Derby University
Space Management - University of Derby
The University of Derby was one of the first new Universities established in the 1990's. Derby was granted University status in 1992, but can trace its roots back to 1851. A series of mergers with Derbyshire colleges led to the Derbyshire College of Higher Education (1983), which in turn became the University of today.
The most recent merger in 1998 was with High Peak College in Buxton, which means the University now offers a comprehensive post-16 Education to the county and region. The University comprises of four schools: Arts, Design & Technology; The Derbyshire Business School; Education, Health & Sciences and the University of Derby College, Buxton. There are currently eight campus sites spread across Derbyshire.
The challenge
The University was already running a Combined Subject Programme (CSP) within the School of Environmental and Applied Sciences, and became so popular it was expanded throughout the University. This allows students to choose from any module to create their own individual course. Currently 100,000 different award templates are available. At this time the University was also operating a manual, decentralised timetable system and wished to centralize the process.
The University realised that its timetabling system would not be able to cope with the degree of flexibility needed to manage this style of offering. In order to achieve its goal it would need a sophisticated algorithm to do automated scheduling of resources including rooms, lecturers and equipment.
Another challenge was the Universities Estates Strategy and the need to maximise the use of space in order to access funds for new buildings. To do this the University had to prove to funding bodies that it was already using its existing space well. The University needed to be able to manage its space in order to adapt to the changing environment. They also needed to find a way of informing the University architects of the teaching space required within the new buildings in order to ensure that course delivery and resource usage was maximised.
The solution
The University decided it needed to invest in a new timetabling and resource management system. A detailed specification was prepared and, following a thorough evaluation of available systems, the University invested in Facility CMIS.
Through using Facility CMIS the University was able to access funds and determine the amount of space needed in the new buildings. The room sizes for the build were determined by Facility CMIS and then adapted by the architects. The University through Facility CMIS has also been able to simulate the movement of courses from one site to other sites.
The benefits
- Reduced workload for academics
- Improved frequency statistics
- Maximised space utilization
- Best fit solutions-locate resource where needed as more students are recruited
- Bookings can be emailed out automatically
Plan-Model-Simulation - Using email confirmation for room booking has saved time
- Joined up thinking in dedicated, space-limited protection of areas
Using Facility CMIS meant the University could identify large areas of dedicated space that was being underutilised. Changing the nature of the space will long term, enable the relocation of three sites onto one existing site and one new site. This will dramatically reduce inter-site travel and offers a large cost saving.
The feedback
Using Facility CMIS has enabled the University to adhere to tight timescales dictated by the Estates strategy for space management. Facility CMIS has played a key role in realising these timescales. It has also provided a flexible mechanism to rapidly adjust to the changing political climate of the University and changes to strategic decisions. We can now look at the whole University and be impartial about space by producing hard facts and figures.
This has been a cultural change within our organization but it has definitely been worth it. The information we are able to get from Facility CMIS enables us to look at the profile of our estate and informs our business planning process and strategy. We can now practically look at the whole university and be impartial about space by producing hard facts and figures. We are constantly finding new ways to make use of Facility CMIS's vast and sophisticated functionality to make a difference to all our stakeholders!