (now Swansea University) moving to its Singleton Park campus in 1948 and the University College of North Staffordshire (now the University of Keele) being established on the Keele Hall estate in 1949. [11]
In the early 1990s the term began to be used to describe a company's office building complex, most notably when Apple's Infinite Loop campus was first built, which at the time was exclusively for research and development. The Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington, is another example of this usage, although it was built in the 1980s, before the term was applied to company property. In the 21st century, hospitals and even airports [12] sometimes use the term to describe the territory of their respective facilities.
The word campus has also been applied to European universities, although some such institutions (in particular, "ancient" universities such as Bologna, Padua, Oxford and Cambridge) are characterized by ownership of individual buildings in university town-like urban settings rather than sprawling park-like lawns in which buildings are placed.
A number of university campuses or parts of campuses have been recognised as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO for their outstanding universal value. These include:
Utrecht University is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established 26 March 1636, it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, and employed 8,929 faculty members and staff. More than 400 PhD degrees were awarded and 7,765 scientific articles were published. The university's 2023 budget was €2.8 billion, consisting of €1.157 billion for the university and €1.643 billion for the University Medical Centre Utrecht.
Alcalá de Henares is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located 31 kilometres to the northeast of the center of Madrid. As of 2018, it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality.
The Complutense University of Madrid is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293, it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's most prestigious institutions of higher learning. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of Pozuelo de Alarcón. It is named after the ancient Roman settlement of Complutum, now an archeological site in Alcalá de Henares, just east of Madrid.
Keele University is a public research university in Keele, approximately three miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted university status by Royal Charter as the University of Keele in 1962.
The Coimbra Group (CG) is an international association of 40 universities in Europe. It was established in 1985. It works for the benefit of its members by promoting "internationalization, academic collaboration, excellence in learning and research, and service to society" through "creating special academic and cultural ties", by lobbying at the European level, and by developing best-practice.
Domenico Agostino Vandelli was an Italian naturalist, who did most of his scientific work in Portugal.
Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties [that] represent the combined works of nature and of man" and falls into three main categories:
The University of Alcalá is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km northeast of Madrid in Spain and also the third-largest city of the region. It was founded in 1293 as a Studium Generale for the public, and was refounded in 1977. The University of Alcalá is especially renowned in the Spanish-speaking world for its annual presentation of the highly prestigious Cervantes Prize. The university currently enrolls 28,336 students, 17,252 of whom are studying for undergraduate degrees, who are taught by a teaching staff of 2,608 professors, lecturers and researchers belonging to 24 departments. The administrative tasks are carried out by the university's Administration and Services, comprising approximately 800 people.
The Orto Botanico di Padova is a botanical garden in Padua, in the northeastern part of Italy. Founded in June 1545 by the Venetian Republic, it is the world's oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location. The garden – operated by the University of Padua and owned by the Italian government – encompasses roughly 22,000 square meters (240,000 sq ft), and is known for its special collections and historical design.
East Durham College, formerly known as East Durham & Houghall Community College, is a community college with campuses in Peterlee and Houghall, south-east of Durham.
Santo António dos Olivais, commonly shortened to Olivais, is an urban civil parish in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal, making up the eastern part of the historic city of Coimbra, east of University Hill. The population in 2011 was 38,936, in an area of 19.27 km². It is the most populated parish in the Municipality of Coimbra, and among the most densely inhabited in the country outside of Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas. Created in 1836, the parish was named for Anthony of Padua, who joined the local branch of the Order of Friars Minor; Anthony took his name from Saint Anthony the Great, to whom the local Franciscan hermitage was dedicated.
Durham University is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus the third-oldest university in England. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.
The Archiepiscopal Palace of Alcalá de Henares is a palace located in Alcalá de Henares, in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It is now home to the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares. It is located in the Plaza del Palacio and this form part of the monumental set declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Miguel de Cervantes Health Care Centre is a health centre located at Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain, which belongs to the Health Service of Madrid and is assigned to direct public health care.
Julia Morgan Hall is a historic building in the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley, California. Built in 1911, the building was designed by prominent California architect Julia Morgan and originally located on the central campus of the University of California, Berkeley, near the present location of the Haas School of Business. It served as a gathering place for Berkeley's female students, who wanted a female counterpart to Senior Hall, the senior men's meeting hall.
The Colegio Menor de San Ciriaco y Santa Paula, popularly known as Colegio de Málaga, is one of the educational centres that made up the former Cisnerian University of Alcalá de Henares, and which currently houses the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Alcalá.