Trends in Higher Education: Higher education facilities invest in the future with the materials choices – April 2025

By Jessica Chevalier

The higher education segment has changed, and, with it, the physical campus has taken on a new role: convincing prospective students and their parents that their tuition investment bears dividends beyond the academic. To that end, forward-facing facilities must be modern, appealing and, yes, functional, with flooring finishes supporting those goals as well as offering long-term, high-quality service to these owner-occupied spaces.

“Universities want to be a beacon of the future and demonstrate how things can be done; they are inspired to create better, healthier spaces that can function well,” says Kent Clauson, director of performance markets for Patcraft. “Higher education was definitely hurt by the Covid shutdown but has really sprung back and is doing well. We are getting close to double-digit growth. We see more investment in new spaces, but also renovation in many existing spaces and in residences.”

Brandon Kersey, director of business development for Engineered Floors, notes, “After a Covid dip during 2020, we have seen significant steady growth every year since.”

STUDENTS = CONSUMERS
“The average cost of tuition has risen over 140% in the last 20 years, about 7% annually,” says Sara Hudson, director of marketing, education, government and product launch at Shaw Contract. “Students investing in a higher education degree have more debt, so, when they are thinking about university, they are considering it more from a consumer perspective.”

Furthermore, Hudson notes that today’s students are more intentional about their college choices and their desire to go to particular schools, understanding the impact such decisions can have on their career down the road.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that students entering college today had their high school experience disrupted by the pandemic, and, therefore, many are craving a robust college experience with a strong sense of community.

Attracting students with this outlook means offering campuses with outward appeal. This creates competition between universities to pull students in with not only academics but also with desirable amenities.

“Student life is invested in the most because that is the lure for the student,” says Denis Darragh, general manager for North America/Asia at Forbo Flooring Systems. “Parents are looking at the overall picture, including the environment and safety.”

“Capital investments in facilities are a means to differentiate from other colleges for attracting students,” says Jeff Krejsa, managing director at Gerflor USA. “As demographics have shifted to favor the student, the competition for their tuition dollars is fiercer.”

“Generally, we see design continuing to move away from ‘institutional’ aesthetics to being more ‘welcoming’ in public areas,” says Kersey. “Instructional areas are flexible and technology friendly. On the housing front, university-owned student housing has shifted to more upscale design and amenities seen in a lot of third-party student housing.”

“Due to continued competitiveness in this segment, institutions of higher education are more often going for a high-end look to attract students, faculty and parents,” says Clauson. “Welcome centers, common areas, athletic spaces, where they want to entertain alumni and recruit athletes-there is lots of investment there. We have seen the development of more hospitality-inspired environments.”

Kelly Hensley, national account and commercial sales manager at HMTX Commercial, Aspecta and Teknoflor, notes that there is a focus on “designing spaces that foster socialization and community to offer students a space to connect with one another while creating a sense of belonging.”

HIGER ED ACTIVITY
Higher education enrollment is on the rise. Higher Ed Dive, a publication focused on activity in the higher education market, reports, “Enrollment of first-year students grew 5.5% in fall 2024 compared to the year before, representing an increase of about 130,000 students.”

In addition, Insight Higher Ed notes, “Post-secondary enrollment is up 4.5% this year, bringing the combined number of undergraduate and graduate students above 2019 numbers for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.”

This growth has boded well for flooring manufacturers serving the space, which report that, while not booming, higher education work continues to be steady. “Like healthcare, higher ed is still catching up from Covid,” says Fred Reitz, vice president of AHF’s commercial business.

When it comes to flooring, higher education is the smaller of the two education segments, accounting for one quarter to one third of the total market, according to interviewees. While K-12 is significantly bigger, interviewees believe that the two segments have similar growth rates currently.

Areas of higher education growth right now are often concentrated in areas with increasing populations, reports Mike Foley, director of education in the western region for Mannington Commercial, who currently sees a high number of projects in community colleges.

While capital projects are a significant portion of current activity, renovation work is also active.

Adds Paula Meason, marketing activation manager for Interface, “We see universities invest in on-trend finishes, including flooring, in high-traffic areas like student common areas, academic spaces, classrooms and athletic facilities to help define space and promote wayfinding. The design of residence halls in higher education facilities is also an important consideration. Parents and students are looking for these spaces to be designed with comfort in mind, and it can be a factor when selecting a specific college or university.”

