StudyHub – The first Co-Studying Space in Sofia
This year, the first co-studying space might open in Sofia. It will be named StudyHub and is initiated by the Students in Action Association, which is currently looking for partners and investors for the realisation of the project.
StudyHub will be a co-studying space following the model of the co-working spaces. It will be equipped with rooms for individual studying as well as a common space where students from different universities and specialties can interact with each other and attend events and open lectures. StudyHub will be located in Studentski grad, near urban transport stations, and will offer a twenty-four-hour access, seven days a week. It will also be adapted for people with disabilities, while constant video surveillance will ensure its security. The access will be granted via subscription cards, which will be available for students from every university.
The project leaders from Students in Action are a team of young people from two Sofia universities – Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and New Bulgarian University. The idea was influenced by the social environment of Studentski grad – it’s congested with over 200 places of entertainment and clubs, but has only one library. Those surroundings provoked the marketing student Martina Georgieva to look for a quieter place to study, like the coffee house of a gas-station. Which, as it appeared, was a study place for a lot of students.
That was the beginning of the StudyHub project – a place with twenty-four-hour access, where the young people of Sofia can study, prepare for lectures, collaborate and evolve together on their journey from the university to professional realisation.
Before gaining the initial resources for realising the project, the team of StudyHub made a survey among over 1000 students in order to ascertain the need and expectations of a co-studying space for the student community. 75% of the respondents were positive that a co-studying space is needed.
In countries like Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, etc. such places are integrated within the university campuses. It’s also not rare to find a library working in a similar way, providing twenty-four-hour access, with the user fees being included in the university tuition. Such co-studying spaces facilitate the educational process and help the students to form out-of-class communities.
Currently no such co-studying spaces are available in Bulgaria. The team’s viewpoint is that the creation of such a space could build an active student community, enhance exam results and place a studying environment at the students’ disposal. The opportunity for lecturers, organisations and businesses to have a place for initiatives, directed toward the students on their “own territory”, will raise the graduates to be competitive specialists.
“We want to create the so-called “informal education” – to connect the students from one university with those from another one. That’s of crucial importance for the formation of erudition and skills in the students of different branches of knowledge, as well as for the establishment of contacts with people from different fields of work”, says Martina Georgieva, initiator of the idea and part of the team of the Students in Action Association.
As planned, StudyHub should open at the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year. As for now, the fundraising campaign is supported by students from all the Universities in Sofia.
The project is looking for investors and partners for the realisation of the first co-studying space in Bulgaria. If you’re interested, you can contact the initiators at studyhub.bulgaria@gmail.com .
You can find more information about the campaigns up to this point, initiatives and the team behind the project at their facebook page – StudyHub Bulgaria.
You can find project details, hall plans and contact information here.
