David Brand recognised as ASRA Honorary Member!

David was confirmed as an Honorary Member at the Scotland Regional meeting on Friday 15 November.





David joined the Residences team at University of Dundee in 1983, moving from hotel management in Fort William. David’s early University career involved developing and managing the University Direct Lease Scheme which formed a significant part of the accommodation portfolio. Alongside accommodation matters, David was also involved with conference and catering aspects, from SAGA holidays, dinners of all sizes and grandeur, graduation garden parties and conferences including the joint AUAO and AAWO (pre-runners to ASRA) Conference in 1995.

David has always been an active member of the student networking association in its various guises and continues to enjoy being part of the reformed association ASRA, while colleagues from near and far have benefitted from David’s experience, wit and wisdom.

David has seen student accommodation develop from a room within a shared home (reliant on landladies to provide welfare support), shared facilities in traditional halls, Direct Lease schemes, to the restructure of the University residences. The planning and building of new purpose built student residences and the formation of a partnership with Sanctuary Housing culminating in the multi-million all-ensuite developments we operate today.

 Since 2004, David has been an Operations Manager with Sanctuary Students, successfully overseeing the delivery of services to the c1,600 bed spaces mentioned above, in association with the University of Dundee.  In addition he managed the conference and hospitality business within West Park Conference Centre in Dundee for a number of years, providing first class conferences, meetings, weddings and events.

David has taken on many different critical projects over the years within Sanctuary which have hugely benefited the business and has also been the key business manager for a number of large service contracts.  He has been involved in a number of different groups within Sanctuary including Equality and Diversity, Health and Safety, Staff Council etc.

 David has attended the majority of ASRA Conferences as far back as the late 90s and has been a regular attendee at regional meetings; since the early 80s!.  Who can forget his University Accommodation Challenge at Aviemore! David is well known across ASRA due to his long term commitment and involvement in the Association. One of the success stories for ASRA’s Scottish Region saw David successfully negotiating with Scottish Parliament and securing exemption from providing paper Tenant Information Packs for PBSA; it was agreed that an electronic copies could be provided.  He was also heavily involved in reviewing water charges across the sector in Scotland

 Commenting on his involvement with the organisation  "I have really appreciated my time in ASRA from my first regional meeting in the 80’s to the meeting last week, I have never come away from an event without noting something that is of use and of real value all of which has been a significant advantage in my work over the years.  ASRA has also provided  a source of invaluable support from knowing the others in Scotland and elsewhere getting their advice on a huge range of issues,  freely given. ASRA seems to go from strength to strength and I wish you all success for the future"

David will be retiring in January 2020, and from all of us here at ASRA, we wish him all the best!