What does the Accord report mean for Higher Education Property & Estate Teams? Where are the opportunities?

It's finally here, the Accord report. My first impressions, following recent observations in the UK of almost half the universities expecting to fall into deficit, is that the report is a sensible approach. In the UK estate teams are pausing projects and capital planning budgets are being slashed due to recession and migration changes impacting revenue.

In saying this, I do feel that the role the campus plays in achieving many of the ambitions set out in Accord is not emphasised enough (online is mentioned 65 times, on campus 15 times). It does strongly signal a move to optimising, rather than expanding, campus footprints.

?Here are a few takes on what this report means to estate and property teams. I will likely write a series of these as discussions progress on the Accord final recommendations.

?1. In the long term we will need campus designs that connects people more sensibly and easily

Future inter-disciplinary skills are a big focus in here, which means a shift towards precinct design on campuses with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary design for buildings to support collaboration and serendipitous interaction (research demonstrates greater research outcomes from such design).

2. We can expect to see work increase around both teaching and research facilities

?“Submissions have argued that adequate funding is needed to meet the demand for both research infrastructure and contemporary learning and teaching facilities.”

Teaching and learning facilities

-?????? Accord points to improving teaching quality, and better measuring it

-??????Multiple measures will be introduced to give a more holistic view of teaching excellence, and this will likely influence how teaching spaces are assessed and therefore future refurbishment programs for T&L spaces

-?????? There is a big focus on hybrid and technologically focused teaching spaces (I can’t help but scream caution to the wind on this, we need to think carefully about hybrid vs in-person)

-?????? The link in the report is not clearly made on the significant impact that spaces have on teaching quality, but I do expect we will see more emphasis on this as these new measurement tools grow

-?????? At CI we are seeing significant investment into social study spaces, which we think will continue especially given the emphasis in this report to digital/online offering (we must not assume online students don’t want to come to campus at all). Perhaps dwindling investment into libraries will increase again.

Research infrastructure

-?????? The need for sustainable long term funding for research infrastructure (and maintenance) is clear, with the growing issue of backlog maintenance recognised

-?????? More concentrated ?funding into clear specialisation areas is likely, which can attract the talent needed and reduce necessary duplication and spending

-?????? It is excellent to see the focus on PhD funding and career pathways (perhaps this will see more focus on their workspaces and integration to the campus )

-?????? Pathways towards more government and industry use of research could see more collaborative workspaces develop on campus, co-working style hubs that help build collaboration

3. Estate & property teams need to demonstrate the significant role physical campuses play in attracting and retaining equity groups

The report does not really capture the role that place plays in attraction and retention of students, but given the ambitious equity group growth targets we can expect to see:

-?????? Significant investment into hubs, hearts, accommodation and centres that make universities less intimidating and easier for people to connect (we need better ways of measuring the impact these investments have)

-?????? Creating spaces that are welcoming to different cohorts (e.g. sensory rooms, universal accessibility, First Nations co-design and consideration in all briefs & space planning strategies)

-?????? Continual development of regional centres in a way that works long-term (these need to be designed extremely thoughtfully to avoid becoming obsolete quickly)

-?????? Increasing affordable, safe student accommodation

-?????? Place activation programs? that encourage people to stay on campus, make friends and connections (which give a higher likelihood of completing their degree)

4. Creating a more welcoming experience for international students

“Australia’s higher education system is incentivised to maximise the intake of international students and produce large student cohorts. This can be detrimental to the student experience for both international and domestic students, with large class sizes potentially diminishing students’ ability to connect with their peers and make lasting relationships throughout their studies. A clear signal of how important international students are, at a time when many countries are restricting numbers.”

Accord focuses a lot on the growth of international education, including offshore. For students coming to Australia, it highlights the need for a higher quality experience from a greater diversity of countries. Campuses need to be more culturally sensitive to create that experience – multi-faith rooms, food offering, toilet facilities, affordable accommodation, programs to help students create connections in their first few months etc

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5. Ensure that teams emphasise the work they are doing that contributes to staff and student wellbeing.

?There is a big focus on improved staff and student wellbeing and safety. Space design plays a significant (and under-emphasised role) in this.

-?????? We can expect to see expansion of QILT to be used alongside other tools as a core measure of student satisfaction & wellbeing (particularly belonging) with attention to interventions which QILT scores. It was pleasing to see QILT statistics front and centre through the report and if your team doesn’t already use these it is worth being across the place-based QILT indicators.

-?????? We can expect to see greater transparency and reporting around student safety, and campus locations where safety is at risk. An immediate focus here with the new ombudsman is student accommodation. Teams need to be across risk areas.

??What’s missing?

It is disappointing to see very little consideration of climate change in the recommendations, especially with such such an emphasis on increasing international mobility.

We do feel the role of the campus is not emphasised enough in achieving many of the desired and ambitious outcomes for student wellbeing and retention (e.g. student accommodation, campus hearts, student hubs, staff hubs etc). There are strong assumptions made that equity groups will require online access and that this will deliver the outcomes. We need to read carefully, our own data has shown how much students value face to face interaction. Whilst the online experience hasn't been superior, we need to be careful about assuming what equity groups want and need to succeed.