Total interpretive structural modelling of graduate employability skills for the built environment sector

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MDPI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10120369Contemporary practices and future projections in the Built Environment (BE) sector highlight an increasing demand on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to produce graduates possessing relevant skills aligned to meet workplace demands. This study aims to analyse the key skills influencing BE graduate employability in the United Kingdom (UK) for the benefit of HEIs. This investigation leverages on a critical review of extant literature and an elicitation of the perceptions of targeted macro, meso, and micro level key stakeholders in the BE sector to identify key employability skills. The Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) technique was used to analyse the contextual interrelationships among the identified skills to develop a hierarchical model that provides HEI with insight for BE curriculum development. Six key employability skillsets hierarchically modelled into four levels were identified as crucial for potential graduates to successfully attract and adapt to contemporary practices in the Built Environment sector. Findings reveal communication and team-working skills as critical, independent skills driving the successful development of the remaining four skillsets. This research extends the literature on employability skills by investigating the interactions of various skills that predominantly predicts graduate employability in the Built Environment sector. The resulting TISM skills model provides hierarchical and logical interdependencies beneficial to assist HEIs to strategically design BE curricular to enhance graduate employability.Published versio

Infrastructure Elements for Smart Campuses: A Bibliometric Analysis

Sustainable development can be attained at a microlevel and having smart campuses around the world presents an opportunity to achieve city-wide smartness. In the process of attaining smartness on campuses, the elements requiring attention must be investigated. There are many publications on smart campuses, and this investigation used the bibliometric analysis method to identify such publications produced over the last decade. A matrix of 578 nodes and 3217 edges was developed from 285 publications on smart campus construction and procurement. Fifteen cluster themes were produced from the bibliometric analysis. The findings revealed that China contributed 48.4% of all published articles on the smart campus. The findings presented a framework from the cluster themes under the four broad infrastructure areas of building construction or repurposing, technology and IT network, continuous improvement, and smart learning and teaching management. The implications of the findings identified that IT project management, traditional procurement strategy, and standard forms of contracts such as the New Engineering Contract (NEC) and the Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) are applicable in the procurement of smart cities

Facilitating Successful Smart Campus Transitions: A Systems Thinking-SWOT Analysis Approach

An identification of strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) factors remains imperative for enabling a successful Smart Campus transition. The absence of a structured approach for analyzing the relationships between these SWOT factors and the influence thereof on Smart Campus transitions negate effective implementation. This study leverages a systems thinking approach to bridge this gap. Data were collected through a stakeholder workshop within a University of Technology case study and analyzed using qualitative content analysis (QCA). This resulted in the establishment of SWOT factors affecting Smart Campus transitions. Systems thinking was utilized to analyze the relationships between these SWOT factors resulting in a causal loop diagram (CLD) highlighting extant interrelationships. A panel of experts drawn from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and South Africa validated the relationships between the SWOT factors as elucidated in the CLD. Subsequently, a Smart Campus transition framework predicated on the CLD archetypes was developed. The framework provided a holistic approach to understanding the interrelationships between various SWOT factors influencing Smart Campus transitions. This framework remains a valuable tool for facilitating optimal strategic planning and management approaches by policy makers, academics, and implementers within the global Higher Education Institution (HEI) landscape for managing successful Smart Campus transition at the South African University of Technology (SAUoT) and beyond

