Hub Central

The Hub is a modern studying environment equipped with technology, collaborative study spaces and some pretty cool study rooms.
Level 4, the level you enter when you walk in, has a range of cafes and places to buy food. These outlets are great catering for everything from Chinese food to baguettes, coffee, snacks and everything in between.
Level 3, is where the main facilities are though. There are quite a few desks and benches and couches. You are allowed to rearrange the furniture as you wish and there are quite a few Macs and PC’s around the place. You can also quickly hop across to the Barr Smith library on this level too as the two buildings are connected.
Whilst being a great open plan study environment and a must go for university students, it does have a few issues that I am sure will be improved over the coming years. The first of which is the fact that it is borderline impossible to find a place to sit between 10am and 2pm each day as the place is packed. On quite a few occasions, I have had to venture down two flights of stairs to level 1 of the Barr Smith Library to get a spot to study.
The toilets are also far from numerous too. While there is a decent sized one on level 4, level 3 houses only one male toilet with a small urinal and a small cubicle. More often than not, I find myself having to go upstairs or downstairs as the toilet is usually occupied.
Also power points can be an issue. While there are quite a few outlets, the places where they are present tend to go first. If you need to charge your devices and the hub is busy, then level 1 of the Barr Smith Library is probably your best bet.
A really good thing about this place is the fact it houses the Writing Centre and Maths Learning Centre. These services are free and can be used by students to help get feedback on essays or to get support with mathematics. The two centers are on level 3 and are open 10am — 4pm Monday to Friday,
If you have to study at night or on the weekend, you can access the hub ²⁴⁄₇ during the year (except for during the summer holidays, Christmas and New Year’s Day) by using your student card. I went here on the Good Friday public holiday to finish an assignment.
All in all, this place is great for individual study and collaborative learning, it just is very busy and could perhaps do with being slightly larger.

I like it. UofA has done a good job of greening their buildings. Thanks for not just allowing McD or HJ of KFC. I love the quinoa chickpea fritter thing at Grassroots. 5 STARS!!!

They did a damn good job on this. I was part of the student consultations that took place when Adelaide Uni was formulating plans for the Hub. We were naturally skeptical of what they were planning to do with all that space, and whether it would actually suit students. A lot of people thought this was going to be a big food arcade for the uni to make cash from.
Yet, they proved us wrong and took a huge amount of student opinion into account when laying the place out and designing it. Adelaide Uni’s stated goal for the project was the build a world class student environment that would help attract and retain students to the University. To me, they did just that.

One of the best University additions in Adelaide, ever. If every school upgraded their campuses to look like cool space ship hangouts just think of how our national literacy levels would improve.
As I’ve never been a student of Adelaide Uni I’ve only been to the Hub a few times (as an imposter student from another campus) but now that it’s been done up I feel even more like an outcast.
Why is everyone so cool looking? Why are people sleeping? Why are kids hanging out in pods like it’s a space launch, and when did learning get so fun? Take note Flinders University: there ain’t no dust in this joint. Just another reason to add to the list of why Adelaide Uni students have a superiority complex. Dammit.

I am a big Hub Central fan and am slightly miffed that I only got to enjoy it for a term before I had to graduate and leave its wonderful learning environment behind. Not having been to Flinders before I cannot really comment, but I would hazard a guess to the say that Hub Central is one of the best facilities available to University students in South Australia.
The Hub comprises of two levels, the first of which is pretty sparse of furniture but can get very crowded with students and foot traffic during class changeover times. The first level also has the Grass Roots café and soon to be a couple of other food shops too.
The second level is my favourite though, with everything you could ever need. The southern side is filled with man sized bean bags if studying has been wearing you out and you need a little nap. There is also heaps of computers in pods scattered around the bottom level and if you get there early enough you will usually always get one. There is also lockers to store your stuff during the day and a range of printer and copy facilities. The bottom level is also connected to the Barr Smith Library so you can duck down there if you need some reading material. Just remember the southern exit to the Hub doesn’t have a borrowing station for your books (such bad planning on their part) so you’ll have to walk down a level, issue your books and then come back up — unless you want the thing to beep crazily at you for attempting to steal books.

It took a long time for the Hub to be completed, and it also caused a lot of anger for me as it ruined my short walk from one lecture to another, but it was definitely worth the wait and anger. I love the hub.
Not only is huge with comfortable seating and sleeping areas, it now means I don’t have to go down the stairs to Mayo to get a drink and a feed when I don’t need to!
I find it to be very useful, as it gives me space to study where I never felt like I had that space before. Not really.
The faces pasted up around the Hub really make me giggle, recognising the silly faces being made by my peers definitely lightens up the place.

I’m skeptical about universities at the best of times. So when I heard Adelaide Uni was building a ‘learning hub’, I was even more skeptical. Oh great, a big room with lots of weird shaped cushions and good wireless. And there is that, but there is some other really useful stuff too.
Adelaide Uni developed the design through student consultation processes, which is perhaps why it is actually so useful. It seems to be part of their attempt to become tangibly more ‘up to date’ — it’s a futuristic learning centre right in the middle of a historic sandstone campus. It certainly makes me sniff a little at UniSA’s City West campus. So what is in the hub? A whole bunch of green grass blocks and Space Odyssey furniture — relaxed study spots, special booths for group work that have AV facilities, 200+ computers, printers (you can print from your laptop which you can’t do at UniSA if you have a Mac), lockers, skype booths, a maths and writing learning centre, student kitchens (THAT is a good idea), cafes, a post office…
During the year it seems to be populated by students either making out, sleeping or actually studying. I’m pleasantly surprised though — it doesn’t feel like a big fat flop, it feels genuinely useful!