UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

Space Management Guidelines

1.Introduction

2.Guiding Principles of Space Management at Warwick

3.Management & Decision-making Structure

4.Allocation of Space to Departments

5.Timetabling

1.Introduction

These space utilisation guidelines serve as a baseline to:

  • evaluate space requests;
  • outline methods by which space is allocated, space demand is projected and space use is monitored;
  • ensure each campus department/unit is adequately accommodated to enable creation of high quality research and delivery of student academic support;
  • ensure efficient and cost-effective use of a limited resource (including energy related efficiencies).

They have been approved by the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group to provide guiding principles for the allocation of academic space.

2.Guiding Principles of Space Management at Warwick

The following are guiding principles which underpin Warwick’s approach to space management:

  1. Space is considered as much a University resource as staff or a budget. The physical facilities of the University are an asset crucial to the operations of the campus. The number, type, and condition of University spaces helps shape all aspects of campus programs and activities.
  1. Space is a University resource to be allocated in a manner which best advances University priorities.No one department, centre or division "owns" space. University space resources should be deployed in the most efficient and effective manner to best serve strategic goals.
  1. University space can and will be reassigned.The University values flexibility and recognises the continuously changing curricula, programmes and technologies. Accordingly, space assignments will change to achieve optimal utilisation and respond to current and emerging needs.
  1. University space needs will be evaluated in the context of traditional quantitative and functional considerations. The University’s Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group (CPARG) will employ both statistical information and qualitative information to evaluate the efficiency of space allocations and the case for additional space. Data from a department’s transparent accounts will also inform the evaluation and allocation process.
  1. Decisions relating to assignment and reassignment of space will generally be made by the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group for academic space. In the case of space in University House and other central administrative space, the final decision will normally be made by the Registrar or his/her nominee.While any and all space assignments are subject to change based on the authority of the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group (or Registrar), the ability to assign and reassign space within a department’s existing allocation is the responsibility of the Head of Department. This authority, which is contingent on compliance with applicable space guidelines, is expected to provide flexibility to Heads of Departments to address the space needs of their respective units. Change of use involving building or structural alteration must be approved by the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group.

3.Management and Decision-making Structure

3.1Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group is a sub-group of the Building Committee. Its membership comprises:

Chair, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)

Chairs of the Boards of the Faculties

Chair of the Board of Graduate Studies

Registrar

Finance Director

Director of Estates

Secretary, Senior Assistant Registrar (Space Management & Timetabling)

Assistant Secretary, Assistant Registrar (Space Management & Timetabling)

The Group’s Terms of Reference are:

1.To examine the entire range of non-residential building space in the University and to approve its allocation within the context of the University’s Strategic Framework for Capital Development approved by the Council as part of the University’s Five Year Financial Plan.

2.To keep under review the use, availability and accessibility of non-residential University accommodation and to advise the officers concerned and make reports and recommendations on these matters to the Steering Committee, the Finance and General Purposes Committee and the Building Committee, where appropriate.

3.To prepare an annual Capital Development Plan for consideration by the Steering Committee and the Financial Plan Sub-Committee and approval as part of the University’s annual Financial Planning round.

To achieve this, the Group has the following roles:

  • Developing and implementing Space Management Strategy and the Space Management Guidelines.
  • Developing and reviewing techniques and measures to support the University’s strategic objectives and inform capital development decisions.
  • Assessing space needs on an annual basis and reporting these to the appropriate University body, conducting audits and reviews of departments as appropriate.
  • Monitoring feedback on space use and space management measures from users and investigating options to improve the functionality and suitability of academic accommodation.
  • Agreeing targets and measures on space management matters.
  • Approving the allocation of minor works funding.
  • Examining the entire range of non-residential building space in the University and makingdecisions on its allocation.

3.2Reviews and Audit of Space

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group will periodically review the space usage of departments. This Group will take a holistic approach and include office, teaching space and research / laboratory space. Ad hoc brief reviews of space are also instituted when particular pressures or demands on space arise.

In the first (or early second) term of each year departments will be sent electronic and/or hardcopy schedules of their current space allocations and will be required to review the purpose for which space is used and make amendments accordingly. This serves not just the space management process but also helps improve accuracy of data used in the transparent accounting and for full economic costing of research grants.

3.3.Minor Works

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Groupevaluates and approves the allocation of the Estates Minor Works budget. The budget and related projects are administered by the Estates Department.