A Systems Thinking Model for Transitioning Smart Campuses to Cities

The contribution of smart campuses to smart cities’ development and vice versa has been elucidated in extant literature. The micro-transfer of smart technologies and probable procurement and contracting models remain critical for such contributions to take place. This study used a systems thinking approach to establish the interrelationships existing between smart campus technologies which can be scaled towards the development of smart cities and assess the critical failure factors negating the micro-transfer of these technologies to smart city development initiatives in developing countries. To achieve its objective, the study adopted a phenomenological research design wherein qualitative data was elicited from a purposively selected sample of seven interviewees in South African Universities. The next phase of the analysis involved a thematic approach for the production of a causal loop diagram (CLD) reflecting the interrelationships between the abovementioned facets and the associated impact on the transference of knowledge and technologies from smart campuses to smart cities. This CLD was subsequently validated by a cohort of five experts. Findings from the validation phase were incorporated in an improved CLD which provided different archetypes for engendering successful transference. This study holds salient implications for universities, cities and other stakeholders seeking to engage in a quadruple helix innovative arrangement for smart campus/city development. This study concluded that smart campuses could act as living labs for future smartness of cities globally. Government funding and willingness to produce smart cities from campuses is a fundamental feature of creating smart infrastructure in cities

Adopting sustainability competence-based education in academic disciplines: Insights from 13 higher education institutions

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been incorporating sustainability into education and curricula, where recent research has focussed on sustainability competences, pedagogical approaches, and how to connect them, generally on a single HEI. The process of integrating sustainability into education based on curricula assessment has been explained using adoption of innovations; and has the potential to explain the process of developing competences through pedagogical approaches. The aim of this paper is to investigate this process at academic discipline level. An online survey was developed to investigate teaching sustainability competences in 13 HEIs, from which 678 responses from educators were obtained. The competences and pedagogical approaches from the responses were ranked, and then the connections between the competences and pedagogical approaches per discipline were analysed using a correlations-based framework, from which three disciplines groups were created. The groups were categorised using diffusion of innovations theory, which indicated that some disciplines are more innovative than others in adopting sustainability competence-based teaching. The results are used to propose two frameworks to better understand the adoption of sustainability competence-based teaching: (a) the D-RAPID framework; and (b) the Disciplinary Multi-dimensional Sustainability Influence Change for Academia (D-MuSICA) memework. The adoption of sustainability competence-base education must expand from a single HEI perspective to a disciplinary collaborative one spanning many HEIs, where academic disciplines should learn from each other''s insights and mistakes and provide students with more transdisciplinary skillsets to make societies more sustainable. © 2021 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

A Critical Success Factor Framework for Implementing Sustainable Innovative and Affordable Housing: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

The actualization of affordable housing remains a challenge. This challenge is exacerbated by the increasing societal demand for the incorporation of sustainability principles into such housing types to improve levels of occupant health and well-being whilst avouching the desired levels of affordability. Innovative technologies and practices have been described as beneficial to the effectuation of sustainable affordable housing. However, knowledge concerning the deployment of innovative technologies and practices in sustainable affordable housing (sustainable, innovative, affordable housing—SIAH) delivery remains nascent. Consequently, there is a lack of a common ontology among stakeholders concerning how to realize SIAH. This study aims to contribute toward the development of this body of knowledge through the establishment of the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective SIAH implementation. To achieve this objective, a systematic review and bibliometric analysis focusing on a juxtaposition of sustainable, innovative and affordable housing concepts was carried out based on the relevant literature. This led to the identification and clustering of CSFs for these housing concepts at individual levels and as a collective (SIAH). The findings of the study consisted of the establishment of four distinct yet interrelated facets through which SIAH can be achieved holistically, namely, housing design, house element, housing production method and housing technology. A total of 127 CSFs were found to be aligned to these facets, subsequently clustered, and conclusively used for the development of a SIAH CSF framework. The most frequently occurring CSFs with predominant interconnections were the utilization of energy-efficient systems/fittings, tenure security, a comfortable and healthy indoor environment, affordable housing price in relation to income and using water-efficient systems/fittings CSFs, and establishing the emergent SIAH CSF framework. The framework in this study is useful in the documentation of SIAH features for construction projects and further studies into SIAH CSFs

The role of planning, design and social factors in the community acceptance of public transportation infrastructure

