Future proofing the estate

A stable and sustainable funding environment is crucial for the UK’s universities to continue their position as global leaders of science, arts and innovation, and their more progressive role to drive growth and generate employment.

Since 2010, universities have experienced significant changes in funding and policy against the backdrop of a volatile external economic environment and funding cuts across the public sector. University funding has to a large extent been protected through the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 per annum, which has had an overall positive effect. We now have historically high levels of capital expenditure, which not only improves the quality of the estate and facilities, but importantly the student experience, as measured by the National Student Survey.

The Higher Education Green Paper firmly puts students at the heart of the system with an Office for Students championing their cause. The paper also contains a number of other potential changes, such as the ability for new providers to more quickly enter the market, whilst recognising that in any market, some institutions will fail.

This should be the wake-up call that the sector needs to start a fundamental review of the organisational and operational design of the systems, and the estates and facilities which will be required to support this.

“Over the next five years there will be nearly 215,000 fewer 19 year olds.”

Introduction

University fundingChanges in funding of universities, from the block grant allocations to tuition fees, has triggered many institutions to increase student numbers and thus their revenue, therefore supporting the Government’s aims of increasing student choice and allowing for a more diverse sector.

Capital expenditure in 2013/14 reached its highest ever level of around £2.5 billion. This is partly being financed by the £500m-£1bn surpluses generated by universities and partly through increased borrowings, showing an indication of the sector’s confidence, which is underpinned by the Government commitments in the July 2015 Spending Review.

Some of the surplus has also been utilised to fund some elements of research, but the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is in response to this to ensure that quality of teaching remains high and is on par with research. This will inevitably result in changing priorities of spend as the incentive to increase fees beyond £9,000, in line with inflation, and up to a cap to be set, if institutions meet and exceed agreed quality thresholds.

Moreover, as tuition fees are an important and significant source of funding for research at many institutions, there is a threat that these funds could soon be redirected back towards

teaching to ensure that TEF quality criteria are met and additional funding flows. This could have a significant impact on the research which institutions undertake.

Market competition Successive governments since the early 1970’s have sought to expand student numbers in higher education from 8% to nearly 50% by 2013. The removal of the cap on student numbers from September 2015 is further empowering universities to plan for more expansion.

Currently, the UK student population is around 2.3m in 143 universities or degree awarding bodies, with 20% of these from overseas. Over the next five years, as the UK demographic profile of the population changes, there will be nearly 215,000 fewer 19 year olds and the numbers will not return to current levels until 2027.

The potential for this shortfall to be made up from the foreign student cohort is diminished as world economies struggle and the growth in new universities in the Far East will mean there is a smaller pool of students available for an increasing number of institutions and courses – China, for example, is expanding its university provision at a rate of over two per week.

As the market gets more competitive, the focus for institutions is on improving the student experience through the quality of accommodation and provision of non-core activities

such as sport, leisure and retail facilities. The £9,000 per year student fee goes towards the teaching and research facilities but there is now more attention placed on differentiating themselves in order to attract the best students.

Methods of teaching Teaching styles have not significantly changed for many institutions over the last century. The style tends to be teacher centric, with the knowledge giver at the front of the class with seating arranged accordingly. Increasing students numbers and the emergence of new technology and a greater portion of learning material available on line, has had an impact on this pedagogy.

An incredible opportunity now exists to redesign teaching and the spaces that support this; providing more open, interactive and flexible accommodation capable of creating environments that enable collaboration within a number of different learning and social settings.

Introduction

Space is a premium resource that requires heating, lighting and maintenance, for example. The more space is utilised, the lower the overall cost to the institutions; but too often space is bespoke to a particular individual, function or department which prevents the space being offered as a wider resource to others, and as such, silos and walls became apparent.

There appears to be little appetite for a more holistic estate-wide review of space, function, ownership and utilisation, which could improve overall use and efficiency of buildings and the costs and income that arise from this. As a result, there is far too much waste in the estate and the associated costs of operation, particularly facilities management

and energy costs for non- contact space that could be remodelled or at least be far better used.

With some departments and faculties being the holder of budgets and the ultimate commissioners of projects, how can a more future orientated, collaborative and cross-cutting approach be achieved?

Are you planning to succeed?

University estates have generally grown out of short-term planning and opportunity; opportunity of acquisition or opportunity of funding for a project rather than in response to an estate strategy.

But in today’s more stable funding environment, the estate strategy should address the question, how we want facilities to perform in the future. This is in terms of function, quantity, utility, utilisation, aesthetics, sustainability, and energy, not just of a single entity, but as part of an integrated and interdependent series of spaces, buildings, infrastructure and landscape.

How can you future proof your estate? The environment in which universities exist will be further challenged over the next five years as student competition increases and overall student numbers drop. As they fall, so too, will revenue and the viability of some courses and institutions.

Now is the time to plan for more efficient and effective assets, aligned to the university’s business environment.

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Review the ‘as is’ model through collection and synthesis of surveys and data to provide ‘one version of the truth’ of the estate across a number of facets, including, for example condition, suitability, efficiency, utilisation, sustainability, income and expenditure

Take inspiration from new and developing pedagogies and advances in and projections for the use of technology in the learning environment

Benchmark the specific needs of the university with other comparable institutions against the Arcadis key performance indicators for efficiency and effectiveness as developed in the Diamond 2 Report 2015

Work with the academic, estate professionals and students to develop coordinated activity plans which outline teaching and research requirements of current and future projections. This will enable a space and financial model to be developed based on appropriate and future proofed pedagogical models within a flexible approach to the design and allocation of accommodation

Develop an estate strategy which takes full cognisance of, and is developed from academic and business objectives derived from the corporate strategy

The benefits• More productive, efficient and utilised estate

• Reduced occupational and operational costs

• Reduction in cost of service delivery

• Measurable cashable savings and efficiencies

• Decreased energy consumption reducing carbon footprint

• Greater sustainability and an increased contribution to clean air initiatives

• Enhanced student experience

• Improved engagement with students

• Improved education performance

• Improved staff morale and performance

• Greater ability to respond to campus wide academic and pastoral needs

• Retained school identity whilst a drive towards a more holistic complimentary whole universal offer

• Increased outcomes for university, undergraduates and post-grads alike.

Through carrying out these steps, universities are provided with the challenge and reassuranceon how they currently perform and thus inform the direction of travel for future requirements.

From this detailed analysis, a holistic estate strategy, master plan and prioritisation of programmes can be collated to provide a route map to the sustainable estate of the future; an estate that is fully able to respond and adapt to the international competitive, student centric and economic environments.

National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester New 7,800m² research facility dedicated to the development of graphene, incorporating circa 1,500m² cleanrooms classes 100 and 1,000. The project included VC-D vibration criteria and a variety of wet and dry, which incorporate over a dozen specialist gases. Arranged over five floors and including a 4m deep basement, plant vibration was dealt with by means of an area that was separated from a vibration perspective but physically connected.

Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College LondonNew 25,500m² centre for Molecular Sciences Research on the White City Campus to further research into understanding fundamental molecular and cell biology processes relevant for human health.

Contact us To find out how we Can help you future proof your estate, please get in touch.

Steven JenkinsHead of Higher and Further EducationE steven.jenkins@arcadis.comT +44 (0)7818 526 047

@ArcadisUK

Arcadis United Kingdom

www.arcadis.com