ABSTRACT
There are currently 174 higher education institutions in the UK, which provide, manage, and maintain a significant estate of buildings and land-some 25 million square meters of premises space in addition to site and land resources. In England there are 135 institutions of higher education, of which 71 are universities, 16 are individual institutions of the University of London, and 48 are colleges of higher education. Wales has 14 institutions (of which 5 make up the University of Wales), Northern Ireland has 4 (of which 2 are universities), and Scotland has 21 (of which 13 are universities) (Higher Education Funding Council for England 1998). The direct economic importance of the higher education sector on the performance and development of the national economy has been acknowledged (Kelly et al. 2002; McNicoll 1995), and continued expansion of the sector is anticipated in view of the government’s targets for encouraging participation (Wolf 2002). In parallel, recent evidence suggests that considerable investment in the research, teaching, and wider physical infrastructure is required if the UK is to remain competitive (JM Consulting 2004; 2002a; 2002b; 2001; National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education 1997). Clearly, these circumstances suggest that the university real estate resource is an important one.
