Every AUDE member will recognise some or all of the elements of the minefield we find ourselves in, where competing needs and expectations – and a straightforward shortage of cash - make every step a potential disaster, even while standing still is simply not an option. Which of these rings a bell for you? Heritage buildings that leak heat, or are listed, yet an urgent need to get a grip on energy use and cost, and no simple way to upgrade? A repairs and maintenance timebomb of costs that can’t be considered as Capex? An unfunded net zero target date rapidly approaching, with a university community supportive of fast action and yet happy to argue every detail to a standstill? At AUDE’s 2023 Big Conversation event, being held at the University of Oxford (15/16 November), we’ll be looking at practical ways forward as well as the leadership behaviours that help us untie the kinds of knot we find ourselves facing.
We are used to the idea that ‘growth is good’, and it can feel that the successful institution must almost by definition be a growing one, whether that takes the form of international campuses, more students and more income, more research, or indeed more shiny new buildings. The pandemic, and the climate crisis, have brought some of those assumptions into question. With our universities increasingly acknowledging that they educate UK students at a virtual loss, it may be time to look afresh at some of our ideas about what success looks like, including in the built environment. If we are to achieve both a sustainable estate and an estate which is fit for the academic challenges of the next 30 years, we need to balance the new, the old, the innovative, the safe and reliable, changing regulations and expectations of shareholders, and to make judicious investments in our existing assets.
The practical, political and communications challenges are immensely difficult. At our Big Conversation event we’ll be looking at examples from other sectors to guide our thinking, and spending time learning from each other about the ways we are dealing with this mass of interconnected problems.
AUDE are looking forward to welcoming you to the University of Oxford for our seventh Big Conversation for what promises to be a rewarding and thought-provoking day.
The AUDE Big Conversation will be CPD accredited.
