AUDE partners with a limited number of suppliers across Higher Education estates and we are very pleased to welcome Sheppard Robson to the ranks of AUDE Business Partners. Typically AUDE chooses its partnerships on the basis of the value and insight that the partner organisation can add to AUDE’s members, who are estates and facilities directors and their teams in UK universities. We work with our partners over a 12-month period to bring their skills and insights to our members in a wide range of ways.

As you’ll see from the new Sheppard Robson information page on our website their interests cross those of the association and its members in many ways and we will look forward to tapping their expertise on a wide range of topics – all to the benefit of estates and facilities departments. Among the articles they share with us today is information on biophilic design, inclusive design in support of neurodiverse academic communities, low-carbon refitting and much more – all as aspects of their key services as architects, interior designers and masterplanners.

As a practice with a wide variety of types of professional expertise the AUDE Executive new that Sheppard Robson would fit in well alongside the other highly-knowledgeable and sector-leading organisations that form our group of current business partner members.

Jane White, AUDE Executive Directors, said: “AUDE members will know that there is an entry process that underpins our choice of business partner, and that this isn’t simply a club you can buy your way into. Our Executive scrutinises every application and marries the words on the page to their own experiences of working with applicants. We are pleased to say that Sheppard Robson went through that process in strong style and we are very glad to welcome them as our first architecture-led AUDE business partner. Many of you will know their work already, including recent prize-winning buildings at the universities of Edinburgh and Salford as two examples. We are confident Sheppard Robson will bring a valuable perspective and new voice to our conversations as an association, enhancing the ways in which we all share knowledge, ideas and good approaches to difficult tasks.”

Rupert Goddard, partner at Sheppard Robson, said: “We’re really pleased to be kicking off our business partnership this summer. We have always tried to lead debate around the future of HE; now seems like a good moment to redouble our efforts with research that highlights how design innovation can improve student experience and academic outcomes while grappling with the ongoing pressures on the sector.”