PROJECT 9
MANAGING THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS BY ALEXANDRA DEN HEIJER In 2000 the campus managers of all 14 Dutch universities brought their campus master plans, campus strategies and investment plans to Real Estate & Housing: they wanted the research group (Real Estate Management) to analyse the plans and find similarities and lessons for the campus of the future. Since then, many other research projects followed and in 2005 I decided to turn it into a subject for my PhD thesis. One goal of this thesis was to contribute to campus management by bringing more structure to the strategic, functional, financial and physical information that decision makers need to plan, design and manage the campus of the future. In the past decade managing the university campus has become more complex and challenging, with many more stakeholders, opportunities and threats to consider. Decreasing public involvement and funding for universities puts pressure on the internal allocation of resources, comparing investments in real estate with investments in human resources. At the same time the university campus is aging,
both technically and functionally, and in need of reinvestment, while many developments cause more uncertainty in future space demand. On top of that, policy makers make higher demands upon the added value of the campus for the performance of the university and the individual users like students, professors and researchers. This urges the need for evidence-based management information to support campus decision-making. Researching your own working environment always gives an extra dimension. Imagine the irony – after all of the advice given to other universities about their campuses – when our own faculty building was destroyed by fire. From 2008, in order to guarantee knowledge exchange from theory to practice, I was heavily involved in transforming Julianalaan into BK City; we also added this case to the book. The appendices include facts and figures about the BK City project, including evaluations of the brief (I was responsible for the brief in the BK City project organisation). Apart from the BK City project, I have always been part
An example of comparison between 5 of the 40 renovation projects of different universities analysed in the publication
of project teams for the TU Delft campus The 432-page full colour book covers a wide range of topics on campus management: from generating references for planning purposes – like current replacement costs (investment levels) and new space standards for the changing academic workplace – to strategies for the sustainable campus and new models that merge the campus and the knowledge city. The book includes profiles of fourteen Dutch campuses and forty campus projects to illustrate trends. The content of this book combines insights from theory – adding to new real estate management theories and the required management information for real estate decisions – and lessons for practice. The book can support the decisions of policy makers, architects, campus and facility managers about the campus of the future.
This dissertation is published as a book (full colour, 432 pages) and as an eBook (ePub for iPad). For more information go to managingtheuniversitycampus.nl or a.c.denheijer@tudelft.nl
Alexandra den Heijer is assistant professor of Real Estate Management. She has written many reports, articles and papers on the university and campus of the future, trends and changing concepts and campus strategies. She was a member of the team that created BK City. She co-authered and co-edited “The making of BK city – Bouwkunde, een jaar na de brand”. Den Heijer operates in an extensive network of national and international campus management experts – both in academia and in practice.