Space Management Group: phase one reports
Effective space management in universities and colleges can both save money and bring benefits for students and staff. The UK Higher Education Space Management Group (SMG) aims to provide tools to help HEIs manage their space in an efficient and sustainable way that meets their pedagogic, research and support needs.
The first phase of the SMG's work focused on three areas: current space management practice; the financial provision necessary to maintain an estate that is fit for purpose; and the key drivers of the size of the estate, and how HEIs can assess what size is affordable.
The following outputs from the first phase are available on the SMG web-site:
- an executive summary of the findings
- 2005/25 Review of practice. This study reviewed current space management practices in higher education, to assess the value of different management tools in improving performance. The tools considered were space charging, space standards, and central timetabling.
- The Model of the Affordable Estate and accompanying User Guide which enables HEIs to calculate the full annualised cost of their estates; model and benchmark the size of their estates; and assess the impact of different cost assumptions. This is explained in the two reports below.
- 2005/26 The cost of space. This report sets out a step-by-step approach to calculating the cost of an HEI's estate, to help managers make more informed decisions.
- 2005/27 Drivers of the size of the estate. This report explains the work to develop a tool to benchmark the size of an HEI's estate.
Phase two of the project will provide additional guidelines and tools to help institutions deliver their objectives for managing space. These will be available in spring 2006.