There is clearly a common goal in estate strategies in both the corporate office and the higher education estate, namely the desire to create spaces and places that make users happy and productive. Our work in both sectors has enabled us to identify some key themes that can and should be shared more for the good of all.

The first opportunity is around sharing experience and metrics. There are already huge datasets on educational user experience in both the US and the UK, and some are beginning to be developed in the office sector. Given that most students become workers, then there is a strong argument that the data is transplantable, and that understanding how students have learned will benefit their future employers.

Our experience in both sectors, and literature review for this paper suggests that both groups of interested parties are asking much the same questions. Better and more wide-ranging data would improve the evidence base and make real estate spending decisions easier to justify.

There are also some areas where the findings from corporate worker research studies could help direct HE policies. For example, most workplace studies suggest that the length of commute has a huge impact on staff satisfaction – longer commutes show a more negative effect. This would suggest that the policy shift in education to encourage students to live at home to reduce costs must be considered in terms of the potential negative impact on their overall student experience.

Another hot topic in corporate real estate is education. Major employers, brands and real estate developers are increasingly embracing the idea of further education as a staff perk or as an anchor for a healthy and stimulating mixed-use environment.

We expect that offering employees continued professional development or access to non-work-related education throughout their working life will be increasingly seen as a tool to attract and retain the best talent. Specialist office providers such as Convene are emerging to facilitate the delivery of seminar, lecture and community spaces that would be instantly recognisable to every university estate director. Surely the next step of the enlightened employer would be to learn from, or possibly even joint venture with, those who have been delivering this kind of space for their core business?

Might the next step for a high-performing headquarters building be to include collaboration space curated by the University of 'X'?

_{Read the articles within Spotlight: UK Higher Education below.}