Managing the university campus

by Alexandra den Heijer

On April 2, 2012 I was invited to speak at Loughborough University for the AUDE conference (the UK Association of University Directors of Estates). The hand-out of the presentation can be found under DOWNLOADS after my presentation. The 3-minute movie “The making of BK city” can be found with a link to YouTube under CASE BK CITY.

European Univer-cities in the top 150 worldwide - figure from Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel's research

Lessons so far:
-1- the importance of ‘managing expectations’ – engaging both students and staff in the strategic, financial and physical context (and challenges) to put their functional demands into perspective, which also is a key factor in their satisfaction;
-2- the relation between the physical campus and regional knowledge economy (‘town gown’ – univer-city) – see figure Knowledge cities in Europe, representing universities in the global top 150, source QS Times Higher Education ranking 2011, edited by PhD researcher Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel, see BOOK DESIGN for her background and résumé;
-3- balancing the strategy of ‘creating a community and home base’ and sharing space and collaborating with partners in higher education, business or industry;
-4- considering students as long-term stakeholders and not as customers; when students become alumni the value of their diploma will be associated with the quality of the institution for life and alumni could (and do) also play an important role in education and research, in the primary processes (giving lectures) and in branding their ‘alma mater’ in practice. This could be a basis for alumni funding.