AUDE’s Big Conversation 2023 event was held at the University of Oxford on 15/16 November, and our theme was ‘Walking confidently through the minefield’. We are preparing for delegates a short report on the event and our discussions, and will have that with you shortly.
The challenges are stacking up for many university estates teams, and they are linked in frustrating ways: the string that we can pull to solve a knotty problem issue with our right hand often seems just to make the knot tighter over on our left. For many delegates the challenge of getting to net zero carbon emissions is top of the ‘to do’ list. Others look at the issue of space, ‘right-sizing’, and the slow progression of Covid-era learnings about the footprint of our campuses in the light of new ways of working. And others still think about university income, the erosion through inflation of student fees to the point where they are now little more than half the size of the original settlement. In the light of an extraordinarily difficult set of problems what can AUDE do to support members with these challenges? Our afternoon session at the event started to give us ideas. Thankyou to all of those that joined us, and we look forward to the Big Conversation 2024.
Have you considered hosting us for this event in your university? We’d be happy to start discussions on this for 2024 and beyond.
The AUDE Big Conversation will be CPD accredited.
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