Construction Management (Top-Up) BSc (Hons)

Year one, core modules

• Site and Engineering Surveying

  Discover both traditional and contemporary advanced survey techniques and capture, manipulate and utilise field data for both horizontal control and detail acquisition. You will also gain hands on experience using total stations, for data capture and for setting out. You will also gain an understanding of how remote surveying by extra-terrestrial systems has evolved and of how a variety of control systems relate to the Ordnance Survey National Grid. Finally, you will learn how to process survey data to produce and your final survey drawings using AutoCAD and present them in a style appropriate to industry.
• Introduction to Law

• Project Administration

  Learn how to manage and administer a building contract from a legal and economic standpoint. You will learn how contracts are constructed, interpret their contents and manage the more routine legal and financial aspects through the completion of a contract and its final account. Learn through problem solving and case study activity that simulates a live project and the likely circumstances that arise. We ensure what you learn has direct application to practice and will give you valuable employability skills.

• Practice-Based Learning

  You’ll analyse and evaluate your workplace, focusing on organisational structures, culture, roles and responsibilities. You’ll cover human relationships in the workplace, team relationships and problem evaluations and suggests possible reasons for situations arising. You’ll use the academic skills you gain here to enhance your learning, which will take place during work with your employer. You’ll also examine the links between academic theory and practical reality and carry out an individual SWOT analysis, which focuses on your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, as well as a 'future self-development plan'.

• Project Evaluation and Development

  The module provides the student with the opportunity to explore the various issues that need to be evaluated when considering a building development from inception until final completion and retention and/or disposal of the building. The context and content of this module integrates knowledge and skills obtained from previous management and design modules. It examines them in a holistic manner and explores their complex inter-relationships. Issues related to the client, the site, planning, financial appraisal, design technology, legal, health and safety and environment will all be examined within a theoretical and practical framework. The module develops the student's ability to comprehend the totality and implications of the development process and to make reasoned value judgements as to its potential feasibility. This is achieved by a detailed examination of local planning policies for the site coupled with a financial analysis of the proposed scheme by use of traditional and modern forms of valuation techniques. The module also focuses on project appraisal, pre construction processes, construction and post construction processes, marketing disposal and evaluation. The module is project based with studio teaching which is undertaken by various strategies such as formal group lectures, group seminars and individual tutorials. Site visits are arranged where appropriate to underpin student knowledge and understanding of practical issues. Joint staff and student criticisms and presentations occur throughout the delivery. Employability skills Students will assess a site for future development opportunities in a manner that satisfies a potential client's need in terms of financial reward, design, procurement, management and cost in use or final disposal of the completed project. Students will improve their communication skills both in terms of report writing and oral presentations to their peers and tutors. Analytical skills will be developed through employment of financial appraisal and risk management strategies.

• Dissertation/Major Design Project

  This module recognises Architectural Technology, the technology of architecture, as an essential function routed in design and a major influence on the project process, building performance and building construction. Its primary aim is to develop Architectural Technology students as future design professionals responsible for ensuring that design solutions result in buildings and structures that are constructed economically and perform efficiently and effectively within the context of user needs and environmental, regulatory and budgetary requirements taking account of the fundamental link between design and the technological, environmental, cultural, economic and social parameters. An elemental approach to architectural technological design will be examined in an integrated way within the context of a student led Major Design Project & Strategic Reports. The module develops knowledge base and practical skills, acquired in previous module learning, to evaluate client requirements, architectural design & synthesise technological solutions for medium complexity buildings. It explores the theory and practice of appraising, selecting and justifying the design and production of buildings and their constituent components.

• Project Management

  Develop your knowledge of basic management theories, and demonstrate your relevance and application in the planning, organisation and control of construction projects. You will research appropriate theories, skills and competencies related to the life cycle of a project from the client's conceptual vision, through the project identification and definition stages, applying appropriate project implementation, execution and control processes to effect successful closure of a project. You will also research and develop operational techniques used in the planning, scheduling and control of projects. You will consider the holistic integrated nature of the project management role on a construction project develop the specialist techniques which question the usual functional and organisational boundaries. This will help you appreciate the strategic relevance of project management, and the unique features of project management which distinguish it from other forms of management.

• The Construction Business

  Gain the skills to manage a building organisation in a highly volatile economic environment. You’ll use a computer simulation package to run a construction business in teams and develop an understanding of how building organisations are managed financially in line with a set of broad business objectives. You’ll acquire analytical skills to measure company performance from a number of standpoints, and then critically comment on the way a company has performed with reference objectives and economic climate. This will give you confidence in critical awareness of organisations and function, including threats, opportunities and constraints. Focusing on financial management, you’ll gain an understanding of how financial data is converted into usable information, identifying historical performance which can be interpreted as part of a manager's decision making process. You’ll explore the role of the management accountant and contrast with that of the financial accountant and examine how pro-active financial management can be practiced rather than merely reacting to the whims of the marketplace.