SPACE ADMINISTRATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

INSTITUTIONS – BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Jean SkeneDirector: HEMIS

Department of Higher Education and Training

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GENERAL

• Institutions need to co-ordinate a variety of personpower, financial and fixed asset resources in order to achieve selected goals and objectives

• Buildings play an important role in achieving the purposes of institutions

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GENERAL• Good planning and management of this resource

are significant for a number of reasons:-

– Buildings house programmes (instruction, finance, student admin, etc.) of the institutions. The amount of space available partially defines not only the activities to which the institution may commit itself, but also the educational environment of the institution’s instruction, research and public service programmes. The suitability of the buildings for their uses directly affects the quality of the institutional programmes, for example, instruction space.

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GENERAL• Good planning and management of this resource

are significant for a number of reasons (cont):-

– Buildings consume most of an institution’s fixed asset funds. Inappropriate buildings my drain its financial resources.

– Acquisition of buildings represent a major commitment of present and projected financial resources. Decisions to construct or acquire new buildings not only represent major, long-term, financial commitments, but may also define or constrain programme offerings for a significant period of time.

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GENERAL

For these and other reasons, buildings are one of the critical and central considerations in the Institutions’ decision-making process. Planning and management decisions regarding current operations and future directions of the institution, if made without the benefit of accurate and comprehensive building and space information can lead to undesirable operating constraints.

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SPACE ADMINISTRATION• Purposes of the Inventory

– The most valuable application of a building and space inventory comes at the institutional level, where the data may be used in the following ways:-

• Scheduling and assigning space, and in accounting for the types of space available. This will enable the institution to monitor the utilisation of space ensuring that facilities are not over or under utilised. The Institution will able to identify the activity taking place in a particular space/room

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SPACE ADMINISTRATION• Purposes of the Inventory (cont)

• Allocating and analysing the use of resources, and planning future resource needs. In programme budgeting, building and space data are essential for determining programme costs, as well as for establishing the building implications of altering the mix of programmes offered by the institution.

• Space data are also useful when they indicate the amount of floor area of each space use category used by each programme at the institution.

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SPACE ADMINISTRATION• Purposes of the Inventory (cont.)

• Current and accurate inventories are essential to planners concerned with predicting needs for buildings for the future. A well conceived inventory should make available to the planner such building information as gross area, assignable areas, estimated replacement costs, building condition. Even where expansion is unlikely, there is a need for fixed asset fund expenditures to renovate and replace outmoded buildings. The building and space inventory is a useful tool for maintaining a current record of such information.

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OPPORTUNITIES– Record of all available space and space use, such as

the assignable space, Inactive areas, mechanical areas, building service areas supporting building’s cleaning and public hygiene functions.

– Time-tabling including programme classification structure and cesms.

– Student places, Office stations, Hostel beds– Recording of assets such as equipment– Costing of programmes– Condition of building – renovations required,

demolition, etc.

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OPPORTUNITIESBuilding and Space cost norms

Calculation of norm provision of building space and building cost units for current FTE enrolled students at a particular HE institution

Institutional planning of facilities

Internal institutional space charging

Ensuring minimum standards for the erection of new buildings and for land improvements other than buildings at HE institutions

Funding of capital projects by the state as currently in progress

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OPPORTUNITIESBuilding and Space cost norms to support planning

Increase in student numbers in 2003, however infrastructure in many instances remained unchanged.

The Institution as well as the DHET will be able to calculate in terms of the enrolled ftes what space and institution should have and then compare it to the actual space as recorded in the inventory or provided in the building space submissions.

The institution as well as the DHET will be able to calculate the estimated number of stations and compare to what has been recorded on the inventory or what has been reported in the building space submission.

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Barriers

– In order to have an effective space inventory staff who understand the terminology and who can monitor the changes to space are required. In some instances this may require a specific department, often located in either the finance office (assets), or the Hemis directorate (maintenance of the inventory) or within a facilities management directorate, which could include building maintenance.

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Barriers

– Often institutions have multi campuses – does this require a central or decentralised system to manage the inventory. Centralised system could mean that the facilities staff have to travel considerable distances Decentralised system means the appointment of additional staff on each campuses. This may also lead to inconsistency in the maintenance of the building and space inventory.

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Barriers

– Maintaining the Building and Space Inventory. Often decisions are taken regarding the relocation of a programme, a staff member or even alterations are undertaken such as sub-dividing a room and often this information does not filter through to the facilities management team. This results in the inventory becoming outdated and in turn impacts on planning

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Barriers

– Financial resources required to maintain the building and space inventory, staffing, IT systems and support, updating of plans, transport in the case of multi-campuses

– IT systems as a barrier to effective space administration – integration with other systems such at the time table system, HR system.

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THANK YOU