Market Demands on Construction Management: View from Graduate Students
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
The construction industry demands managerial skills for professionals working within it, especially from those having an undergraduate civil engineering degree, which is generally pursued through graduate programs [master of science (M.Sc.) degrees] in the construction management field. This paper checks how graduate students’ views are relevant in order to assess and improve these M.Sc. programs. The research is performed through a survey based on a sample of 534 graduate students from several American and European universities. Using confirmatory factor analysis with the survey data, it has been corroborated that the construction management field can be mapped according to two dimensions: infrastructure lifecycle and organizational breakdown. Furthermore, by means of an exploratory factor analysis, six components or approaches for a graduate program in the construction management field are highlighted as important by the respondents: leadership, built environment stakeholders, innovation and quality, economics, business management, and project management. The organizational point of view is clearly identified by the students: its four variables are highlighted as principal components. However, regarding the infrastructure lifecycle, certain important facets, such as feasibility analysis and operation and maintenance of infrastructure, are considered by graduate students less important than classical design and construction. The findings of this research can help improve the curricula of graduate programs in the construction management field.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Professors Luis F. Alarcón, Salvador García, David Eaton, Pawel Nowak, Gloria I. Carvajal, Sheyla M. B. Serra, Carlos T. Formoso, M. Dolores Martinez-Aires, and José C. Teixeira for their collaboration throughout this study. The authors also thank all the participants in the study. The questionnaire survey was possible due to partial support from the following agencies and projects: CYTED (Project GESST-IC, Network 309RT0375), European Commission (Life Long Learning Program, Project MBAIC, Grant No. 2013-1-PL1-LEO05-37822), and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project BRIDLIFE, Grant No. BIA2014-56574-R).
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Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 143 • Issue 4 • October 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 28, 2016
Accepted: Jan 24, 2017
Published online: Apr 10, 2017
Discussion open until: Sep 10, 2017
Published in print: Oct 1, 2017
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