A day in the life of a Postgraduate Course Director
24 February 2025 – Dr Tim Forman, Course Director of the Master’s and Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment (SLBE) shares a day in his life at the last SLBE workshop of 2024.
During SLBE residential workshops, students engage in lectures, practical exercises, and discussions, and meet with supervisors and study groups. They also experience the richness of Cambridge and the University. These workshops are busy, exhilarating, and as a Course Director, they are highlights of the year. This blog offers a glimpse of our recent workshop, which focused on sustainability, leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration in commercial buildings and work environments.
On the third day of the December workshop, themed ‘innovation and technology’, nearly 70 students from our Master’s and Postgraduate Certificate cohorts attended. The day began with breakfast at Wolfson and Selwyn College, where students stay during our workshops, followed by a walk to the Department of Engineering for morning lectures. I walked with students across the marshy land of the Cambridge Fens and over the River Cam to the Department, passing cows and moored punting boats in the morning fog.
After this lovely start to the day, we started our busy schedule. We began by discussing the content we had already covered, before I introduced what to expect on the third day of the workshop. Our first lecture was delivered by Dr. Shaun Fitzgerald OBE, a senior member of the Department of Engineering, whose expertise and passion for passive and mixed-mode ventilation are second to none. Despite the early start, students were riveted as Shaun introduced theory and practical examples that challenge conventional approaches to designing and operating buildings.
Next, Dr. Kwadwo Oti-Sarpong presented his research on government policy and the emerging transformation of the built environment sector, with examples from the UK and Hong Kong. As this session concluded, we took a break, and the room and foyer buzzed with conversation as students digested the morning’s topics over coffee and tea.
I then met Ann-Marie Fallon, a brilliant architect with the innovative firm Architype, who delivered our next lecture. She examined unintended consequences encountered and insights gained in a project targeting exemplary energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and ambitious targets for material circularity and nature-related concerns.
After the lecture, as students surrounded Ann-Marie in discussion, I headed to lunch with a student whose research dissertation I am supervising. We discussed her work and plans for publishing the research in an academic journal; this will be her first experience publishing an article, and we are both excited to see her research reach global audiences in academia and industry.
As students returned from lunch at nearby cafes and restaurants, we resumed workshop activities. Eszter Gulacsy, a senior member of Mott MacDonald and a chemist and scientist by background, gave a talk on opportunities to advance material circularity, design out waste in construction, extend the life cycles of building elements, and foster the regeneration of nature in engineering and construction projects.
In the afternoon, we shifted from theory to practice as students continued with the week’s practical project, in which they developed options analyses for improving the sustainability of three buildings in the University’s estate. As I introduced the next phase of the project, students assembled in their assigned groups, probing the brief while consulting with members of the Estates division, who supported the project, and meeting guest critic Robin Nicholson, a senior architect and chair of the Cambridgeshire Design Quality Panel, who provided critical feedback on the students’ work.
Meanwhile, students met with Oliver Broadbent, a champion of improving industry collaboration and regenerative and sustainable design, who works with our students throughout their studies. Oliver led students through discussion and activity-based learning sessions focused on developing their skills and competencies for professional collaboration.
We broke for dinner, and students departed for nearby restaurants or their college dining halls - forging relationships and network connections that will endure long after they complete the course. Several students joined me and the course staff for a meal, where we discussed the topics of the day and caught up on their work and lives since we last met.
After dinner, we made our way to CISL’s offices in the Entopia Building, which was recently refurbished and retrofitted in an exemplary sustainability project, resulting in world-leading sustainability credentials. Students spent the evening session with three members of the team that delivered this remarkable project: Wendy Bishop (architect), Gwilym Still (MEP engineer), and IDBE student Nicola Forest (sustainability consultant). After a talk by Wendy, the team members led tours of the building, and students had the chance to ask questions about the innovative project and the interdisciplinary collaboration that led to its success.
As the evening drew to a close, I spent time preparing for my lecture and the students’ meetings with course supervisors the following day. Some students left to socialize, others returned to their college bar or headed to bed, and I am sure all reflected on another day engaged in the incredible environment offered by Cambridge.
