Acoustic Environment of University Campuses in China

This study aims to reveal the impact of the acoustic environment in enclosed university campuses, through a series of subjective questionnaire surveys in eight universities in China and acoustic measurements in Harbin City. The characteristics of indoor/outdoor sound sources, relationships between acoustic environment satisfaction, sound sources and mind-body growth rate, were examined. It has been found that “taking class in large classrooms”, “sleeping” and “thinking” rank among the top three easily disturbed campus activities while “watching TV/computer”, “sports” and “private conversations” rank among the top three activities that are less easily disturbed. Universities are seriously affected all day long by the surrounding roads off campus, with SPL higher than 60 dBA at 87% of all measurement points. The overall satisfaction with campus acoustic environment is low, with the students satisfied only representing 28%. Only 1/3 of the students on campus consider themselves having fast mind-body growth, and a certain influence from the acoustic environment has been shown.