Leeds Trinity University

Leeds Trinity University is a university based in Leeds offering foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to around 5,000 students.   

The university opened in 1966 as Trinity and All Saints College. In the last 57 years, they have evolved into a dynamic institution with a distinctive Catholic mission. They strive to create an inclusive environment and welcome students from all backgrounds and beliefs.   

What sets them apart is how they encourage the development of personal and ethical qualities as well as academic knowledge, providing students with a sense of social responsibility and commitment to making a positive impact in the world.  

In 2021, the university decided that it wanted to expand its footprint from its main campus which lies on the outskirts of Leeds in Horsforth, by establishing a city campus in Leeds City Centre. These growth ambitions support the mission of being a leading career-led University, positioning itself amongst the institutions, organisations and businesses in the city, whilst providing an accessible, connected city centre student experience.  

The university decided to move the Schools of Computer Science, Criminology, Investigation and Policing, Law and Business to the City Campus, and to base their new Construction and Built Environment programmes at the new campus. These subjects were deemed to suit a city centre location due to the alignment with subjects identified for growth at the heart of the local economy, and the connectivity with organisations in the city.  

The university partnered with Optimo throughout the full lifecycle of the project. Danielle supported the development of the Business Case for the city centre, as well as the development of the new academic programmes for Construction and the Built Environment. 

Following the approval of the business cases, it was agreed that Optimo would support the University with the delivery of the projects to open the City Campus and to develop the new academic programmes.  

The first thing we did was to design how the changes would be delivered, through a Programme Management Office (PMO) and a series of associated projects. This involved establishing an appropriate governance structure and delivery team, which required answering the following questions: 

• What are the impacts to the University of opening a new campus and developing new academic programmes? 

• What are the deliverables that need to be completed to ensure success?  

• What are the dependencies between the opening of the new campus, and the development of the new programmes that will be based there?  

• Who are the impacted stakeholders, and who needs to be involved in the delivery of the changes? 

Based on this, an “Academic Growth Programme” was formed made up of two projects – City Campus and Academic Programmes. Workstreams were set up that supported both projects, bringing together key University stakeholders to deliver a set of deliverables fundamental to the opening of the City Campus and the development of new programmes.  

A PMO team was formed with Optimo associates, responsible for the implementation and operation of the programme’s governance structure and support to the project delivery. The governance structure was made up of forums at workstream, project and programme levels to monitor progress, facilitate decisions and escalate issues.  We created templates for key project artefacts that would aid information flow through the structure, including status reports, risk logs, and plans. 

Over nearly three years, we supported the delivery of the programme itself whilst also supporting with various iterations of the governance structure, based on the stage of the programme and needs at the time.  

For example, a new structure was implemented to support with the operational design stage of the City Campus, forming workstreams around departments and services.  This structure facilitated the scoping of target operating models, encouraging department leads to assess the process, people, technology and information implications of delivering teaching and services at the City Campus. This formed the basis of the plan for the operational mobilisation and readiness elements of the City Campus.  

The programme structure was later refined to form delivery groups, which were cross-functional teams brought together to collaborate on detailed delivery elements in the run up to the opening of the campus.  

In addition to the provision of project management services, and the oversight of the governance structure through PMO, Optimo provided Business Analysis support to the University, which included: 

• Understanding the existing system impacts and changes required as a result of a City Campus. 

• A Mock Timetable exercise which modelled how space at the City Campus would be utilised based on teaching requirements and the impact of cross-campus operational decisions.   

Optimo also supported with the delivery of staff orientations at the new campus and provided on the ground support for staff and students at the new campus in the first couple of weeks of opening.