How to Positively Impact Student Wellbeing: Utopi x Spaceflow

Each generation of students brings with it different expectations for their living experience in student accommodation, but there is one constant connecting them: the living experience directly affects the mental health and wellbeing of student residents.

Utopi and Spaceflow previously announced our partnership and aim to revolutionize the resident experience for student living. Our two platforms combined are uniquely poised to positively impact student wellbeing on several levels, from encouraging community engagement to optimizing environmental conditions.

By nurturing community and comfort

The Class Foundation’s 2024 Student Living Monitor highlighted the impact that improving the living experience has on student wellbeing, mental health, and overall success.

The properties whose student communities expressed the highest satisfaction and wellbeing offered well-designed shared spaces, events, and services to engage the student community and deliver value, while the surveyed students who used communal spaces and joined events reported a better living experience than those who did not. 

Spaceflow’s resident app makes it easy to connect students with their community, events, and shared spaces in the ways that best suit them so they experience the full value of student living. 

What kind of impact does that connection have, and how does it directly improve student wellbeing? Let’s take a closer look.

1. ‍Connecting students to the community

Students' mental health is often negatively affected by a lack of social opportunities in their daily lives. 40% of surveyed students said that their living had been negatively impacted by loneliness. 

Community engagement is crucial for their wellbeing, and Spaceflow’s Community features available to students in the app make it possible to both offer social opportunities and encourage participation in them.

Newsfeed: Posts, polls, notifications, and conversations all happen in the Spaceflow app, encouraged by the Messaging, Channels, and Polls features. 

In one student housing community, 94% of the student population has the Spaceflow app, and they post more than 60 times monthly. On average, they send more than 150 messages via the Spaceflow app every month.

“Our residents love the app and have found it a much easier way to communicate with other residents as well as staff.”

^{Director | Student Housing Client}

Events: Property or community management can offer another huge perk to students to support their wellbeing: Events. Spaceflow makes it easy to facilitate social connectivity through active communication and event organization. 

Marketplace: Another way students can connect with each other is through a thriving marketplace. In one student living building with 200+ beds, more than twenty items are posted monthly.

2. ‍Connecting students to the comforts of home

Often overlooked but still essential, offering shared spaces, amenities, and services to the student residents has a substantial impact on the living experience and therefore plays a role in student wellbeing. 

Make sure students are getting the most out of their stay by putting your entire offering into every student’s hand so they have convenient access to bookings, payments, and an enriched resident experience.

“What students appreciate the most is that we go the extra mile. We do everything to ensure that students have a comfortable living environment that gives them an authentic family feeling, and a second home when they are away from home.”

^{Dimitri Huygen | Xior Student Housing}

Vendors & Services: Students can view and book local vendors and services within the Spaceflow app, while you can take advantage of upsell opportunities and work with nearby businesses to expand offered services.

Resource Booking: In-app bookings give students immediate access to shared amenities and spaces like the fitness center, cinema, and meeting rooms, so they can make the most of life in the building. They can also pay for their bookings directly in the app for a smoother experience.

Case study: A Belgian real estate company specializing in student housing in 6+ European countries chose Spaceflow to power their student accommodation. With their vision of combining affordable living with a high quality of life, this client leveraged Spaceflow features to create a premium hospitality experience with convenient access to shared spaces and amenities. In the process, a thriving, engaged community of loyal tenants emerged.

3. Measuring the impact

Being able to offer students a better way to connect with each other and with their living spaces is one thing, but how will you know whether your offered amenity or the latest organized event is having the impact that it should? Spaceflow has two solutions.

‍Tenant Satisfaction Score: Let students know they’re being heard and collect their feedback with the in-app tenant satisfaction prompt. Track the success of community engagement and resident experience initiatives over time to make data-driven decisions for the future.

“We ask meaningful questions that would help us understand how our operations are working at the end-user level. In the end, this brings us the biggest value to improve our operations.”

^{Dimitri Huygen | Xior Student Housing}

Analytics: In Spaceflow’s comprehensive Analytics dashboard, you can monitor important metrics such as engagement rates, event attendance, most-used amenities, and more. View the insights you need to make informed decisions and ensure that students are getting the best experience during their stay.

So far we've covered the tangible, multi-layered effect that the Spaceflow student app can have on residents of student accommodation. Next we'll see the role Utopi's award-winning ESG technology plays in positively impacting student wellbeing.

By optimizing interior environmental conditions

Utopi’s granular insights make it easy to monitor and improve comfort for residents. Comfort scores are given to individual rooms based on six environmental data points collected by Utopi Technology: Temperature, Air Quality, Humidity, Noise, Motion, and Light. We’ll break down just how these environmental conditions can greatly enhance resident experience and wellbeing.

1. Temperature and humidity

Without the visibility provided by Utopi, it can be difficult to identify rooms not being properly heated, cooled, and/or ventilated. Excessive heat can be a signal of poor heating behaviors or a malfunctioning heating system, both leading to high energy consumption. Mold and moisture issues need to be tackled proactively before they can negatively impact resident health.

• Resident experience impact: Students are healthier and more comfortable.
• Operational impact: Site teams can address inefficiencies, such as poor ventilation and malfunctioning heating in real time, controlling operating costs while ensuring uninterrupted comfort.

Case Study: Downing Students used the Utopi Heatmap in conjunction with Smart TRVs to control the heating in two PBSA assets and monitor outliers in the data to improve resident experience. Implementing Smart Temperature Controls resulted in improved resident comfort and reduced overheated spaces by an average of 52%.

2. Air quality

Young people under 30 exposed to higher levels of air pollution can see a drop in cognitive function equal to aging 15 years. Particulate matter and other pollutants in household air pollution inflame the airways and lungs, impair the immune response, and reduce the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

Utopi data gives clear insights into air quality and identifies potential patterns in air quality issues, such as poor ventilation or external pollutants entering the space.

• Resident experience impact: improved concentration, sleep, and mood
• Operational impact: Indoor air quality policies improve Net Promoter Scores and lead to increased rebooking

3. Noise and light

Noisy, poorly lit environments are easy to tackle with the Utopi Platform. The Utopi Multisensor can detect light and decibel levels in both shared and private spaces, easily identifying areas prone to low light levels or noise pollution.

• Resident experience impact: Quieter environments promote rest and focus, while optimized lighting reduces strain and supports circadian rhythms for better sleep.
• Operational impact: Utopi's data-driven insights empower property operators to create environments tailored to support student wellbeing and success.

Case Study: Combined data analysis of PIR, light, and noise levels (available in the Utopi Heatmap) helped Utopi and Scotland Police track down a missing student. Using in-room insights, we could see they had pulled the blinds down and turned the heating off, signalling a willing exit. This enabled swift intervention by the Police, who soon confirmed that the student had safely returned home.

Revolutionizing the student experience with Spaceflow and Utopi

Technology can revolutionize student wellbeing, but it requires a mindful and balanced approach. By leveraging technology and promoting a healthy balance between online and offline activities, student accommodation providers can support student wellbeing. 

Communication, connection, comfort, and environmental optimization are essential to truly benefit students' overall wellbeing. Technology is a tool that can be used responsibly and purposefully to empower students to thrive, and there’s no better example of that than the partnership between Spaceflow and Utopi.

‍

This article was co-authored by Chanel Turner-Ross, Utopi