The grad student age shift: Redesigning campus spaces for a younger, high-intensity cohort

Younger graduate students — now the fastest-growing enrollment segment — are fundamentally altering campus space demands and operational priorities. Drawing on the Graduate Youth Index, a twenty-year national demographic analysis, Nico Hohman illustrates the planning implications from emerging group-based learning behaviors, extended campus presence, undergraduate-like residential patterns, and heightened expectations for flexible spaces, wellness resources, and social and recreational infrastructure. He demonstrates the mounting pressure institutions are facing to move beyond outdated planning models and invest in adaptable classrooms, collaborative zones, integrated housing, and comprehensive support environments. He equips space planners with enrollment data, utilization benchmarks, and evidence-based strategies to align capital decisions with the changing demographics reality, positioning institutions to strengthen recruitment, improve retention, and improve competitive advantage in an increasingly youth-driven graduate market.