The AUDE team are busy working behind the scenes on the 2026 Summer School residential programme. This page will be updated regularly. Please click to expand each of the sessions below and find out more about them. Please note speakers and session titles are subject to change.
Delegates to arrive to the Bill Brown Suite in the Queen's Building, to meet the AUDE Team, their Summer School Host and the rest of their Summer School colleagues.
Delegates will be able to bring and store luggage in the room.
Bill Brown Suite, Queen's Building
Lunch provided for all delegates in the Bill Brown Suite, Queen's Building.
Hear from AUDE Chair, Ian Grimes who is the Director of Estates at the University of Hertfordshire. A welcome to the AUDE Summer School 2026 and an overview of Ian's career.
Speaker: Ian Grimes, Director of Estates, University of Hertfordshire and AUDE Chair
A welcome to our Summer School host institution for 2026, the University of Bristol, from Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of Bristol.
Speaker: Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Bristol
Introduction to the Summer School from our host, Mark Swales.
Speaker: Mark Swales FIoL, Host
Estate backlogs in higher education reflect more than buildings; they signal complex decisions, constraints and governance challenges. This session explores how leaders can move from reactive fixes to strategic action: diagnosing backlog types, setting priorities, managing risk, and shifting to structured programmes. It highlights the leadership challenge of balancing urgency with long-term alignment, and reframes backlog as a catalyst for stronger systems, better data, and a more resilient estate.
Speakers: David Tonkin, Director of Campus Services, University of Bristol and Claire Routledge, Director of Property and Infrastructure, University of Bristol
Refreshments will be available during this short break, offering an opportunity to recharge, network, and continue informal conversations.
Higher education is facing major disruption, from financial pressure and shifting student demand to rising expectations around sustainability, digital capability and experience. This session explores how these forces are reshaping estates and facilities management, and the capabilities needed to respond.
It highlights the move towards more flexible, data-driven space use, the need to manage growing financial and compliance pressures, and the increasing importance of sustainability, digital transformation and workforce evolution.
Focusing on a more integrated, whole-system approach, the session considers how FM teams can align with institutional priorities, build resilience and deliver value. Ultimately, it positions estates professionals as key to shaping future-ready, sustainable and high-performing campuses.
Speakers: Duncan Johnston, Deputy Director of Estates, Glasgow School of Art and AUDE Strategic Facilities Management Group Deputy Chair, and Michael Weymouth, Head of Strategic Facilities Management, University of Oxford
Walk to the Clayton Hotel is approximately a 20 minute walk (07 mile) from the University of Bristol.
Optional meet at the hotel main reception to walk to the Cosy Club as a group or feel free to head over in your own time. The Cosy Club is approximately a 5 minute walk (0.2 mile) from the hotel.
Our first dinner of the residential, an opportunity to relax and to get to know fellow colleagues further.
Cosy Club, Bristol
Reflection time to start the day. Refreshments will be available.
Speaker: Mark Swales FIoL, Host
This session explores the University of Oxford’s SMART Campus vision and its digital estate journey, focusing on how technology and data can enhance research, efficiency, user experience and sustainability.
It examines key drivers for change, including shifting demographics, resource constraints and rapid technological advancement, and how these are shaping smarter, more connected campuses. The session also considers how institutions can adapt through new operating models, agile working and real-time data enabled by IoT.
Finally, it highlights the growing role of data-driven facilities management, showing how increasingly accessible sensor technology can support better decision-making and improved environmental performance.
Speaker: Trevor Payne, Strategic Advisor & NHP Chief Engineer
Refreshments will be available during this short break, offering an opportunity to recharge, network, and continue informal conversations.
The role of a director is wide-ranging and unpredictable, spanning operational issues, financial decisions, HR challenges and strategic leadership, often all at once. This session explores the realities of the role, including situations that fall well outside the job description.
Drawing on extensive director-level experience, the presenters share real-world scenarios and invite participants to consider how they would respond before revealing what actually happened.
The session highlights the variety, complexity and occasional ambiguity of the role, emphasising that there are rarely simple or textbook answers.
Speakers: Ian Grimes, Director of Estates, University of Hertfordshire and AUDE Chair and Stephen Wells, Director of Estates & Facilities, University of East Anglia and AUDE Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Group Chair
Lunch will be served and an opportunity to network further with fellow colleagues.
UK universities have made strong commitments to climate targets and sustainable campuses, but recent economic and global challenges have made prioritisation and investment more difficult.
This interactive session explores why sustainability should remain central to estate management, what a sustainable campus means in practice, and the key actions that support it. Using examples and discussion, participants will gain insight into best practice and how to apply sustainable thinking within their own roles.
Speaker: Dr Roddy Yarr, Director of Sustainability, University of Glasgow and AUDE Sustainability Advisory Group Chair
Refreshments will be available during this short break, offering an opportunity to recharge, network, and continue informal conversations.
This session explores the purpose and value of university estate masterplanning, and the role individuals play in developing it. With estates representing a major cost, effective planning is key to improving utilisation, reducing expenditure, and supporting institutional strategy.
