Lessons learned from attending this autumn’s education events

Autumn is traditionally back to school and university season, and it was just the same for our dedicated Public Services and Commercial division as they attended two major events in the education calendar – The AUDE Showcase and Education Estates. Here Kyle Wright, our Business Development Manager, shares his takeaways from both events, what we learned about how we as a refurbishment and retrofit contractor can help serve the changing needs of the sector.

Rightsizing estates – AUDE’s main talking point

The Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE) membership network covers every UK university and offers a unique voice for the professional estates and facilities community supporting UK university campuses. The AUDE Showcase is one of its most popular annual events, drawing large crowds to address the issues currently affecting the industry.

This year we exhibited at the AUDE Showcase 2025, which was held at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on Tuesday 2nd of September. It was the first time we’d exhibited, and we welcomed a steady stream of visitors to our stand throughout the show. We had some interesting conversations with those working within university estates management during the event, giving us plenty of food for thought as we go into quarter four and approach 2026.

A key recurring theme from the event was the need to rightsize university estates and make sure campus buildings are able to support students and staff going forward. Conversations centred around how to best use space on campus more effectively and within limited budgets. This was also a key topic of discussion during the plenary sessions on the topic of space utilisation and rightsizing of university campuses.

This is in the context of universities being under increasing financial pressures as a result of tuition fees being frozen and international student numbers reducing significantly. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Universities UK about cost cutting initiatives universities are implementing showed that the majority of the 60 universities which responded are making operational cutbacks to deal with growing financial pressures, including reducing investment in repairs and maintenance.

The result is that many universities in the UK have facilities on campus that are simply not fit for purpose but deemed too expensive to refurbish. During the event discussions focussed on imagining what the modern university campus will look like in the future and in particular whether faculties are using seminar teaching space to its full potential. Taking a creative approach and changing the use of a space might provide the solution that cash-strapped universities are searching for.

How we can play our part in rightsizing university campuses

As a fit-out specialist, we are well placed to work with university estates managers to refurbish and reconfigure campus facilities to meet the needs of today’s staff and students within budget and project programming restrictions.

We’re currently undertaking a major project at Loughborough University to transform two existing university buildings into DIGILabs – specialist facilities to prepare STEM graduates for the world of work. And at the University of York, we’re currently refurbishing its 16th century Grade II* Listed Heslington Hall building, which today serves as the university’s administrative base, to modernise its interior while preserving its rich historic character.

Networking at Education Estates

On Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th of October, I hotfooted it over to Manchester Central along with our PS&C Framework Manager, Richard Hubball to visit Education Estates, which was as busy as ever. It’s easy to see why it’s known as the UK’s leading event dedicated to the development and management of educational infrastructure. Education Estates brings together professionals involved in the funding, design, construction, maintenance, and management of school, college, and university buildings each year which makes for some interesting discussions about the future of education facilities that we were pleased to be a part of.

We also hosted a lively drinks reception at Forty-Seven hotel after the close of the first day of the show. The reception gave me and the team the opportunity to catch up with both long-standing and new clients in a more relaxed setting to discuss some of the headline topics raised at this year’s event such as designing for SEND schools and working towards Net Zero operations.