One aspect that greatly impacts higher education’s need to maintain its forward face is the fact that it is largely privately funded, and the alumni and donors who are investing in these institutions want to see a beautiful campus for the money that they put in.

But there is a reciprocal relationship at play here, as a beautiful campus also increases pride and yields more investment.

The play for this private money is key in higher education. “There has been a squeeze in the middle,” explains Krejsa. “High-prestige private universities are continuing to build endowments and invest, and large public universities are growing and diversifying in STEM-related programs, while the smaller, mid-major public and private schools are suffering with both a lack of students and a lack of funding. It’s a case of the big and more prestigious getting bigger, and the middle being squeezed, sometimes out of existence.”

Due to the nature of funding in higher education, the impacts of Covid were especially complicated, explains Jonathan Stanley, director of education and government strategies for Tarkett North America. “The total flooring business serving higher education is expected to see very low single-digit growth in 2025, as it did in 2024. But next year, it is expected to decline by mid-single digits, in part because projects that were initiated after Covid with federal funding will be complete. Players in higher education, which was more severely impacted than K-12 by the pandemic, dipped into their financial reserves amid Covid, with federal funding often rebalancing those reserves. Now that those reserves have been refilled, institutions are back to the same mentality of ‘enrollment retention and facility upgrades.’”

Further, he adds, “The Covid slowdown offered universities the opportunity to explore their strategic plans and return their focus to their own revenue streams, as opposed to depending on federal funding, which is potentially problematic with the Trump administration threatening to cut funding for organizations that maintain DEI policies. This further reorients institutions toward endowments and enrollment as the main revenue sources, encouraging them to lean into their strengths.”

SUSTAINABILE SOLUTIONS
With their intent to serve as a beacon for the future, higher education institutions are often active with regard to sustainable endeavors.

Post-Covid, there is always discussion about health and wellness, says Darragh, noting, “They want to build a healthy environment, a hygienic space. They want to know, how do you keep it clean? Infection control is always a part of the consideration.”

Building health greatly overlaps with sustainability, and that is often a focus in higher education. “Material health is pretty much a given,” says Kersey. “Beyond that, some focus on embodied carbon, others on lifecycle.”

“Universities are requesting more materials with recycled content,” says Foley.

Duncan reports that it most frequently sees a high interest in its low-carbon/carbon-neutral options.

“Flooring can be one of the most significant sources of carbon emissions in higher education facilities,” says Meason. “This means that specifying flooring solutions that prioritize sustainability and lower the overall carbon footprint of education environments is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity.”

Hudson reports that, when she introduces Shaw Contract’s PVC-free resilient offering to higher education clients, “it’s obvious they have been looking for a solution like that.”

Similarly, Patcraft’s Clauson reports that both his company’s PVC-free vinyl tile, which is available at a similar price point to standard LVT and with identical maintenance requirements, as well as its carpet tile with recyclable EcoWorx backing are in demand.

And Foley notes that Shane Totten, Mannington’s vice president of sustainability, travels around speaking about responsibly sourced vinyl, noting, “One of the design firms we had Shane come and speak at changed their position on vinyl afterwards.”

In relation to these choices, universities are seeking third-party verified certifications that back a manufacturer’s claims-Declare labels, Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These, says Hensley, “create a level playing field to compare flooring options, as they screen ingredients while providing additional transparency.”

As for the academic institutions that invest in sustainable products, they are eager to share this sort of information with their stakeholders, telling these stories in a variety of ways, including through building certifications.

FACILITIES & MAINTENANCE
Lalit Agerwal, the newly appointed CEO of APPA (Association of Physical Plant Administration) is promoting higher performance buildings with a focus on health. APPA is a trade organization that focuses on education facilities.

“Just like higher ed went through a period of reinventing itself, we are looking at what we are supplying APPA members that really matters in these conversations,” says Stanley. “Part of that is research. Durability and ease of maintenance are table stakes, but high-bar table stakes, because higher ed is more internally scrutinizing, more sophisticated in how it looks at data.” One central consideration for universities is total cost of ownership. “There are two deltas of proof-how do I know ‘high performance’ is a fact and what group validated that?”

“Health” is viewed in three terms by APPA, explains Stanley, “What ingredients make up the material? Can we effectively remove the contaminants that have settled into the material? Will the material off-gas?”

