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Sher W D (2012) Tertiary construction management education: the lived experience of academic staff in Australia, Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Newcastle, Australia.
- Type: Thesis
- Keywords: construction management; lived experience; tertiary education
- ISBN/ISSN:
- URL: https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/%20/manager/Repository/uon:12133
- Abstract:
This study aims to develop a rich understanding of the factors that impact on construction management academics’ day-to-day and longer-term activities. Construction management academics share the same context as other university academics but are subject to several additional challenges that may be considered peculiar to their discipline. These have a profound impact on their working lives. Construction management is a relatively young discipline and this gives rise to a range of expectations and demands for those who teach into it. Respect and recognition in academic circles is predicated on research credibility, but construction management is yet to receive the research kudos of other disciplines such as engineering and architecture, to which it is frequently compared. Having academics with relevant and current industry experience is highly valued by the accrediting professional institutes but this frequently means that these academics do not possess research higher degrees, and have had little success in securing competitive research grants. In addition, the demographics of the students that construction management academics teach is markedly different to the mainstream student population in Australia. These challenges are set in the context of the numerous changes that the construction industry and the academic world have recently experienced. Many of the technologies that industry and academics currently employ did not exist a decade ago. In addition, changes in the behavioural patterns and expectations of students are markedly different to those of their teachers. Furthermore, no studies of the construction management academic workforce in Australia were found. These and other stimuli provided the motivation for this study. It explores the challenges and changes facing modern day construction management academics and how these impact on their working lives. To set the study in context, the current state of the Australian economy and construction industry are reviewed. Despite a recent slowdown in economic growth and construction activity, the sector continues to be beset by a marked shortage of construction professionals. This shortage has fuelled the marked and continued growth in the number of students enrolling in construction management undergraduate degrees. This has seen the expansion of construction management disciplines in the universities that offer these degrees. Accommodating this growth is one of the challenges currently facing the discipline. The structure of tertiary construction education in Australia is then explored and the ways students can access university is highlighted. The origins of construction management higher education and the ways in which teaching and research quality is audited are then reviewed. Also examined are the multiple professional institutes which construction management programs in Australia seek accreditation from and the challenges that academics face in accommodating their requirements. The demographics of construction management academics and of the students they teach are also explored. These reviews identified a number of key issues and questions which coalesced into the following objectives: i) to identify the changes and challenges impacting on tertiary construction management education ; ii) to identify interrelationships between these changes and challenges ; iii) to explore the implications of these changes and challenges ; iv) to postulate how these changes and challenges affect the current and future lived-experiences of construction management academics. A qualitatively-dominant mixed methods approach was designed to research these objectives. Quantitative data were obtained from universities’ websites as well as from an online survey that all construction management academics in Australia were invited to complete. Qualitative data were collected from interviews and focus groups and were supplemented with responses to the open-ended questions asked in the online survey. The qualitatively-dominant mixed methods approach used in this study revealed the multiple ways in which construction management academics’ lives were impacted upon. These centred around the increasingly large cohorts of students they were teaching, the modest nature of funding that supported their efforts, the changed demographics of their students, and the generation gap between the students and themselves. In addition, the institutes that accredit these disciplines require academics to have relevant and current industry experience, whilst the universities that employ them require their academics to be in possession of research higher degrees. These changes and challenges generate tensions and pressures which are described and discussed in terms of the following domains: i) the expectations the construction industry has of undergraduate construction management education ; ii) the curricula construction management academics teach ; iii) the approaches construction management academics use to teach and assess their students ; iv) the student body that construction management cohorts are comprised of ; v) the management and support of construction academics. Finally, recommendations drawn from the findings conclude the thesis.