The Department of the Built Environment at CPUT has recently been awarded a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to develop an undergraduate course in Facility Management.

Partnering CPUT in this project are the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and the Polytechnic of Namibia.

Facility Management is a growing field of employment and is concerned with a life-cycle view of built assets. Through inputs in the design, construction and utilisation phase of a built asset, Facility Management aims to enable property owners and societies to gain maximum benefits from its built assets.

The initiative to develop such course came from within the Department of the Built Environment, with Ludwig Martin connecting with academics abroad and Head of Department, Ernest James’ previous involvement in Facilities Management.

In South Africa there are no formal training programmes at tertiary level in Facility Management and there is a demand for managers to the implementation of the Government’s National Infrastructure Management Strategy (NIMS).

The main partner for CPUT is the University of Karlsruhe , arguably one of the top three universities in Germany according to an international peer review recently undertaken.

The German partners of CPUT, the Facility Management group around Prof Lennerts, are pioneers in their country. Prof Lennerts was the first professor appointed at a German research university as chair in this field.

The Department of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic of Namibia forms part of the project and will also introduce Facility Management into its curriculum.

Together with these partners a group of CPUT lecturers around Martin will develop an undergraduate degree program in Facility Management over the next four years. The first graduates in this field are due to finish their studies in 2013.

The collaboration with the Polytechnic of Namibia as well as the University of Karlsruhe holds the promise to bring the possibility to study abroad to CPUT students. Already during this initial funding period funds are allocated for Master students to visit Germany and Namibia .

Regular meetings and workshops are part of this project, ensuring academic staff at CPUT will be equipped with the necessary knowledge to present the future courses. A series of industry symposia are envisaged, connecting academia with practice and thus ensuring appropriate and relevant content of course material developed.

The aim of the project is to grow a course equipping graduates with relevant knowledge to enter industry. This will further be ensured through external accreditation of the program.

Martin noted, “Accreditation with the International Association of Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE), but also with the South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA) are compulsory if CPUT wants to ensure high quality outputs.”

The funding by DAAD was awarded following the signing of a joint Memorandum of Understanding by the three Universities and joint application to DAAD in 2008.

The funding is governed by the DAAD development program. It is awarded for 2009 to 2012, with the total awarded amount of Euro 136 470, which amounts to approximately R 1.7 million, of which R 630 000 are allocated for CPUT.

Costs covered by the funding range from translation costs to travel subsidies for staff members and students.

By the Department of the Built Environment

Photo: (from left) Ludwig Martin of CPUT, Prof. Kunibert Lennerts of the University of Karlsruhe, Dr Carolin Bahr of the University of Karlsruhe, David Katale of the Polytechnic of Namibia.

Written by CPUT News
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To harmonise and streamline the teaching efforts of the University’s Department of the Built Environment, a new approach to the subject of Research Methodology was implemented this year.

Since January the subject has been aligned across campuses, with the same submission dates and identical assessments. The subject comprises of two components. These are formal lectures and a hands-on research project in which the theory taught in the formal lectures is applied. For the first time, the theoretical part of the subject was presented in an intensive, one-week block release which took place during the first week of lectures. These lectures were presented by visiting Professor Dr Andreas Hartmann (TU Twente - Netherlands) and Mr Ludwig Martin from the Cape Town campus.

The aim of the block release was to cover the basics of research and allow the students, now equipped with the necessary knowledge, to start tackling their individual research projects at an early stage of the year. Previously structured lectures were held throughout the first term, thus leaving less time for the students to actually experience and do their research.

Students are introduced to the terminology of research, research tools, approaches and paradigms in research, planning of research projects, as well as writing proposals and reports. In these workshops students were given assignments ranging from finding information in the library and off the internet, interpreting research designs of presented journal articles, and justifying their own approaches to given research problems.

A rotational team leader had to present the respective team’s work each day. A draft research proposal, a presentation thereof, a final research proposal, a draft research report, and a final research report with a presentation on the work done is required from students.

Supervisors are assigned to each student. Mr Rudolph Zietsman and Mr Ludwig Martin will fill this role on the Cape Town campus.

Written by CPUT News
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