Strategic Facilities Review -
Sheffield Hallam University Accommodation Services

Increasing tuition fees has created higher expectations on ‘student experience’ from students and parents over the past few years. Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is placing greater emphasis on areas such as student accommodation to attract potential students and parents. Coretex were instructed to undertake a review of the SHU Accommodation Service Department to make proposals to improve value and performance.

Project scope:

• Assess student journey when seeking accommodation at the SHU and a comparison study of this journey to other universities
• Review the existing structure and systems that SHU use to identify potential improvement
• Review the technology available to use to improve customer experience and efficiency (including the use of social media platforms) and to consider the need of monitoring and measuring the student experience

Coretex Process:

• Coretex used the Supply-Demand model to enable a clear an unbiased view of how well SHU were performing.
• Coretex carried out direct studies of the systems and processes used by SHU to manage accommodation, including direct comparison to other organisations by benchmarking.

Project Outcome:

• Improved student experience at SHU through the use of the integrated online IT systems for booking accommodation.
• Integrated social media into the student experience and accommodation booking process from allocation to arrival including introduction.
• More effective departmental structure through improved flexibility and use of inter-changeabilityof skills and resources
• Identified possible additional income stream; the potential for time resource savings from theintroduction of new systems