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Office of the Chief Operations Officer

HEA Space Audit

Semester 2

During week 21 a space utilisation survey will take place. This will involve surveyors visiting timetabled classrooms and laboratories on the hour, from 
9:00am-6:00pm from Monday 29 January - Friday 2 February 2024. 

DCU is required to conduct this survey on instruction from Higher Education Authority (HEA), which intends to use the data to inform future capital funding decisions. 

This semester, DCU will attempt to include as many rooms as possible in the survey. The HEA has indicated that we will be required to survey 100% of rooms in the future. 

The HEA requires a surveyor to visit each room on the hour from 9:00am-6:00pm, Monday - Friday to physically count the number of people in the room. Therefore, a two-hour class in one of the selected classrooms or labs will be surveyed twice in that period. This means that a surveyor will need to enter the room twice during a two-hour class. This methodology was developed by the HEA and SUMS Consulting, and all higher education institutions in Ireland have been instructed to comply.

DCU is employing student ambassadors to implement the survey, so that it presents a convenient employment opportunity for DCU students. Therefore, those surveying rooms are likely to be students. Your support and cooperation with the survey will be appreciated. 

The following are the routes that will be used this semester. Where route numbers are missing (i.e. routes 2, 11, 14 and 15) there are mapped routes, but these will not be surveyed this semester but will be surveyed in the future.  

All Hallows Campus

Glasnevin Campus

St Patrick's Campus

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact: space.request@dcu.ie