“What facilities managers and architects are looking for is not manufacturers making claims, but claims backed by third parties,” says Stanley. “For flooring, this is most commonly an EPD, though Asthama & Allergy certification is also valued.”

According to a 2021 survey by commercial real estate firm JLL, “Eighty-six percent of parents rank the look and feel of campus as either important or somewhat important when it comes to college selection. And 88% of parents said the physical condition of buildings was either very important or somewhat important.”

At Tarkett’s most recent summit, Dr. Tom Albright of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discussed how the brain reacts and responds to space. “One thing that drives how you feel in space is the layout and patterning and how those intersect with each other,” says Stanley. “Our brain adapts to pattern, but when the pattern doesn’t have good alignment, the brain becomes slightly disheveled. Flooring plays a role in that. Poor acoustics are very disruptive to cognitive pathways, including our ability to be innovative and have an indepth relational experience.”

Acoustics are also a major concern. Stanley recalls two situations, both in K-12, in which acoustics were identified as playing a primary role in performance. The first was at a middle school where polished concrete had been utilized as flooring. The principal of the school told Stanley that students who weren’t performing well on testing were sent to a more acoustically favorable wing of the school for assessments. And, regarding a large Chicago high school design, Stanley reports that a facilities manager told the architect designing the space, “We have to put soft surface in here or the students won’t use it like we want them to. They won’t gather in it. Lots of higher education institutions tell us the same thing.”

Stanley recalls when the College of DuPage, a two-year community college in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, switched from ceramic to Powerbond hybrid carpet in its McAninch Arts Center building. “I met with the dean of the school and asked him, ‘What are the big indicators? What changed?’” says Stanley. One of the goals that the school had was promoting student engagement on campus, building a space conducive to social experience.

Stanley continues, “He said, ‘First, the students are staying on campus more, so that their on-campus experience is more than just in class. Our maintenance staff has had to work three to four times as much because it’s in use so much, but that’s a good thing.

“‘Second, the bagel shop in the facility is bringing in a ton more money.

“‘Third, a tour of the facility used to last 30 minutes. At a minimum now, they are lasting an hour because people are asking questions because they can hear one another speak. There is a direct correlation with their being able to think, digest and interact.’”

While this is all subjective, they also had a sound attenuation specialist test the space, which revealed a 25% reduction in the Noise Reduction Coefficient.

All this said, a strong partnership between the manufacturer and facility managers is key to achieving desirable results, and that begins before the sale.

“Facilities is the first place I go,” says Foley. “They are the ones that are actually maintaining and cleaning the flooring, working with it every day. I like to find out about the existing floor, what problems they have had, what they like and don’t, and I take that info and meet with the A&D group or purchasing.”

“The right conversations and consultation upfront ensure the right value-added choice is being used for the specific end-use needs of the space,” says Krejsa. “The right solution for the right space is always the best method for ensuring long-term performance and satisfaction. Beyond this, training, training, training, especially with a facilities staff with high turnover.”

Foley points to an example in which educating facilities personnel is key. LVT with texture doesn’t work with mop and water, as the dirt gets stuck in the grooves. A microfiber mop is needed to remove the dirt from those places.

“We spend a lot of time making sure they are happy long term,” says Clauson. “We will come in and do maintenance training with staff, set up maps of their facilities that dictate how they are to be maintained, go into closets, look at their chemicals and make sure they are correct.”

Clauson notes that most of his higher education clients are hoping to get a decade or more out of their floors, but he reports that most ultimately swap out a floor for the sake of style before the floor has actually worn out. Because of this, having materials that are recyclable at the end of their useful life is key.

BRANDING WITH TEAM COLORS
Higher education approaches branding with more sophistication than does K-12, using subtle whispers of school colors in flooring, for instance, rather than in-your-face brands.

Currently, one particular area of activity in branding is the development of branding by discipline. The nursing school, for instance, may have its own take on the school’s brand or colors, building pride not only in the larger organization but within the specific area of study. The business school may have more buttoned-up branding, while the art school may have a more colorful approach.

Says Hensley, “Flooring is pivotal in maintaining a unified branding approach that is well recognizable across campus. This can be achieved through cohesive visuals or an aesthetically pleasing color palette.”

Copyright 2025 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc., Mannington Mills, Mohawk Industries, Engineered Floors, LLC, Crossville, RD Weis, Tarkett, AHF Products, HMTX, Interface