Lectures have had to move to other areas of campus, and some student accommodation has also been affected. In August, 82 universities responded to a BBC News request for information: 58 said they had no RAAC; 15 said they were affected; and nine were checking. Among those affected, RAAC has been found in eight University of Edinburgh buildings, including teaching, laboratory and office spaces. At the University of St Andrews two Students' Association venues have been closed, with work expected to last until next summer. At the University of Sussex, work has begun to replace roof panels containing RAAC in five buildings, but all are structurally safe and no buildings are entirely closed. And at Brunel University London, three buildings have closed.

The Government’s June warning was followed a more urgent communication on 31 August. In response to the heightened concerns, AUDE issued a statement saying: “RAAC concrete has been used most often in flat-roof areas, so it is difficult to access, maintain, survey and replace. The RAAC issue affects different universities in very different ways. Our oldest and our newest universities (built after 1996) are unlikely to have RAAC for instance.

Understanding more about those university-specific plans is vital in being able to understand the scale of the issue, and also the likely costs and timescales of remedial works. “The change in priority level announced by the Government on 31 August has brought new urgency to a national situation. Universities will want to re-prioritise in the light of the Government’s action.” AUDE has asked its members for their initial estimate of the scale and complexity of the problem in their universities and will make public the results in due course.