FOI_26-213 Teaching space utilisation survey
Date of response: 28 September 2026
We have now considered your request of 06 September 2026 for the following information:
I am requesting information about your institution's most recent assessment of how its teaching space is used, sometimes called a space utilisation survey, room utilisation audit, occupancy and frequency survey, or teaching space audit. The request is designed to be answered largely by attaching material you already hold, and should not require any new analysis.
Question 1. The report and its data. Please provide a complete copy of the most recent completed space utilisation survey, audit, or monitoring report covering your teaching space (lecture theatres, seminar rooms, classrooms, teaching laboratories, and computer rooms), including any appendices, together with any room-level results table that accompanies the report, in its original spreadsheet format where one exists (section 11(1A)). Where the report distinguishes planned, booked, or timetabled figures from actual or observed figures, please include both, including any "booked but not used" figures. If the same exercise also covered other non-residential space (libraries, study space, or offices), please include that material too.
If no consolidated institution-wide report exists, please provide whatever is held at faculty, school, campus, or building level. A partial return is welcome. If no standalone report exists, please instead provide the most recent paper reporting utilisation survey results to your Estates Committee, Space Management Group, Executive Board, or equivalent.
Our response:
Please see accompanying document, our ref: FOI_26-213 Appendix A.
Question 2. If no report is held, the headline figures. Only where nothing under point 1 is held, please provide the headline frequency, occupancy, and utilisation percentages from your most recent survey or monitoring exercise, both planned and actual where you hold both, together with the month and year the data was gathered, the survey weeks and daily hours included, and the number of rooms or floor area covered.
Our response:
Not applicable.
Question 3. Brief context. If the material provided under point 1 already covers any of the following, there is no need to answer it separately. Otherwise a short written answer from what the team handling this request already knows is sufficient:
(a) whether the figures are based on timetabled or booked use, or on observed use, and if observed, the main method used (for example manual headcount, room occupancy sensors, network or Wi-Fi analytics, or attendance and app data);
Our response:
The figures are based on timetabled/booked use and attendance data during the week Monday 24 March 2025 to Friday 28 March 2025
(b) whether the exercise was carried out in-house or by an external contractor, and the name of any contractor, consultancy, software, or survey tool used;
Our response:
This data used was derived from the information recorded in EventMAP’s Optime suite, specifically Timetabler and Booker. The relevant data was brought together in a Tableau report and exported to Excel for further analysis and calculation of the final figures.
(c) how often this type of exercise is normally carried out, what proportion of your teaching rooms the most recent one covered, and any target or benchmark the figures are compared against.
Our response:
This data was collated for the annual HESA Estates Management Record data return.
Question 4. If no survey has been carried out. If your institution has not carried out any space utilisation survey, audit, or monitoring exercise since 1 August 2021, points 1 to 3 do not apply. Please simply confirm this, state the year of the last one if known, and, if a decision to discontinue surveys was recorded, the reason given.
Our response:
Not applicable.