by Alexandra den Heijer
“TU Delft’s Campus Research Team has a 25-year-long legacy of supporting campus decision making at universities, contributing to (more) inspiring, meaningful, functional, affordable, resource-efficient and sustainable places to learn, work, innovate, live and visit. Current challenges are an increasingly dynamic and demanding community, pressure on available budgets and energy resources and professionalising the organisation that needs to implement (system) changes.”
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TU Delft’s Campus Research Team is led by doctor Monique Arkesteijn (left) and professor Alexandra den Heijer (right)
The Campus Research Team is based at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (A+BE), department Management in the Built Environment (MBE) and has network connections to many European universities, not only academically but also administratively: being connected to executive boards and/or campus departments.
The team is led by professor Alexandra den Heijer (chair Public Real Estate) and doctor Monique Arkesteijn (co-chair, specialisation Real Estate Management). They supervise a dynamic team of PhDs and postdoc researchers, which on average comprises 6 to 10 people. With 2 tenured professors and 4 to 8 part-time researchers, which are (externally) funded for one, two or four years, the team has a solid core and flexible ring. On project basis, they collaborate in a multidisciplinary team of other researchers, professors, administrators and practitioners.
Current challenges are an increasingly dynamic and demanding community, pressure on available budgets and energy resources and professionalising the organisation that needs to implement these (system) changes. Together, the Campus Research Team explores trends on campus, analyses campus strategies and provides management information to support universities’ campus decision making.
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If you want to join our campus research team as a PhD candidate, please read the research summary document (campus-management-as-phd-topic-for-open-applications-tud-graduate-school) and visit TU Delft’s Graduate School application page. You can also mail a.c.denheijer@tudelft.nl to express your interest in our research team.
CAMPUS RESEARCH TEAM 2020-2021
Recent and ongoing projects include the campus of the future (Alexandra den Heijer + postdoc Özlem Genel), implementing campus innovations (postdocs Malgorzata Rymarzak and Mathilda du Preez), smart campus tools (PhD Bart Valks + MSc students), decision-support methods and tools, applied on campus (Monique Arkesteijn + MSc students), circular business models applied on campus (PhD Juan Azcarate), public real estate strategies (PhD Daniel van Staveren + MSc students), campus management: lessons for/from public real estate (Alexandra den Heijer + MSc students).
History and background “campus research team”
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has been conducting campus research since 1995, when Dutch universities became owners of their property (both land and buildings). Researchers at the Faculty of Architecture, department Management in the Built Environment, have been exploring trends on campus, have been analysing campus strategies and have been providing management information to support universities’ campus decision making.
Campus research team (2017-2019)
The 2017-2019 topics of the Campus Research Team were:
– campus of the future (Alexandra den Heijer + team)
– the European campus (post-doc Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel)
– smart campus tools (PhD Bart Valks + 5 MSc students)
– circular business models, applied on campus (PhD Juan Azcarate)
– decision-support methods and tools, applied on campus (PhD Monique Arkesteijn)
– campus management: lessons for/from public real estate (Alexandra den Heijer + 3 MSc students)
– implementing innovation on campus (post-doc position Malgorzata Rymarzak)
Campus research team for Smart Campus Tools (2015-2020)
From 2015 the Campus Research Team has explored smart campus tools, for instance to collect big data about real-time use of the campus and to assess use patterns of scarce facilities to support way-finding of students, staff members and visitors. So far, two books have been published and journal papers. PhD candidate Bart Valks is working on his dissertation about this subject – see SMART TOOLS for more info.
Campus research team for European Campus project (2013-2018)
In 2013 the idea was born to explore the European campus, after the international distribution of “Managing the university campus” (2011) and overwhelming interest of European universities for the book. In 2013/2014 Alexandra den Heijer worked with George Tzovlas on the book “the European Campus – heritage and challenges”, which was released at a CESAER conference of European universities of technology in Tallinn (see related blog post).
From 2016 Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel is hired as a post-doc researcher for the project “European Campus” and will work with Alexandra den Heijer, Bart Valks and MSc-students on the next phase, starting with publishing papers and a new book (forthcoming in 2017 – see PUBLICATIONS).
[next three sections only available in Dutch – translation will follow soon – for English scroll down]
Historie en achtergrond “campus research team”
TU Delft doet al sinds 1995 onderzoek naar campusmanagement en de toekomst van de universiteitscampus. Onderzoekers van de Faculteit Bouwkunde, afdeling Management in the Built Environment (MBE) hebben zich afgelopen twintig jaar verdiept in trends op de campus en in campusbeslissingen en de managementinformatie die daarvoor nodig is.
Het “campus research team” heeft een wisselde bezetting van academische stafleden, post-docs, promovendi en Master-studenten en wordt inhoudelijk geleid door Alexandra den Heijer, die al 15 jaar onderzoek doet naar universiteitscampussen en in 2011 gepromoveerd is op het onderwerp, resulterend in het boek “Managing the university campus”. Een recent proefschrift is van Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel – “Technology campuses and cities” – met daarin onder andere data van 39 science parks wereldwijd en een uitgebreide beschrijving van cases in Cambridge, USA (MIT) en Eindhoven (High Tech Campus). In 2018 verschijnt het tweede proefschrift over sustainable campuses van Naif Alghamdi.
Campus research team voor Smart Campus Tools (2017-2018)
Het vervolg van het Smart Campus Tools onderzoek – wederom in opdracht van de facilitair directeuren van de 14 Nederlandse universiteiten – wordt uitgevoerd door Bart Valks (promovendus), Monique Arkesteijn (projectleider) en Alexandra den Heijer.
Een smart tool is een dienst of product waarmee (real-time) informatie verzameld wordt om enerzijds ruimtegebruik op de huidige campus en de tevredenheid van studenten en medewerkers te verbeteren en anderzijds de besluitvorming over de campus van de toekomst te ondersteunen.
