Supporting strategic decision-making on the future campus with space utilisation studies: a case study

Abstract

PurposeAcross the world, many universities are dealing with a pressure on resources, caused by both organisational developments and ageing campuses. Space utilization studies have a strategic role, providing information on how space is being used, thereby informing decisions about the type and scale of facilities that are needed.Design/methodology/approachThis study reports on the space use measurements conducted at TU Delft over the past five years, complemented by their use to make decisions about the university's real estate portfolio.FindingsThe education spaces of the university are found to perform well in terms of frequency rates and can be improved in terms of occupancy rates. The information helped to support short- and long-term decision-making. The study places of the university have a satisfactory occupancy in some types of study places, while in others there is room for improvement. More research is needed here to understand the relationship between space norms and space use.Practical implicationsThe space utilization studies have supported discussions with the student council and decision makers on which interventions are required and which current facilities meet students' needs best.Originality/valueNot much space utilisation studies are reported in the academic literature, and those that do have several limitations. This study may serve as a best practice for benchmarking by other universities and as evidence in other research for the planned and actual use of university facilities.

<em>Ex ante</em>&nbsp;analysis of circular built environment policy coherence

“…TU Delft has a long-lasting history of campus-related research (i.e. den Heijer 2011;Valks et al 2021) and recently on its campus circularity and carbon emissions (Herth & Blok 2022). It is governed autonomously and funded by its own resources and public-private partnerships.…”

Revising Technology Adoption Factors for IoT-Based Smart Campuses: A Systematic Review

“…The literature regarding smart explanations differs, but the focus is on how smart technologies leverage education services. A smart campus is viewed as an integration of computing technologies in the cloud and IoT devices that assist the university's management, teaching, and research activities [4,[9][10][11]80]. Nevertheless, work by [14] has categorized IoT-based solutions into two classifications that reflect smart education concepts, namely, smart universities and smart campuses.…”

“…As a result, the VAM model is the most accurate in predicting the values associated with higher education institutions as a result of the adoption of the smart campus idea. Hence, the adoption model intends to demonstrate the impact of smart campuses to help stakeholders and policymakers see the value derived from the adoption of smart campuses to improve effective resource utilization, energy savings, informed decision making, improved services, and risk mitigation [10,80,133,134]. Therefore, the conceptual model adopted the generic VAM constructs (usefulness, enjoyment, technicality, and cost), trust, and privacy and security as factors influencing the intention to adopt IoT-based smart campuses, as shown in Figure 11.…”

Review of Academic Space Management Process Framework for Malaysia Public Universities

“…The space is also not in use during the evenings, nights, holidays, and semester breaks (Abdul Rahman et al, 2015). Space management is one of the most important aspects of facilities management and has significant sources of value optimization which can contribute to an effective higher education institutions (HEI) financial management (Saaid et al, 2018;Valks et al, 2021). The issues arise when assignable academic space is abundant and not optimized used.…”