Video from Nottingham Trent University - space efficiency winner

Nottingham Trent University

Continuous Utilisation Survey

Nottingham Trent University have embarked on a utilisation survey for the whole academic year. The largest survey carried out by NTU records the utilisation of 335 rooms every hour across the three campuses, giving an invaluable insight into the use of the estate. Analysis of the data captured has been used to inform decisions on future developments and quantify demand for different types of space.

The Continuous Utilisation Survey is a physical check of 335 rooms every hour between 9am and 6pm to count the number of occupants. The completed surveys that have been carried out were conducted for the whole of term one, each third week in term two and the whole of term three excluding exam periods. To avoid excessive paper waste and saving £570 in printing costs, temporary members of staff used iPads to record data. To synchronise records and mitigate the need to manually transfer all information, as well as significantly streamlining data capture and analysis, drop box was used.

Following the success of the teaching space based utilisation survey it is now being rolled out into staff offices, this also ensures that NTU are making progress to the government guidelines stating a 0.8:1 ratio of desks per FTE.