4.Allocation of Space to Departments

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group considers requests from departments for additional space on the basis of the allocation guidelines set out in this document, taking into account the affordability of recurrent costs for departmental space, suitability of space for a proposed function and strategic objectives and priorities of the University. It is expected that departments will apply the Guidelines outlines below consistently across the full allocation of their space.

4.1Guidelines for Allocations: Staff and Students

4.1.1Academic Staff

Full-time members of academic staff appointed to the level of Assistant Professor and abovewillnormally be allocated an office for his or her sole use. However, a Head of Department (following consultation with the Chair of the CPARG) may choose not to allocate sole occupancy offices to academic staff where there are significant space pressures in the department and/or the nature of the activities undertaken by the staff means that shared office space would be more appropriate and/or the building design is better suited to offices being shared.

Staff who are affiliated to a University research centre in addition to their principal affiliation to a department, or staff who are jointly appointed by two departments, may onlyhave one sole occupancy office. However, where the centre/departments are located in buildings at a significant distance from one other, staff with joint affiliation may be provided with shared or open plan office space in the secondary centre/department, where a presence in both areas is needed to ensure that an appropriate level of research collaboration can take place.

4.1.2Research Staff

There is no entitlement for research staff to have sole occupancy office space, irrespective of grade. Research staff in non-experimental, non-laboratory based subjects on FA7 or above may be allocated offices for sole use, but this will be dependent on space pressure, the type of activity being undertaken by individual staff, and the building design, rather than grade level. Provision will be made for laboratory-based research staff in the Faculty of Science and in experimental subjects in other faculties to have access to a non-laboratory study area in accordance with health and safety regulations. Where space requirements form the basis of a grant, the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group must be made aware of the specific wording of the grant terms.

4.1.3Teaching Only Staff

Full-time Teachingonly staff may be allocated offices for sole use but this will be dependent on space pressure and the type of activity being undertaken by individual staff, rather than grade level. Departments may wish to consider enabling one room/office to be booked for tutorials/private meetings with students, or using locally managed or centrally timetabled teaching rooms for this purpose.

4.1.4Non-Academic Staff

All non-academic staff will normally be expected to share office accommodation or to be located in open plan space.

4.1.6Part-time Staff

Part-time staff (academic and non-academic) are expected to share offices.The extent to which sharing desks is possible, particularly for academic staff, may depend on the member of staff’s FTE and scheduling constraints.

4.1.7Department Offices

Each teaching department shall normally be entitled to a departmental office. Where departments have more than one member of non-academic staff, normal allocation standards apply to the number of people located in the departmental office.

4.1.8Study Leave Arrangements

There is no automatic right to the sole use of a room by a member of staff if he or she is on studyleave or leave of absence, though access to a working area should be facilitated where requested. The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group will take into account the number of staff on study leave in a department when considering bids for additional accommodation, and departments are expected to list those staff for which study leave accommodation is necessary in their annual bid. Where a room is allocated this will normally, but notalways, be the member of staff’s existing office. Offices of staff on study leave should be used to meet accommodation needs where possible, for example to provide temporary accommodation for visiting fellows, PhD students or tutorial/meeting space.

4.1.9Postgraduate Research Students

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Grouprecognises that the provision of study and work space for full-time postgraduate students is desirable. Where possible full-time postgraduate research students will be allocated shared working space, usually on a hot-desk basis.

4.1.10Visiting Fellows

There is no automatic right to the use of a room, or part of a room, by Visiting Fellows, Honorary and Emeriti Professors. It is expected that where office accommodation is required departments will find it within their existing allocation of space or make arrangements with other departments in the first instance.

4.1.11ScienceCity Staff Primarily Affiliated with the University of Birmingham

The Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group recognises that ScienceCity staff who are primarily affiliated with the University of Birmingham may nevertheless require access to space at the University of Warwick. In such cases, the relevant Warwick department may provide shared office/open plan space for such staff from within its existing space.

4.2Office Space Data

The University does not operate space norms or standards but does analyse departmental office allocations to assess the efficiency with which space is used. The analysiscurrently applies only to office space, recognising that laboratory space requirements vary enormously between different disciplines.

A standard office in the University varies in size across campus with the average being between 10 and 15 m2. There is no specific entitlement of space in metres squared per FTE member of staff (above minimum Health and Safety regulations). The University does not recognise different sizes of offices for differing categories of staff. Offices for single occupancy should normally be those between 10 and 15m2, with larger spaces used to accommodate multiple occupancy staff or postgraduate research student groupings.

