We recently hosted a joint webinar with AUDE, bringing together university facilities and estates professionals to explore best practice in asset management and whole-life cycle thinking.

The session, titled ‘Optimising your asset management and whole life cycle approach - what does ‘good’ really look like?’, attracted over 85 attendees, underlining just how strategically important this topic has become for the sector.

Hosted by Anna Cousins, Head of Asset Management here at Litmus FM, the webinar focused on the practical realities facing university estates teams today and, crucially, how amore structured, proactive approach to asset management can help institutions move from firefighting to long-term resilience.

The challenges facing university estates

Universities are operating in an increasingly complex estates environment. Many institutions are grappling with:

• Ageing infrastructure, often with incomplete or inconsistent asset data
• Significant maintenance backlogs, driven by years of underinvestment
• Sustainability pressures, including the need to reduce energy use and carbon emissions while maintaining performance and compliance

As Anna said, good assetmanagement is no longer optional - it’s strategic. When done well, it helps align estates decisions with wider university goals, from academic excellenc eand research performance to student experience and institutional reputation.

A robust asset management approach provides leadership teams with confidence that investment decisions are evidence-based, risks are understood, and resources are being deployed where they deliver the greatest long-term value.

The case for proactive asset management

One of the key themes of the webinar was the shift from reactive to proactive estates management.Proactive asset management enables universities to reduce operational and compliance risks, control and lower whole-life costs, improve sustainability performance and enhance the experience of students, staff and visitors.

Anna outlined the core principles of a good asset management approach, emphasising that it must be:

• Strategic - aligned with institutional priorities and long-term objectives
• Data-led - based on accurate, assured and accessible asset information
• Integrated - bringing together capital planning, maintenance, compliance and sustainability
• Predictive - investing before failure, not reacting afterwards
• Lifecycle-focused - balancing short-term pressures with long-term value

The risks of poor asset knowledge

The webinar also explored the very real impact on universities that lack a clear understanding of their assets. Common consequences include increased regulatory and compliance risks along with financial waste and ineffective capital planning.When a crises or unexpected failure happens, a university is far more vulnerable if they lack asset knowledge, and they won’t be able to respond as quickly or efficiently.

What should universities do?

During the Q&Asession at the end it was clear than many universities rarely have specialist expertise in-house to navigate asset management. For those that do, it’s easy to fall behind, given the wider pressures of running the estate.

We’re a trustedpartner of AUDE, and work closely with many universities to strengthen asset management capability and support more resilient, sustainable estates.

If your institution is looking to improve its asset management approach, develop a whole-life strategy, or gain greater confidence in its asset data and investment planning, get in touch with us here to find out how we can help.
The Litmus FM Team.
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