You may remember back in the spring we contacted you about the upcoming AUDE Business Partnering Member Network. We’re now ready to change the status of this project from ‘upcoming’ to ‘arrived’. And here’s how you and your team can get involved.

Business Partnering – What is it?

We are used to the idea that other professional services functions such as Finance or HR may well allocate a Business Partner (or Business Relationship Manager) to the estates team, acting as the interface between the two directorates.

These colleagues explain, they act as a key stakeholder in joint decisions, they smooth the path for all kinds of joint working. But it is still relatively new in many universities to think that estates and facilities should or could have this person on their team, building those relationships in the opposite direction.

For some, and perhaps even a majority (as we found in research with you in the spring) this idea isn’t yet one you are considering. But for a sizeable minority of AUDE member universities, this idea is really starting to come into focus. What could be achieved by having that kind of role within the team? Someone to ‘hold’ the relationship, to be the vital source of information and advocacy into those other professional services teams – well the benefits start to coalesce for you now, perhaps, even as you think of them. How would we go about launching that function within our teams, and supporting the individual staff members towards a high standard of practice?

A paper on this, created by Matt Beveridge (Birmingham), Fran Simpson (Cardiff) and AUDE Chair Ian Grimes, starts to set out some of the current thinking.

What we’ve done so far

• An initial meeting early in 2026 drew delegates from 25 universities for an opening discussion
• A member survey established an interest in the theme from a sizeable minority of universities, with specific needs ranging from training support for business partners, to the need for job descriptions and case studies about emerging best practice
• This survey also made clear the relatively isolated status of some in this role – exactly where AUDE can step in, to connect the dots and connect the people
• We’ve sourced specialist training that can be offered to AUDE members at a discount on a group booking. More soon.

The AUDE Business Partnering Member Network – Your invitation

Our next step is to launch this new Member Network, and to invite you to become involved. A next meeting is to be held at 10am on 9 July – please contact AUDE’s Communications and Campaigns Manager Martin Higgs by email to be included. At this meeting we will start to plan our next year’s activity.

What is a Member Network?

You might think of this group as a community of practice, learning and moving forward together wherever we can identify a shared interest, and linked by the theme of Business Partnering. We’ll have a Teams site for discussion and shared documents, and we’ll meet quarterly in this set-up phase to establish priorities and ways of working.

Your next step

Contact Martin. He’ll make sure you are aware of your options for getting involved. From there, your level of activity is up to you.