7.3 Facility management
Campus
In 2022, we jointly established the new Campus Strategy; a positive process with broad input from various bodies. Our Tilburg campus now extends to the Spoorzone. Together with the municipality, the Knowledge Quarter area vision was drawn up. This vision describes the future picture of the area between the Warandebos and the Ringbaan West. A picture in which our university plays an explicit role. Not only through new building and renovation on the Warandelaan but also the expansion and renewal of the Sports Center in the Reitse Campus, the redevelopment of Meerkoldreef, and the realization of student housing.
In our new campus strategy, we choose to be progressive in sustainability and circularity. A construction method that we will expand in the coming years and will become a pillar of our new strategy for buildings and sites. We started in 2022 with the construction of the new education building (Marga Klompé Building), which will be realized entirely according to the principles of circularity. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get the Daf Technology Lab up and running in 2022, we aim to open it in 2023.
A development that still prevailed in 2022 was the scarcity of raw materials and workforce in the construction market: high prices, personnel shortages, and long delivery times. This development is expected to continue for some time and requires us to look critically at the future and how we will develop and realize our real estate projects.
Catering services
Unfortunately, at the beginning of 2022, due to the coronavirus situation that was ongoing at the time, services could not be delivered at full strength. As the year progressed, the situation improved, and we can now say that we have made great leaps in terms of sustainability. About 70% of the meals and banqueting sold are vegetarian by the end of 2022. Customer satisfaction is high, and the products are well appreciated. Price increases are unfortunately substantial due to rising ingredient costs.
Sports, exercise, and well-being
A survey of the student population and users of our sports facilities was conducted in 2021. The plan is to renovate and expand these facilities due to the high pressure on these facilities. The survey had a high response rate, making it representative of the entire university community. The results have been discussed with the Executive Board and parties of the participation body and provide the input for the desired program, the location of the new to be developed sports building and the membership fees that people are willing to pay. A solid volume is required to accommodate all the wants and needs. A third sports hall, double the amount of fitness, a swimming pool, cross-fit, and padel possibilities. We are also investigating what other well-being facilities can logically be included here. Therefore, in 2022, we mutually determined that we would leave the old location of the current Sports Center for new construction on another site. That spot will give us more room to properly plan the new building program. This was a positive process in 2022 in which we see a very strong commitment and a lot of enthusiasm. New facilities and a broadening of the range of activities offered will make us competitive again with other universities. Where possible, we are expanding our range to include other health and well-being facilities in order to open a multidisciplinary health center. We are temporarily expanding at the existing location, and in the meantime, we are working on the new site together with the municipality so that we can quickly start the permanent new building there. We are doing this in combination with a substantial task for expansion in student housing. Together with the field associations, we are also investigating where new locations can be found with added value, in cooperation with public associations, among others.
Student Housing
Tilburg is unfortunately still struggling with a housing problem, as are all Dutch university cities. For this reason, the university was forced to sharply formulate its communication to prospective students, asking them not to travel to Tilburg before finding housing. This message was already communicated to prospective students back in June.
In 2022, we saw that the municipality, after putting a significant amount of energy in it in recent years, was now also taking a firmer approach to the issue. We were aiming for an expansion of the housing assignment in the covenant, but we saw that developments were not moving fast enough. We remained dependent on vacant land positions or buildings in the city and willingness on the part of the municipality to license them for conversion to student housing. As of September 1, 2022, room rental permits were issued again.
In the 2022 campus vision, we designated two of our own land holdings for student housing. We give these a good chance because we can be more firmly in control ourselves because of ownership. Again, we are still dependent on the municipality, but the fundamental attitude is positive. We saw an expansion of 96 units in 2022 and a focus on other initiatives, such as the landlady/lord initiative, room exchange, and temporary housing. Tilburg University has set a goal of creating an additional supply of 2,850–3,500 good quality but affordable housing units by 2025. In 2022, 423 additional housing units became available, and several new projects were further developed. Hard work is underway to achieve this goal, but it represents a major challenge.
