leader


A confident and healthy message from Warwick


THOSE fortunate enough to have attended last month’s HEE Forum at Warwick University will have been left in no doubt that the big issues confronting higher education are being tackled with serious determination and the utmost professionalism.


Setting new standards in luxury accommodation Students living in Hox Park enjoy all the creature comforts they have at home, and more.


Story page 16-17


Mental health and wellbeing was at the top of everyone’s agenda. Here, Warwick itself served as an inspiration for what can be done when administrators, estates managers and built environment specialists work together for the good of their students. The stunning new Sports and Wellness Hub is a world-class sports facility and is a central part of Warwick’s ambition to have the most physically active student body in the country.


Funding was also high on the Forum agenda, with everyone conscious of the need for cost-saving measures, both in the design and construction phases but also in long-term running costs. The environmental and fiscal argument made for more Passivhaus, or near-Passivhaus standards, in university buildings will have impressed everyone present.


And hovering above all the debate and discussion was the crucial question of, post-Augar, will universities hold their nerve in the face of whatever funding arrangements Government next implements. The strong feeling was that, whatever the outcome of the funding review, universities will indeed go on extending and renewing their estates, as domestic student numbers are once again rising thanks to simple demography and overseas students will still come to study here, whatever happens with Brexit.


Editor Andrew Pring


Sales director Julian Walter


Production Gina Mitchell


Design Sandra Cid


Managing director Toby Filby


Such calm confidence for the future is reflected in numerous articles in this issue of Higher Education Estates which highlight the investments being made in the fabric of university estates and privately built student accommodation. A deluxe housing scheme we feature on pages 16-17 demonstrates private developers’ assuredness that the student market is still a Triple-A-grade investment opportunity.


We expect to see more of that confidence on display at our first educational building forum in Scotland next month, when senior figures in the education world discuss just what it is about Scottish schools and universities that makes them so special. Full details on p20 in this issue of our sister magazine Education Design & Build. See you in Edinburgh!


Publishers Stable Publishing Limited, SBC House, Restmor Way, Wallington, Surrey SM6 7AH, England. t. 020 8288 1080 f. 020 8288 1099 e. sales@educationdab.co.uk


The publishers do not necessarily agree with views expressed by contributors and cannot accept responsibility for claims made by manufacturers and authors, nor do they accept any responsibility for any errors in the subject matter of this publication.


Andrew Pring Editor


andrew@stable-media.co.uk highereducationestates 3


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