COVID’s impact on campus stakeholder preferences for large college halls: Using the PAS method for evaluation

Although there are a number of established Corporate Real Estate (CRE) alignment models that strive for maximum or optimum added value of the real estate portfolio, the procedure find the optimal solution is often a black box decision (lacking transparency about structural, procedural and substantive aspects of decision making). This study elaborates on previous successful pilots using the Preference-based Accommodation Strategy (PAS) design and decision approach. In this pilot we identify stakeholder preferences for large lecture halls at a one University in The Netherlands. The goals of the study was two-fold, first, to use the PAS method to develop an evaluation framework to assess their current lecture halls and guide future real estate and organizational interventions. Second, to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stakeholders’ preferences for large college halls at universities. We therefore compare this study, undertaken between October 2021 and February 2022, to our pre-COVID research on lecture halls in 2015 at TU Delft, using the same method.The PAS method enabled a procedurally and structurally clear process to list preferences develop an evaluation framework and calculate a current overall preference score for the large college halls portfolio at the university in our study. Participants evaluated the development of an evaluation tool using the PAS method positively. Compared to pre-COVID research, an increased preference for hybrid education (especially as a policy requirement) became clear; in addition flexible classrooms facilitating a broader range of simultaneous educational activities in one hall was highlighted.The PAS method pushes beyond the direct evaluation of alternatives (Barzilai, 2016), or the theoretical evaluation of preference based design approach (Binnenkamp, 2010) to systematically facilitating the compilation of an evaluation framework as a decision approach (Arkesteijn, 2015). It is recommended that future work focus on identification of the optimum design alternative based on these preferences. The positive evaluation of the PAS method confirm that the PAS can be used to develop an evaluation framework to enhance portfolio alignment.