According to the University of Kent’s Unit for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, a difficulty in concentrating is one of the most frequent complaints among students. The University of Cambridge agrees and its counselling service has gone so far as to publish a series of articles on how students can be helped to improve their concentration.

Both universities also concur in their reports that distraction is the major cause of poor concentration among students, and both make suggestions to students on what they can do to overcome this problem.

But what if colleges and universities went a stage further? What if our institutes of higher education began to offer tuition in buildings that by their very design lowered the level of distraction the students would experience? Could this make a noticeable difference?

In terms of art students the answer appears to be yes. Art students often suffer from a particular form of distraction that is sometimes of less concern to students in other faculties – the quality of the light. For art students the ability to view photos, designs, computer graphics and the like without any distraction from glare and reflection is essential. Likewise they often crave an escape from artificial lighting in order to appreciate colour tints, light and shadows.

It was to solve this problem that Conport devised the NorthlightTM Studio, and a number of colleges, have adopted the Conport approach to using natural light through north-facing skylights. Bournemouth Institute of Art, for example, used Conport to design a series of studios which could be used for fine art discussion rooms. They can now partition the space with no loss of light; and they can change use to fit in with whatever the Institute needs. Although these were initially planned as temporary buildings, the Northlight buildings at the Institute have been so successful that they now consider all of them to be permanent.

“Evidence suggests that the source of light that is used in a studio forms a significant part of the level of distraction that students will experience,” said Laura Merton of Conport Structures. “Research in California has shown that using sky-lit rooms can improve concentration in subjects such as maths and English by over 20%, so we are looking for at least the same among art students.”

Findings from a preliminary study among Bournemouth students are encouraging with over 70% of arts students questioned reporting an improvement in concentration in NorthlightTM Studios compared with other buildings.

For more details please contact Conport on 020 7730 9105 or e-mail sales@conport.com.