Campus research team voor Campus NL (2016)
Voor het Campus NL onderzoek bestond het onderzoeksteam uit een aantal specialisten op het gebied van Vastgoedmanagement en Besliskunde (Alexandra den Heijer en Monique Arkesteijn), Bouweconomie (Peter de Jong) en Arbeids- en Organisatiepsychologie (Evi de Bruyne), met kennis van en ervaring met strategisch voorraadbeheer, gebouw- en werkplekconcepten, beslissingsondersteunende informatie en economische haalbaarheid. Aan het team waren ook twee studenten toegevoegd – Lotte Born en Jeroen Meijler – die niet alleen aanwezig waren bij de interviews als onderzoeksassistenten, maar ook het studentperspectief konden toevoegen aan de discussies over de huidige en toekomstige campus.
De omslag en het binnenwerk van Campus NL is ontworpen door Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel in nauw overleg met Alexandra den Heijer, net als bij Alexandra’s proefschrift in 2011. Meer informatie over (de samenwerking met) Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel, die ook lid is van het Campus Research Team en gespecialiseerd is in “science parks” en “innovation districts”, is te vinden onder BOOK DESIGN.
Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel and Alexandra den Heijer rejoined forces – just like in 2011 – for the cover and graphic design of the Campus NL book
Campus research team voor Smart Campus Tools (2015-2016)
Voor het Smart Campus Tools onderzoek – dat in opdracht van de facilitair directeuren van de 14 Nederlandse universiteiten werd uitgevoerd – was het onderzoeksteam uitgebreid met Bart Valks (hoofdonderzoeker die alle interviews deed), Monique Arkesteijn (projectleider) en Herman Vande Putte (o.a. deelonderzoek sensors).
Een smart tool is een dienst of product waarmee (real-time) informatie verzameld wordt om enerzijds ruimtegebruik op de huidige campus en de tevredenheid van studenten en medewerkers te verbeteren en anderzijds de besluitvorming over de campus van de toekomst te ondersteunen.
Campus research team for European Campus project (2013-2018)
In 2013 the idea was born to explore the European campus, after the international distribution of “Managing the university campus” (2011) and overwhelming interest of European universities for the book. In 2013/2014 Alexandra den Heijer worked with George Tzovlas on the book “the European Campus – heritage and challenges”, which was released at a CESAER conference of European universities of technology in Tallinn (see related blog post).
From 2016 Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel is hired as a post-doc researcher for the project “European Campus” and will work with Alexandra den Heijer, Bart Valks and MSc-students on the next phase, starting with publishing papers and a new book (forthcoming in 2017 – see PUBLICATIONS).
Campus research team in 2014
In April 2014 we took a photo of the campus research team at that moment.
TU Delft’s campus research team – Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel, Alexandra den Heijer, George Tzovlas, Salome Bentinck and Naif Alghamdi
Campus team members and their projects:
1. Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel: Technology Campuses in Cities
2. Salomé Bentinck: Knowledge workplace
3. Naif Alghamdi: Sustainable campuses in Saudi Arabia
4. George Tzovlas + Alexandra den Heijer: Managing European campuses
Part of Flavia’s research – the assessment of 39 technology campuses – is summarized in a flyer: 2013.08.28.SUMMARY EXPLORATORY RESEARCH FCM_small and can be found below.
In comparison with the photo that I posted last year – see post Campus team 2013 – Naif Alghamdi joined the group. In his PhD research he will focus on campus management in his native country Saudi Arabia, with lessons from and for many other universities. The following section is a text from his PhD proposal (edited for this post).
“Currently, the government of Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in the higher education sector. Today, Saudi Arabia has twenty-eight universities, of which many are founded between 2003 and 2014. This boom has led to the construction of 16 new campuses in different parts of the kingdom, costing more than €16 billion in total. These campuses are located in cities that have had no history of hosting such institutions. The capacity of new campuses ranges from 10,000 to 90,000 students. According to the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education (2014) more than a million students were enrolled in 2012. The total capacity of the 16 new campuses will be around 776,000 students, increasing accessibility of higher education to a total of almost two million students once these new campuses are fully operational. The total area of campus land is more than 11 thousand hectares. This massive area gives more flexibility for possible future expansions. Such figures send a clear message that these mega-projects should be handled cautiously for the sake of a sustainable future.” (source: Naif Alghamdi, 2014)
comparison NL-Saudi Arabia (source: Naif Alghamdi, May 2014) – note: in red “+ 3 last week” (!)
ABOUT NAIF ALGHAMDI
Naif Alghamdi is a lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Building Science, Faculty of Architecture and Planning (A+P), King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In January 2014, he started doing his PhD at the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment (A+BE), Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, Netherlands.
His main research interests include Architecture, whereby he did his first degree in the Architecture and Building Science at the KSU in 2007. Additionally, he is interested in the discipline of Managing Construction Projects, whereby he did his first Master’s degree in Project and Enterprise Management at the Bartlett, School of Project and Construction Management, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom in 2011. In 2012, Naif went a step further. He did his second Master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Studies at the Bartlett, School of Graduate Studies, UCL, in order to strengthening his understanding about the build environment generally and specifically how spaces we designed in our buildings and cities interact with both systems; natural and social.
The focus of Naif’s PhD research will primarily be on examining to what extent some of the key concepts of sustainability are actualised in a number of campuses for newly founded universities in Saudi Arabia (SA). It would include, but not limited to, the higher education infrastructure development and the sustainability plans of university campuses in the SA: the challenges and potential solutions.
Naif’s own WordPress blog: http://naifalghamdi.wordpress.com/. His webpage in Saudi Arabia: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/na/default.aspx
Managing the university campus 