Corporate real estate strategies for future higher education

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the alignment of Corporate Real Estate (CRE) strategies of Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) with the developments in higher education.Methodology/approach – The paper first illustrates the key developments in higher education learning and teaching, and relevant CRE management literature. Subsequently, it presents two studies that examine the CRE strategies of large Dutch UAS, to align their CRE with current and potential future developments. These are explored based on interviews and scenario analysis with experts in the field of higher education and CRE management.Findings – The findings of the two studies show that CRE in the short term is well aligned with recent and current developments in higher education. Yet, in the long term, CRE-managers in general doubt the probability of some developed scenarios and are not sufficiently prepared for disruptive developments due to inflexibility of the CRE portfolio.Originality/value –There is still limited understanding of how to optimally align school buildings to education. Furthermore, the future is unclear. The two studies in this paper contribute to insights about strategies of CRE-managers in the education sector to translate current and assumed developments into future proof accommodations. The presented frameworks and the scenario approach are applicable in other sectors as well