Dr Joseph Ofori-Kuragu

Courses taught:

• Construction Project Management (Postgraduate)
• Construction and Civil Engineering Management (Postgraduate)

Dr Joseph Kwame Ofori-Kuragu is a Senior Lecturer at ARU, where he teaches a range of construction project management courses. He is also Course Leader MSc Construction Project Management, and MSc Construction and Civil Engineering Management. Joseph is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

[email protected]

View Joseph's ResearchGate profile

View Joseph's Google Scholar profile

Background

Joseph joined ARU in June 2021 from Solent University, Southampton. Before joining Solent University, he taught at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and also in China.

Increasingly, Joseph's research has focused on making real impacts in society by working with industry partners to address the felt needs of the community. His work covers a range of topics such as promoting excellence in the construction industry, promoting innovation and technology in the construction industry, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and sustainable construction. He is open to opportunities to collaborate with industry partners interested in any of these themes.

Research interests

Joseph's research focuses on transforming the construction industry into a modern industry through improvements in performance in the industry and the promotion of excellence. This includes a focus on exploiting and maximising new and emerging technologies to optimise productivity. Specific areas of interest include:

• construction productivity
• industry development and improvement
• modern methods of construction (MMC)
• construction innovation
• public private partnerships (PPPs)
• equality, diversity and inclusion.

Areas of research supervision

Joseph welcomes the opportunity to supervise research which focuses on, among other things, the new and emerging technologies transforming construction and optimizing productivity. Specific areas of interest include construction productivity, industry development and improvement, modern methods of construction (MMC), innovation and innovation adoption, public private partnerships (PPPs), and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Teaching

Courses

• MSc Construction Project Management Programme
• MSc Construction and Civil Engineering Management
• BSc Quantity Surveying Courses

Modules

• Risk and Value Management
• Procurement and Supply Chain Management
• Project Management

Qualifications

• PhD Construction Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
• MSc Construction Project Management, Loughborough University
• BSc Building Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Memberships, editorial boards

• Chartered Member, Chartered Institute of Building
• Fellow, Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Reviewer positions

• Benchmarking – an international journal (Emerald)
• International Journal of Construction Management (Taylor Francis)
• Journal of Construction in Developing Countries

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Joseph's approach to research has been to collaborate with industry professionals and practitioners to enhance the uptake and utilisation of research outputs.

In 2018, the Ghana Chamber of Construction was established. The establishment of the Chamber, the leading industry body of professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry was a recommendation made in the published book – Transforming Construction in Ghana – and Action Agenda for which Joseph was the lead author. The Chamber was developed based on 'The Case for a Construction Industry Council in Ghana', published in the Journal for Construction in Developing Countries.

Before the establishment of the Chamber of Construction in Ghana, Joseph was contracted in 2016 as a Consultant to the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana to provide consultancy service for the establishment of a National Infrastructure Plan for Ghana.

Going forward, he is looking for opportunities to collaborate with construction firms seeking to either adopt or increase their use of modern methods of construction; develop or enhance their equality, diversity and inclusion practices; or improve their performance to world-class standards.

Selected recent publications

Ofori-Kuragu, JK; Tree, M; Humprey, S (2023) Hindrances to the uptake of offsite construction. Proceedings of The Thirteenth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-13). Arnhem, The Netherlands| May 8 – 11, 2023.

Ofori-Kuragu, J.K.; Osei-Kyei, R.; Wanigarathna, N. Offsite Construction Methods—What We Learned from the UK Housing Sector. Infrastructures 2022, 7, 164. 

Osei-Kyei R; Narbaev, T; Adabre M; Ofori-Kuragu, J (2022) Critical Success Factors for Retirement Village Public Private Partnership Housing. Construction Innovation.

King, D; Wanigarathna, N; Jones, K; Ofori-Kuragu, JK (2022) A Delphi pilot study to assess the impact of location factors for hyperscale data centres 11th Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organisation

Ofori-Kuragu, J and Hill, R (2021) An Exploration of the Potential for Using Modular Housing Solutions to Address the UK’s Housing Shortage Paper Presented at CIB International Conference on Smart Built Environment, 2021 from 14th to 15th December 2021

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Osei-Kyei R., 2021. Mainstreaming pre-manufactured offsite processes in construction - are we nearly there? Construction Innovation Journal, 21(4).