Transportation infrastructure is critical to the socio-economic development of any region. Consequently, it commands the attention of both the private and public sectors. However, the provision of public transportation infrastructure like roads, bus terminals, and railways faces the serious challenge of non-acceptance by communities based on certain factors. This, in turn, affects the growth and development of such communities, be they rural or urban. Evidence from the literature suggests that social factors such as the location of the infrastructure project, the community’s trust or distrust of the project executioners, information dissemination about the project, integrity of the proposed project developer, as well as design factors like turning radius at junctions of roads, and traffic capacity are the major causes of community resistance to these infrastructure projects. Little scholarly attention, nevertheless, has been paid to the relationship that exists between these factors and the perception of projects by their host communities. This paper seeks to identify planning factors that influence community perceptions of infrastructure projects and examines the relationship between these factors and the perceptions of community members. The study was conducted using a survey research method that includes physical survey of road geometry, various elements of road transport infrastructure, and traffic survey, as well as a perception survey conducted among stakeholders and users of the road infrastructure. Public road infrastructure such as bus stations and taxi ranks located in the Central Business District of Bloemfontein, South Africa formed this study’s context for data collection. The quantitative data were analysed using relevant statistical methods and empirical models. Findings show that infrastructure location without threat to human health, increased job opportunities, reduced passenger waiting time, and reduced vehicle waiting time engender positive community perception towards public transportation infrastructure projects. It is believed that this study will enhance community engagement for improved and acceptable public transportation infrastructure in South Africa.Papers presented virtually at the 39th International Southern African Transport Conference on 05 -07 July 202

Synergising Continuous Improvement with Circular Economy for Advancing Innovation in the Construction Sector: A Text Mining Approach

Integrating continuous improvement and circular economy principles can promote sustainable construction practices (SCPs) and deliver long-term environmental, social and economic benefits. This study demonstrated how text mining could be applied to explicate the linkage between continuous improvement and circular economy principles in enhancing sustainable construction practices. The research applied unsupervised machine learning using text mining analyses through collocations to identify thematic areas where the integration of continuous improvement and circular economy principles would foster sustainable construction. Eighty-nine (89) peer-reviewed publications were extracted from the Scopus database for text mining analysis. The findings from text mining presented seven cogent themes through which continuous improvement and circular economy can be integrated. The optimal integration of the linkages advocated in this research can facilitate improved SCPs such as design for disassembly, modular construction, adaptive reuse, eco-friendly materials, innovative technologies, industrial symbiosis, life cycle assessment, cradle-to-cradle design, and lean construction practices. This investigation elucidated the utility of machine learning text mining in thematising and advancing sustainable construction research

Critical success factors for cost management in public-housing projects

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Emerald in Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management on 25/01/2021, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-10-2020-0166 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Purpose Effective cost performance is a crucial criterion measuring successful project management in Public-housing projects. This paper analyses the vital underlying factors surrounding the successful Cost Management Process (CMP) outcomes in Public Housing Projects (PHPs). Design/methodology The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage consisted of a detailed literature review to document Success factors affecting Cost performances and management. In stage two, Brainstorming sessions were undertaken with construction experts knowledgeable in cost management practices and have been involved in PHPs. These sessions were used to refine those Success factors for the PHPs settings and define their criticality with respect to the CMP stages using Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP). In Stage three, focus group sessions were performed to validate the interrelationships of the contextualised Success factors. Findings The top three most critical factors for successful implementation and outcomes at all CMP stages in PHPs settings were found to relate to competencies, team qualities and collaborative practices of Project Team (PT). Early contractor involvement and effective construction planning and management also emerged relevant to the process. Practical implications Government project departments, project managers and construction organisations (consultants and contractors) need to commit and mandate continuous development of cost management competencies for all professionals engaged in PHPs. Channels supporting Team integration and collaborative practices between design and construction teams are required to increase the likelihood of successful project cost management practice and outcomes in PHPs. Originality/value The research has developed a Factor-Process relationship model that can be used to improve and evaluate the efficacy of CMP implementation in PHP settings