Postgraduate education for European construction management.

This thesis examines how postgraduate level courses might best educate students for European construction management, given survey evidence presented which shows the current emergence of a real European construction market. An extensive questionnaire based survey of senior management staff of 47 European construction firms (in seven countries), in association with a broad range of interviews and the literature survey, allowed the establishment of both the operational features of the emerging Single European Market construction industry, and the abilities required for future European construction managers. Educational objectives and optimal study areas for postgraduate courses have been determined. Investigation has confirmed that postgraduate courses aimed at educating participants for careers in the transnational European construction industry need to prepare the students for both project management and business development roles, and not only the former as is often the case with current postgraduate construction management courses aimed at national construction industries. The author shows that a major contribution to the overall educational objectives would be made by having flexible course structures involving study periods in two or more countries (and languages).

The author investigates those learning processes which have the greatest potential for the education of European construction managers at postgraduate level. Firstly, the vital contribution to be made by group based and student centred learning activities is demonstrated. The research confirms that student groups which have a multinational (or multicultural) and multidisciplinary composition possess tremendous potential for learning the abilities required of a construction manager in the multicultural European construction industry environment, where a strong preference for expansion by means of international joint ventures on individual projects is shown to exist.