Ofori-Kuragu J. K., 2020. Construction Industry Developments in Ghana. In: Rwelamila, P. D., Abdul-Aziz, A.-R. (Eds.), 2021. Improving the Performance of Construction Industries for Developing Countries: Programmes, Initiatives, Achievements and Challenges (1st ed.) (Abingdon: Routledge). doi: 10.1201/9780429322471

Osei Kyei, R., Chan, A. P. C., Dansoh, A., Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Owusu, E. K., 2018. Motivations for adopting Unsolicited Proposals for Public-Private Partnership Project Implementation: A survey of International Experts. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 23(2).

Osei Kyei, R., Chan, A. P. C., Danso, A., Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Oppong, G., 2018. Strategies for Effective Management of Unsolicited Public-Private Partnership Proposals. Journal of Management in Engineering, 34(3).

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Baiden, B., Badu, E., 2017. Transforming Construction in Ghana: An action agenda for enabling world-class performance in the Ghanaian construction industry (Accra: Project Excellence).

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Owusu Manu, D., Ayarkwa, J., 2016. The Case for a Construction Industry Council in Ghana. Journal for Construction in Developing Countries, 21(2), pp. 131-149.

Ottou, J. A., Baiden, B. K., Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., 2016. The Use of Six Sigma as a Performance Improvement Strategy in the Construction Industry: New Trends and Applications. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 6(1), pp. 538-546.

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Baiden, B., Badu, E., 2016. Key Performance Indicators for Project Success in Ghanaian Contractors. International Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 5(1), pp. 1-10.

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Baiden, B., Badu, E., 2016. Critical Success Factors for Improving Ghanaian Contractor Performance. Benchmarking – An International Journal, 23(4).

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Baiden, B. K., Badu, E., 2016. Performance measurement tools for Ghanaian contractors. International Journal of Construction Management, 16(1), pp. 13-26. doi: 10.1080/15623599.2015.1115245

Ankomah, E. N., Baiden, B. K., Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., 2015. Lean Techniques Approaches to Managing Ghanaian Contractor Supply Chains. International Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 4(3), pp. 87-94.

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Baiden, B., Badu, E., 2014. Factors Affecting Ghanaian Contractor Performance. In: Proceedings for the CIB W107 2014 International Conference (Lagos: International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), pp. 275-285.

Baiden, B. K., Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., 2014. Barriers to the use of burnt clay bricks for housing. Journal of Construction Engineering.

Osei-Kyei, R., Dansoh, A., Ofori-Kuragu J. K., 2014. Reasons for adopting Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for construction projects in Ghana. International Journal of Construction Management, 16(1), pp. 1-14.

Ofori-Kuragu J. K., Attafua Y. B., Lamptey L. J., 2013. Suitability of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) System for Adoption In Ghana's Water Sector. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Ghana Water Conference (Accra: Ghana Water Forum).

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Edum-Fotwe, F. T., Baiden, B., 2010. Benchmarking UK construction firms' value added and productivity performance. The Construction, Building and Real Estate Research Conference of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Dauphne Universiteit, Paris, 3-5 September 2010.

Ofori-Kuragu, J. K., Edum-Fotwe, F. T., 2009. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for enabling world-class performance by Ghanain contractors. Conference for Postgraduate Researchers of the Built Environment (PRoBE), Glasgow Caledonian University, November 2009.

Ofori-Kuragu, K., Baiden, B., 2008. Enabling world-class performance in Ghanaian contractors - a framework for benchmarking. The construction and building research conference of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Dublin Institute of Technology, September 2008.

Recent presentations and conferences

Ofori-Kuragu, JK; Tree, M; Humprey, S (2023) Hindrances to the uptake of offsite construction. Proceedings of The Thirteenth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-13) Arnhem, The Netherlands| May 8 – 11, 2023

A Study of The Cost - Quality Dichotomy in the UK Construction Industry. Presented at the CIOB Academic Conference 2023. Sam Snelling, the head of Bid management at Amber Construction Services Ltd. Co-Presenter: Dr Joseph K Ofori-Kuragu, Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and focused on Transforming the Construction Industry through modern methods of construction.

Ofori-Kuragu, J., Hill, R., 2021. An exploration of the potential of modular housing solutions to address the UK’s housing shortage. CIB International Conference on Smart Built Environment, 14-16 December.