International Construction Management

Module Description

The construction industry has never been a straightforward one. Each project is unique and the challenges of bringing together teams of people to carry out often complex projects are sometimes daunting.

International construction management is not a new subject because construction companies have been working beyond their geographical boundaries for decades.

Nonetheless, this subject has not become any easier and the immense challenges are still tangible.

Construction managers wanting to work on such projects need to know how to analyse and manage situations where people from different parts of the world come together as a team, bringing along their sometimes conflicting linguistic, cultural, religious and educational values and principles.

Other problems include the environment where the project is being carried out: weather, logistics constraints, local culture and politics, bureaucracy.

Even within local markets, western countries are now seeing mass immigration and imported labour pools to carry out certain tasks and fill in labour gaps. Construction sites where the majority of the workers are not locals is now a common occurance.

Therefore, construction managers, even in local projects, have to face the reality of internationalisation and be able to manage such teams.

Entry Requirements

Candidates who apply for this course must possess one of the following: 

• a Level 6 degree in a related field; 

 OR  

• a Level 5 diploma or higher diploma and 5 years’ work experience in a managerial role.  

Preference is given to applicants having a Level 6 degree in a discipline related to construction, and a minimum of 3 years’ work experience in management within the industry. 

Target Audience

This course is targeted at professionals with supervisory and/or middle management experience in the construction industry who wish to have a more thorough background in the subject in order to further advance their careers , namely:  

• Architects and Civil Engineers 
• Mechanical and Electrical Building Services Engineers  
• Project Managers and Coordinators 
• Project Owners 

The target group can be extended to groups working within the construction industry, such as logistics managers, maintenance managers and facilities managers. 

Module / Unit Instructions

The proposed structure comprises a blended approach promoting the building of a community of practice via peer-to-peer learning.

The structure uses primarily two dimensions of teaching-learning modes:

1. Face-to-face sessions: 18 hours.
2. Online Learning Activities: 12 hours.

Face to Face sessions

• Face-to-face sessions include lectures, tutorials, discussions, presentations and workshop activities promoting peer-to-peer learning.

Online Learning Activities

Online learning activities incorporate tutorials and asynchronous discussions. These may consist of active interaction, participation and contributions in fora discussions, sharing resources and self-reflection exercises.

Learners also contribute to the building of the community of practice by providing feedback to their peers as critical friends, enhancing the learner’s critical engagement throughout the study period.

The tutor provides continual support during both teaching -learning modes by providing information, readings and tasks relevant to the module in question.

The tutor provides continuous formative feedback as an on-going guidance during the student’s learning experience in preparation for their summative assessment.

How you’ll be assessed

Assessment of each module consists of two assignments, each carrying a weighting as below:

a) One Formative assignment carries 20% of total module mark achieved. b) One Summative assignment carries 80% of total module mark achieved.

For successful completion of a study module the student is required to achieve a minimum of 41% pass mark in both the formative and the summative assignment.

The overall grade achieved for each module is calculated as the sum of:  20% of the mark achieved for formative assignment; and  80% of the mark achieved for the summative assignment.

All assignment tasks of both formative and summative assessment aim to provide the learner an opportunity to produce evidence of his/her competences aligned to the learning outcomes of each individual Module.

Assessment

a) Formative assessment tasks are provided in the form of structured online discussions that support learners in their development throughout all of the modules studied.

Such discussions are facilitated and monitored by lecturer who provides students with constructive feedback to help them improve and prepare for summative assignment and dissertation.

Formative assessment tasks will contribute to the student’s final mark to acknowledge their work and give chance to improve.

This method allows students to also contribute to the building of the community of practice by providing feedback to their peers as critical friends, enhancing the learner’s critical engagement throughout the study period.

b) Summative assessment is done via one assignment at the end of each module.

The mode of assessment varies and may include in-class assignments, and home-based written assignments.

The recommended assessment tools for this module are case studies. Other assessment tools which may be used are essay titles or reports. ord count range: 3000 ± 10%.

For successful completion of a study module the student is required to achieve a minimum of 41% pass mark in summative assignment.