The University has undertaken significant work in recent years to build new infrastructure for teaching, research, student accommodation and extracurricular activities. Going forward, we will need to make many more complex decisions about how and where to invest.
A Buildings Board is being established, which will draw on both internal and external expertise on the planning, procurement, operation and maintenance of our buildings and infrastructure. The Board, to be chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and supported by a Vice-Chair, Professor Tim Ibell in the first instance, will make recommendations to the University Executive Board. University-based members of the board will be drawn from the academic and professional service staff communities and the Students’ Union.
We wish to learn both from our own and others’ experiences, and drawing in external experts on the built environment to assist us as critical friends is a key aspect of the Board. The external professionals will be selected as members of the Board on a three-year term, renewable by mutual consent. They will have no vested interest in any decisions, and their expertise will lie in one or more of architecture, structural engineering, building surveying, quantity surveying, contracting or project management.
Our approach to benchmarking and setting targets for energy and the carbon footprint of our estate is crucial, and the Buildings Board will lead in this.
The Board will be based on wide representation of views and needs, to ensure that any advice generated is based on robust and inclusive decision making.