It examines how masterplans align with academic priorities, the importance of robust data and benchmarking, and the need to understand legal, planning and market contexts. Participants will also consider how to produce meaningful insights for decision-makers and work effectively with internal teams and external partners, supported by real-world examples.
Speaker: Harvey Dowdy, Interim Director of Estate & Campus Services, Keele University
This session explores space management as a strategic response to financial pressure, where universities must maximise existing estates rather than expand. It challenges assumptions about why space is needed and reframes campuses as dynamic ecosystems.
Focusing on the “three Ps”, politics, philosophy and practicalities, it examines how power, design principles and data-driven insights shape effective space use.
Participants will leave with practical tools, new arguments for optimising existing space, and a fresh perspective on space management as a key driver of impact and change.
Speaker: Helen Wallace, Assistant Director of Estates -Space, Infrastructure & Digital, University of Exeter and AUDE Space Management Group Chair
Opportunity to work on your group projects.
Optional meet at the hotel main reception to walk to the dinner venue as a group or feel free to head over in your own time. The Beckford is approximately a 20 minute walk (0.7 mile) from the hotel.
Tonight we will be joined by Professor Bruce Hood, Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol, who will welcome us to tonight's dinner.
Speaker: Professor Bruce Hood, Developmental Psychology in Society, University of Bristol
The Beckford, Senate House, University of Bristol
Reflection time to start the day. Refreshments will be available.
Speaker: Mark Swales FIoL, Host
This session explores the critical partnership between estates and finance in delivering major property investments and disposals. Using the Oxford Brookes Wheatley campus sale and associated new builds as a case study, it highlights the importance of close collaboration to navigate complex negotiations, financial risk and governance.
It examines challenges including planning constraints, inflationary pressures, overlapping project timelines and delivery risks, and how these were managed to achieve a successful outcome.
Ultimately, the session demonstrates how strong alignment between estates and finance functions is essential to deliver large-scale change and protect institutional value.
Speakers: Cathy Gigou, CFO, Christ Church, Oxford and Jerry Woods, Director of Estates and Campus Services, Oxford Brookes University and AUDE Treasurer
This session explores estates compliance as a strategic leadership responsibility in complex, high-risk university environments. It highlights how effective compliance underpins safety, resilience and institutional reputation, and how failures can quickly escalate into wider risk.
Participants will gain an overview of the compliance landscape and a practical leadership framework, the Five Pillars of Practical Compliance, covering governance, processes, data, consistency and accountability.
Through a case study and practical tools, the session focuses on building confidence in managing risk, strengthening assurance, and embedding a proactive compliance culture.
Speaker: Anita Edson, Director of Estates, Cardiff University and AUDE Chair Elect
Lunch will be served and an opportunity to network further with fellow colleagues.
This focused, interactive session builds confidence in high-stakes communication, equipping participants to command a room with authority, regardless of how intimidating the audience may be.
Participants will explore how body language and vocal delivery shape impact, develop a communication style that balances connection with confidence, and learn how to ensure their key messages truly land.
Through exercises inspired by actors and professional presenters, the session strengthens participants’ ability to engage attention, use language effectively, and present with authenticity, remaining calm, grounded and in control, even under pressure.
Speaker: Louisa Clarke, Verbal Communications Specialist
Guided tour around the University of Bristol campus.
Opportunity to work on your group projects.
Tonight we will be joined by Lindsey Crabtree, Client Sector Director- Education from BAM, our Summer School Supporter, who will welcome us to tonight's dinner.
Speaker: Lindsey Crabtree, Client Sector Director- Education, BAM.
The Orangery, Goldney Hall
Reflection time to start the day. Refreshments will be available.
Speaker: Mark Swales FIoL, Host
This session will explore the role property plays as an economic factor of production in allowing businesses to operate, alongside the other three factors of production: labour, capital and enterprise. When used in this way, property is known as Corporate Real Estate, its function being to meet the operational needs of an organisation and to be a physical representation of the organisation.
We will explore measures to indicate how well a property is meeting an organisation’s operational need, and at points in time where the business environment is changing that consequently needs a change in the property estate. Property cycles and the review of property cycles within Corporate Real Estate to keep the operational demand for property as closely matched to the available supply, will be explored. This will aim to provide some basic tools to help consider how an estate can be varied to meet operational needs as they change over time.
Refreshments will be available during this short break, offering an opportunity to recharge, network, and continue informal conversations.
This practical session explores the realities of people leadership in high-pressure Estates and Facilities environments, helping leaders navigate operational demands, organisational politics, and complex relationships with confidence.
Participants will examine what effective leadership looks like in fast-paced settings; building trust, setting expectations, addressing issues early, and creating accountable, supportive team cultures. Through real-world scenarios, the session explores common team challenges shaped by legacy structures and ingrained ways of working.
The session also demystifies employment relations and internal dynamics, covering difficult conversations, conflict, performance management, and how to work effectively with key stakeholders. Finally, it focuses on personal resilience, supporting leaders to stay calm, make sound decisions under pressure, and lead with credibility through change.
Speaker: Catherine Parker, Director of People Services, University of the West of England
Groups project work and presentation time.
Our Host, Mark Swales, will provide final remarks to close up the Summer School 2026.
Speaker: Mark Swales FIoL, Host
