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Report reveals more efficient use of higher education estates

Universities are becoming more efficient at using their estates, having achieved a reduction in space and property costs, a report by AUDE on the sector's 26 million m2 property portfolio reveals. The report suggests a list of indicators to measure the performance of the entire HE estate.

Delivering value from the education estate

At today's Higher and Further Education show Dr Ghazwa Alwani-Starr, director of estates and campus services at the University of Roehampton and Sian Kilner director of Kilner Planning will be highlighting research into how the higher education estate is delivering value. Here are some relevant posts that they have contributed.

A fresh approach to financing campus redevelopment

The University of Hertfordshire’s 2020 Estates Vision signals the university’s development objectives for the future, including enhancing the student experience. The university’s director of estates Andrew May explains the project and how it was financed through a combination of pioneering off balance sheet unwrapped bonds.
©Jisc and Matt Lincoln, CC BY-NC-ND.

Universities challenged to make the most of their space

Every element of space in universities needs to be challenged, an expert in designing spaces for learning told Jisc Digifest on Wednesday. In his keynote speech to the event in Birmingham, University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s professor of practice Andrew Harrison said that across the sector, expensive facilities are being minimised.

The higher education estate: delivering effective space use

Research into space efficiency in higher education suggests that universities have successfully adapted buildings to accommodate current patterns of working. Sian Kilner, who helped to carry out the research, says space management will become even more vital as cash to invest in redeveloping universities reduces.
Times Higher Education

Less selfishness could mean more space efficiency, report argues

Universities could reduce estate footprint by 25% if staff become less “territorial” and share their teaching and office space with colleagues in other departments, says a report by a Dutch university quoted in the Times Higher.
Engineering and Computing Building

Summer on the campus

University campuses are no longer deserted during July and August. Rosie Niven looks at how estates managers are making their assets pay for themselves during the long summer holiday.
Collaborative teaching laboratory at the University of Birmingham

How one university is tackling under-utilised teaching spaces

Single discipline teaching labs can often be under used: typically for just 24 weeks per year. Ian Tidmarsh explains how new larger teaching labs at the University of Birmingham aim to provide more flexibility, higher utilisation and thus deliver better value for money.

Six ways that universities are getting more value from their estates

A report by AUDE shows how universities are making efficiency gains, while working to deliver increased value from their estates for the benefit of student and staff plus the wider community. Rosie Niven sums up some of the strategies universities are using to deliver these efficiencies.
Picture credit: University of Wolverhampton

Universities reinvesting estates savings in capital projects, says AUDE

Universities estates costs have remained stable over the past five years despite increasing pressures, the Association of University Directors of Estate’s (AUDE) annual report reveals.