We are committed to providing exceptional facilities management across all UQ sites and campuses, in line with the University's teaching and research goals and strategic objectives.
UQ Space Planning and Management is part of the UQ Property and Facilities Division. Our main objective is to deliver physical planning and management of the University sites and spaces, including:
4. Space auditing and validation
Space auditing at UQ is divided into General Space Audits and Techinical Space Utilisation Audits.
General Space Audit
General Space Audit comprises the inspection of all spaces, including:
- offices
- labs
- teaching rooms
- meeting rooms
- retail spaces
- toilets
- circulation.
Auditors, who receive appropriate training prior to the audit visit all rooms, crosscheck the information currently available in ARCHIBUS, and take photographs to be uploaded to the database.
The information obtained provides the University with better knowledge about the current occupancy of spaces, and is used to verify and update the space data in ARCHIBUS. The exercise is also of great value in space management and planning for the University's future growth.
General Space Audit process
The General Space Audit and consequent review of the data collected is done in four phases:
- Physical space audit
- Review of data collected and updating of ARCHIBUS
- Data analysis
- Feedback to organisational audits
For each room, five pieces of information is verified:
- organisation unit allocation
- primary/room type and primary/room function
- occupancy use
- room capacity and furniture, including the number of workstations
- accuracy of floor plans and built-in furniture records.
Besides the abovementioned information, photographs of each room are also taken. The data is then reviewed by the Space Planner who updates the ARCHIBUS records accordingly. Due to security and privacy reasons, some rooms are not able to be audited. These spaces are:
- child care centres – Buildings 0073, 0093D, and 0093E
- CSIRO spaces – Part of Buildings 0080, 0080A, and 0080B
- restricted access – ITS (0042-Level 1), Security (0042-Part of Level 2)
- areas under construction/refurbishment.
Teaching Space Utilisation Audit
Teaching Space Utilisation Audit is a Federal Government reporting requirement (DEEWR IPP Report). The report is of great value in planning for UQ's future growth. The report also provides us with better knowledge to offer the best facilities for teaching and research purposes, and assists faculties and central administration with the management of their teaching space.
Teaching Space Utilisation Audit process
The audit takes place in four different campuses of the University of Queensland (St Lucia, Gatton, Heston and PACE/TRI) in week four or five of the first semester of each year. During the audit, data is collected through inspection of rooms and spaces in the four campuses every hour between 8am and 6pm and includes auditing of teaching spaces (lecture theatres, classrooms, tutorial rooms, and teaching laboratories) and informal learning spaces.
Before the audit starts, a list of all proposed rooms to be inspected is sent to all faculties, institutes, library, and teaching and learning managers. They are required to provide feedback regarding the feasibility to audit the rooms allocated to them. Once the list of rooms to be audited is finalised, the process of hiring and training auditors start.
Once all data is collected and processed a report is produced. The report contains comparisons between data from the central booking system (Syllabus Plus) and the actual occupancy of the rooms. The utilisation results per room audited can be viewed in ARCHIBUS (UQ login required).
The audit also produces a Power BI dashboard with three main booking and audit results of each room visited:
- room frequency factor (RFF)
- seat occupancy factor (SOF)
- room utilisation (UTIL).
The results of current and previous audits can be filtered by:
- room
- organisational unit
- room category
- size
- campus.
It can be accessed through the Space Reporting page.
Space validations
In addition to the space audits, the Space Management team also conducts space validations.
Space validations involves organisational units reviewing all data related to their allocated spaces, updating the ones that have changed in the past year, and validating the ones that have remained unchanged.
The validation exercise is important because it keeps the space data inventory up to date. The room inventory maintained by Property and Facilities in ARCHIBUS is crucial to management, planning and reporting of UQ space, therefore, it is vital that this data is accurate. The validation is followed by a review of all data changed by the Space Officer.
The space editors of the organisational units are assisted by the Space Management team through weekly Zoom Q&A meetings, and a manual, organised to assist in the process.
View the space validation manual (PDF, 1.53MB) (PDF, 4.5 MB)
Discover information about room type and room function definitions in the Go8 Space Management Definitions (PDF, 3.9 MB).
Questions and feedback:
Space Management team
Property and Facilities
We can assist you with:
ARCHIBUS Accessing UQ space informationOffice relocations Requesting a space on campusAttending UQ space events and tours