The new AUDE publication, available today, is called ‘Comparative Analysis of Estates Data for HEIs in Scotland against the rest of the UK’ and it uses EMR Data (academic year 22/23) to help us all understand interesting and useful comparisons between the Scottish HE estate and the wider UK estate. Not surprisingly, given different political and funding regimes, there are notable differences, even when so much is shared.

Do Scottish university estates see the same trends as those in the rest of the UK - even though the devolved Scottish Government, separate Funding Council, no tuition fees for home students and even differences in climate all add variables that over time might become more visible and embedded? In Scotland it is estimated that funding per Scottish student fell by 39% in real terms between 2014-15 and 2023-2024. At challenging times for all UK universities what impact has such a fall had on Scottish university estates? What differences does the document point to and what can we learn as a whole AUDE community from this document? The new report is supplementary and complementary to the main AUDE EMR report which all members already have access to.

• While the condition of the estate (in A and B categories) is broadly similar between Scotland and England, England has seen condition deteriorate over the last 4 years, whereas Scotland has seen some improvement
• While in England the cost to upgrade from C or D condition to B condition is uniform between the four segments we use for EMR analysis (Large Research, Research Intensive, Large Teaching and Small Teaching) at approximately 20% of academic income, in Scotland there is greater variation, with more acute backlog maintenance concerns noted for instance in the Small Teaching segment, where the same can be measured at 50% of academic income
• Repairs and maintenance costs are typically higher in Scotland than in England (£51/m² in Scotland v £36/m² in England)
• Energy costs are lower in Scotland (£33/m² in Scotland v £39/m² in England)
• Looking at overall property costs we see that in Scotland, large research estates are significantly more expensive, both than other segments in Scotland, and than England as a whole
• While in England property costs as a % of income are a consistent 7-8%, in Scotland there is considerably more variation (6-12%)
• In Scotland overall income is consistently c. 20% lower across all segments than in England
• When considering teaching space per taught FTE student, we see that Scottish universities in the Large Research segment have significantly more space than comparison universities in England; while Scottish universities in the Large Teaching segment have significantly less space than the comparable universities in England
• Broadly, England has less academic office space per FTE; and Scotland shows a wider variety of results for support office space per FTE
• Clear differences between Scotland and England in the use of biofuels, onsite PV provision and other renewables
• Proportionately more than twice as much power is generated by CHP in Scotland than in England.

AUDE is very grateful to Eleanor Magennis (Director of Estates and Infrastructure at the Glasgow School of Art and Chair of Scottish AUDE/SAUDE) and the wider team of colleagues in Scotland for steering this publication through to completion, and to Provelio for managing its production.

May we use publication of this report to point all members towards the new AUDE project funding round which opened this week? Funding is available for member initiatives and these are often focused around the ideas generated within our special interest groups (as today’s publication was initially scoped and described by the members of SAUDE). Please take a look at the funding information published this week, noting the deadline of 31 October for bids for funding to start in the 26/27 academic year (from August 2026).