top of page

Optimising space utilisation to enable cost-efficient growth

Writer's picture: Nick PsanoudakisNick Psanoudakis

As universities face increasing pressures to optimise their operations, many are challenged to consolidate their existing space footprint while delivering quality education. A Go8 university faced this exact challenge, and engaged AptoNow to identify key opportunities for space optimisation. Over a 4-month project, AptoNow supported the Chief Property Officer and his team to develop a blueprint for space optimisation. Through a rapid diagnostic and consultation with key stakeholders, AptoNow identified key issues with current operations that likely contributed to this low utilisation, including; an over constrained timetable, ill-defined policies restricting ‘sharing’ of space, and underutilisation of the calendar during non-peak times, such as evenings and summer terms.

With projected student growth from 2024 and beyond, the university was unsure as to whether its existing footprint could facilitate this uptick in student numbers.  


Our team developed a five-year space utilisation forecast, and both identified and quantified key space optimisation opportunities.

AptoNow conducted a comprehensive space optimisation analysis to assess the university’s current space usage and forecast future needs. This analysis involved:

  1. Consulting with central and faculty stakeholders to understand future growth areas, impacts on space types, and other opportunities to better utilise existing facilities

  2. Examining timetabling data and enrolment forecasts to develop a comprehensive space model, outlining the future demand of different space types over time, including modelling low and high growth scenarios

  3. Developed and categorised opportunities by ease of implementation and benefit, to help articulate the improvement roadmap.

 

The analysis showed which space types were at risk of facing a substantial shortage in both growth scenarios, and outlined a series of recommendations for how the university could address these bottlenecks.


Our work was strongly endorsed, and provided a blueprint for the University to expand campus capacity by 25-40% without incurring unnecessary capital costs

The recommendations were endorsed by the university ‘growth committee’ and are currently being implemented. The diagnostic revealed significant opportunities for the university to increase its teaching capacity by 5,000-9,000 EFTSL over the next five years. Implementing AptoNow’s recommendations will enable this university to achieve sector utilisation benchmarks and accommodate future student growth, without unnecessary capital expenditures.


Comments


Discover AptoNow solutions for academic operations.

Subscribe to our insights.

Never miss an update.

Thanks for subscribing!

bottom of page