PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT (CEM) DEGREE PROGRAM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: CASE OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Construction is one of the most essential industries in Pakistan and a critical asset in helping the country succeed in a globally competitive market. Construction industry performance to a large extent is backed by the competence and skills generated by Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) programs offered by Pakistani universities. Construction management education programs and the industry are both connected to the lifeline of industry’s survival and development. The industry requires the construction management programs to not only provide an adequate number of graduates, but also properly train its future leaders in the skillset required in order to quickly become productive workers. Therefore it is inevitable that the construction management programs must be constantly revamped and enhanced to address the education needs of the industry. The value of well-defined and structured courses as well as industry experiences and feedback must be inclusive to the programs. These programs need the industry to provide support and input to improve the future construction manager’s education and experience level before entry into the workforce. This research focused on finding ways for the improvement of the construction industry based on the evaluation of existing practices, curricula and teaching/delivery methodology. It identifies the critical skillset needed for construction managers as perceived by the industry and further examines the relative differences in importance of the skills as perceived by the industry in contrast to academia. The findings are based on the data from two major universities offering postgraduate level CEM education: NEDUET, Karachi and NUST, Islamabad. Most of the respondents (61%), who entered into these programs to improve their technical skills and enhance their project management competencies, agreed that the program is well designed with good number of compulsory and optional courses. While evaluating the teaching methodology, approximately 81% respondents agreed that more than 60% major course content was satisfactorily delivered by well versed and competent course instructors. This study would be instrumental in providing recommendations to update/overhaul CEM curricula and mode of deliverance in order to bridge the gap between academia and industry as well as to enhance the existing program’s effectiveness with respect to construction industry advancements.