4.3Non-staff Accommodation

4.3.1Research Laboratories

Laboratory space is locally managed. Due to the specialist nature of laboratory space requests for changes or additional space are made on a case-by-case basis to the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group. If the proposed change is not externally funded, the request for additional or change in space must be supported by an academic case for the change, which should be sent to the Secretaries to the Finances and General Purposes Committee and Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Groups.

4.3.2Teaching and Specialist Space

Allocation of local teaching and meeting room space is made on a case-by-case basis and the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group reserves the right to allocate additional rooms to the Central Timetable as required.

Where a departmental bid or capital development plan incorporates a centrally timetabled teaching room, an alternative location for the teaching room of equal or larger capacity must be identified. If this alternative location is within another department’s allocation, the department posing the request must have written agreement from the Head of the Department that is currently allocated the room.

4.3.3Common Space

The University encourages departments to take a collaborative approach to common space where possible.If a department wishes, within its overall allocation of accommodation, to provide common areas for staff and/or students, it may do so.

When allocating space and considering departmental bids for space, the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group will note comparative common space data between departments, particularly for areas where pressure on space is great.

4.3.4Central Administrative Space

The vast majority of the central administration activities and staff are located in University House. Decisions on the allocation of space in University House are made by the Registrar (or his/her nominee. Requests for additional space should in the first instance be referred to the Assistant Registrar (Space Management).

5.Timetabling

Teaching space can be divided into two categories on the basis of their management;those for which bookings are controlled centrally and those for which bookings are managed locally by a department.

5.1Central Teaching Timetable Policy

Central timetabling is one method of effective space management. Centrally timetabled teaching and meeting room space has been widely commended in both the National Audit Office Space Management in HE Good Practice Guide and in HEFCE Good Management Practice Programme as the most effective management method for maximising the efficiency with which space is used. Development of the central timetable is overseen by the Space Management and Timetabling Section. Departments work with the Section on an annual basis to construct the main University teaching timetable. Ad hoc bookings in centrally timetabled rooms are permitted by staff and students after the final release of the teaching timetable.

Teaching rooms are initially allocated on a 'best fit' basis to maximise room occupation, therefore it is important that accurate group sizes are given early in the construction process wherever possible.

5.1.1The Teaching day/week

The Senate, at its meeting on 14 March 2001, approved the extension of the standard teaching day to 7pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and 6pm on Fridays. This was introduced in response to the recent increases in student numbers and the impact on demand for teaching rooms, particularly large lecture theatres.

All departments should make use of the full teaching week, with the exception of Wednesday afternoons which should be kept free from undergraduate teaching unless authorised by department Heads.

Sessions should be completed leaving enough time for all students to vacate the room, to enable the following session to start on time.

5.1.2Timetable Construction

Each Department will provide a dedicated and appropriately trained timetable representative with responsibility for ensuring efficient space utilisation.

In March, the timetable for the current academic year is carried forward to the following year. Change requests from year to year should be forwarded to the relevant departmental timetabling representatives, who use the on-line timetabling system to request their timetable and room bookings for the year.

For local rooms of capacity greater than 20all departments are required to enter all booking data onto the timetabling software (via the AUDI System during the timetable build process and via the Ad-hoc Booking System thereafter, unless the use of an alternative departmental booking system has been agreed by the Space Management and Timetabling team) so that room usage can be monitored. Where data for a room is not entered onto the software the Capital Planning and Accommodation Review Group will assume that the room is not being used, hence the Group will remove that room from the relevant department’s allocation.

Whilst under construction the timetable has a number of releases on certain dates, which are set out on the Central Timetable website. The final release for most departments is approximately one month prior to the start of the Autumn Term. Ad hoc bookings will not be considered until the teaching timetable is finalised for the year.

During the construction period, any activities requiring specific timetabling (AV requirements, disability needs etc) must be brought to the attention of the Central Timetabling team.

Bookings for Departmental Open Days after 1pm on Wednesdays may be requested as part of the construction process. Due to demand for teaching space, Open Day bookings for all other times will not be made until all teaching bookings have been finalised. Open Day booking requests should be sent to , which go directly to the Central Timetabling Section. These will be prioritised before ad hoc bookings.

5.1.3Teaching rooms

In the process of allocating teaching activities to appropriate facilities, there is no distinction to be made between the three sites across the University (Mainsite, Westwood or Gibbet Hill). Departments must be willing to teach on any part of the campus where student and staff timetables allow for movement across the campus.