Investment appraisal in educational buildings

Last October, a two‐day conference on the application of investment appraisal techniques in educational buildings was held in Paris, organised by the Programme for Educational Buildings division of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). Public and private sector professionals of different nationalities contributed examples of investment appraisal methods which had been applied to educational projects in their particular country. What the event highlighted was the growing recognition of the need to control unit costs in educational buildings — in the context of declining pupil numbers and increasingly limited resources — and the lack of coherent economic appraisal policy.