The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1 - 46

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THE VALUE OF LIVING
AND LEARNING IN RESIDENCE
AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS'
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Increasing government oversight of academic institutions has prompted academic
leaders to demonstrate not only that their
students succeed, but also how speciﬁc programming contributes to their success (Li,
McCoy, Shelley, & Whalen, 2005). This shift
has impacted the work of student housing and
residence professionals, leading to numerous
programmatic changes and greater focus on
student learning in residence (Parameswaran
& Bowers, 2014). Similar to U.S. campuses,
the Canadian university on-campus residence
experience provides countless opportunities
to support student development, and housing
professionals are increasingly being called
upon to demonstrate the value they provide
to support student learning. While there is no
shortage of anecdotal evidence to suggest that
the residence experience provides more than
simply a place to eat and sleep, the use of Canadian data to measure student success has
remained limited.
While many models for understanding
student success have been proposed, Tinto's
(1975) model, which posits that students
persist in their degree when they are socially
and academically integrated into their institution, has been adopted most widely. Tinto
suggests that social integration is a stronger predictor than academic integration for
success. In this regard, living in residence
could be a strong contributor to a student's
social and academic integration into the institution. Residence building, ﬂoor, and room as-

46

signments build communities of students that
share physical space and a common purpose,
and there has been extensive research on the
effects of residence and community design
on student satisfaction and success (Doshi,
Kumar, & Whitmer, 2014; Hirt, Brandon, &
Cameron, 2008; Kaya, 2004; Kaya & Weber,
2003; Samura, 2016). Peer interaction in
residence is highly encouraged and is an integral part of most institutions' orientation
programs for incoming ﬁrst-year students.
Many residences now offer versions of living
and learning communities, which can further
facilitate academic integration by bringing
learning activities to the residential setting,
while also increasing peer and faculty interaction, thus leading to increased social integration (Cambridge-Williams, Winsler, Kitsantas,
& Bernard, 2014; Inkelas & Weisman, 2003;
Stassen, 2003).
Numerous studies have quantiﬁed the
effect of living in residence on student learning, generally reporting a positive relationship

Similar to U.S. campuses, the
Canadian university on-campus
residence experience provides
countless opportunities to support
student development, and housing
professionals are increasingly
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the value they provide to support
student learning.

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1
