Jody Ballard

5 Reasons To Carry Out A Teaching Space Utilisation Survey

Stressful and time consuming, there are many arguments to kick the annual Teaching Space Utilisation Survey into the long grass. But there are several valuable reasons behind these surveys. 
Empty space, drag to resize
Many institutions carry out a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey at least once each academic year and usually during a teaching week. Each of these surveys record the number of people using a teaching space and can also be used to check who is using a teaching space against the timetable for that week. Time consuming and stressful to put together, manage, and analyse, this annual survey is possibly one of the least enjoyable activities space managers and timetabling teams are involved in. So why carry out a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey in the first place? What is it that the institutions are looking to understand and accomplish by carrying out these surveys? 

#1 Increase the availability of teaching space

A common perception amongst staff and students is that there is a shortage of teaching space. Rooms are in short supply, or so they think. In some areas, it is true, there is a greater pressure on space as a teaching resources.  But have you ever considered what the evidence for this is?

Providing more teaching space comes at a significant cost, whether this be constructing an additional building (very costly!) or refurbishing space currently assigned for other purposes (costly and takes space away from another service).

A Teaching Space Utilisation Survey and Report aims to investigate whether there is a need for additional teaching space and, if there is, come up with cost-effective solutions.
The truth is that there is always a difference between what is timetabled and what is actually used.

This may sound like a bold statement, and with this type of survey, the results will often back this up. And if this is the case, it represents an opportunity to investigate and resolve the reasons behind rooms being booked and not used or decreasing the number of rooms booked when not needed, thereby increasing the availability of teaching space for those that need it.

Essentially a win/win situation, no investment required nor is teaching or student experience impacted on, yet teaching space has been gained.

A survey can also pinpoint individual teaching spaces, departments, buildings, campuses, days and times that are currently being underutilised. In doing so, these can also be investigated with the aim of finding out the reasons for the low utilisation and building a strategy for the future that will help the institution make better use of the poorly utilised space highlighted. This could be by making a department’s space available to other departments (whether this be the whole week, or specific times), or changing the space type of a poorly utilised space to that of one where there is a proven shortfall.

Each helps to increase the availability of teaching space within the institution, helping ensure the institution makes more out of the space they have available and improve the timetabling experience.

#2 Reduce costs and increase income

Space = money and the more space you have, the greater investment it requires in order to maintain each year. And that's why getting the most from teaching space - or any space for that matter - will help an institution to ensure they are getting the most out of the capital they have available.

A Teaching Space Utilisation Survey provides an institution with concrete evidence on how your teaching space is being utilised. The critical point is that this is actual usage and not timetabled usage. The difference can be – and usually is – significant. If you only use timetable data to manage how much teaching space you require, you are most likely providing too much teaching space for what is actually required and therefore wasting capital.
This can be done, via two main options:

1. By reducing the amount of teaching space and making it available for other purposes – reducing costs and potentially raising capital
Either due to leasing or selling the space and therefore raising capital and removing the maintenance costs. Or through the saved costs of providing a space for a service that would have required additional space being leased/purchased/constructed and maintained.

2. Increase the number of activities using the teaching spaces
This won’t reduce costs, but it will increase revenue or allow for increased student teaching hours or an enhanced student experience. Increased revenue could be achieved by increasing the number of students the institution takes on or by making the space available to external parties for booking.

Underutilised teaching space could be used to accommodate an increase in the number of student teaching hours or be made available for other purposes that would benefit the students, such as bookable revision, presentation, or meeting space.

#3 Improve the timetable

The ability to produce a “good” timetable is, in part, reliant upon the teaching space available and the process of how this space is booked and used.

The definition of a “good” timetable, is a topic for another occasion but the point is if your teaching space is always seemingly fully booked, you are unlikely to be able to produce as great a timetable than if you have had an increased teaching space availability.

It will be very difficult, or seemingly impossible, to create a timetable that accommodates soft constraints such as a maximum teaching day length if your teaching space is fully booked.

A Teaching Space Utilisation Survey is a means of investigating all of the teaching space available in an effort to find those areas of low actual utilisation. These spaces can then be further investigated to find out the reasons why and find solutions that will increase the availability of teaching space all of which is imperative to a great timetable.

#4 Feeding into and influencing estate strategy

An institution’s teaching space is a fundamental and significant proportion of an institution’s estate and its strategy.
If you don’t have not enough of, or have the wrong type of, teaching space available, the student and teaching experience is likely to suffer. This impacts on recruitment, amongst other things. If there is too much space and the institution will be investing too much capital into teaching space compared to what is required, resulting in capital being wasted.

A Teaching Space Utilisation Survey’s data enables an institution to determine how its current teaching space is being used and investigate options for improving it. This information can and should then inform the estate strategy, combined with future teaching space demands from those who will require it. Essentially, this means an institution can accurately plan how much and what type of teaching space is required for the coming years, ensuring the most is made of the space as well as capital available and minimising the risk that there will not be enough or the wrong type of teaching space available too.

#5 Reporting for EMS and eMandate

More of a requirement than a benefit, universities have to report their teaching space utilisation results annually via EMS with colleges now have to do similar via eMandate.

This is enforced so that all universities and colleges estate usage can be monitored and compared. Once data is collected and analysed, the headline data is made available to all those that participated. However, its usefulness tends to vary as the type and quality of the teaching space utilisation data provided can differ from one institution to a next.

In summary

Ultimately, a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey enables an institution to understand how its space is being used and to ensure it is getting the most out of the space it has available. What an institution deems as a good use of space, is dependent on what it is trying to achieve.

If there is a desire to reduced costs, for example, then a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey can help to increase the amount of teaching space required thereby reducing costs and potentially increasing capital.

If there is a desire to improve the student experience, a Teaching Space Utilisation survey can help to highlight inefficiencies and improve the availability of teaching space to enable additional student focussed soft constraints to be considered.

If there is desire for more teaching space a Teaching Space Survey can help to increase the teaching space availability without taking on more teaching space.

Understand and make better use of your space and carry out a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey or, get in touch to see how we can help [email protected]
Created with