Construction Project Management with BIM MSc
16 Months Full-Time | January Start

Academic skills when studying away from your home institution can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject area in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’.
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

Training in research methods provides researchers with an understanding of the “do’s” and “don'ts” that are associated with employing particular approaches to the collection and analysis of data. Awareness of research methodologies and methods will enable researchers to practise appropriate techniques and to implement methods accurately. The primary aim of the module is to inform and sensitise you to the choices that are available when planning to undertake a research project. This includes making you aware of a selected range of qualitative and quantitative research methods that can be employed to collect and analyse primary and secondary data arising from studies using these methodological paradigms. Such awareness will enable you to make appropriate choices when executing your research investigation. Of equal importance, the module will also introduce you to a range of academic skills that will support you during your programme of study in addition to the execution of your research project.

You will learn about the management, theory, and practice of Building Information Modelling (BIM), its scope and role within the construction sector and its application on construction engineering projects and their products. There is a strong emphasis on the development of BIM, the impediments of its application in practice, and the advantages gained from its use. Themes that may be covered include context and challenges of information management within construction industry business models, the origins of BIM in computer-aided design, significance of parametric modelling and interoperability, barriers to, and benefits of, BIM adoption across the range of donstruction industry sectors and actors, and reflections upon lessons learned from industry case studies.

This module will enable you to explore the concept of procurement and supply chain management in the context of construction projects by considering the tools and frameworks available for effective partnerships to develop synergies across the supply chain to influence project value. You will identify and analyse key contractual issues and assess the impact of and need for contracts across the construction project supply chain. The themes you may study include the economic and social background to inter-organisational relations; stakeholder management, including ethics, quality management, organisational culture, working relationships and collaborative working, the function of contracts in the context of managing construction projects across the whole supply chain, contractual and commercial relations between the all parties within the supply chain including risk; time, quality and cost management, and contractual issues, including performance; extensions of time, damages; negligence, termination, breach of contract and defects liability.

Group dynamics are the influential actions, processes and changes that occur within and between groups of people. Groups come in all shapes and sizes, and their functions are many and varied. To understand groups and their dynamics, you must understand how people interact and function while working together in formalised organisational contexts. The module aims to unite and contextualise selected key theories associated with team dynamics from psychology and the social sciences with selected key theories associated with groups, teams and management processes from management and organisation sciences. The overarching aim is to equip and empower you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to create, participate in and lead real and virtual project-orientated teams.

You will learn and develop professional skills appropriate for project management professionals operating within the context of architectural engineering and construction (AEC) projects which are building information modelling (BIM) enabled. In this module there is a strong emphasis on management of the design process to formulate project solutions. Themes that may be covered include management of the design process and the roles and responsibilities of actors involved in such project phases, further exploration of the background context of BIM, including a focus on its development and key issues such as parametric modelling, interoperability and information exchange processes, how to address the interaction and interface challenges faced by project teams and groups, and issues that affect collaborative project working including people, process, technologies and trust.

You will learn new ways of managing projects within the construction engineering sector so that you can formulate strategies for innovative, effective and efficient project delivery. The topics that will be studied include lean construction, total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement, design, construct links - visualising the design process, (ADePT), value – client and end-user satisfaction, target value design (TVD), planning theory and practice, integrated project delivery (IPD), and relational contracting and collaboration.

The module will build upon the concepts and theories presented to you during the research methods module. It will require you to develop, consolidate, and apply your independent research, academic study, and research project management skills to the investigation of a topic of your own choice (or a topic that has been pre-approved and recommended by a member of academic staff) that is relevant to your programme of study. You will undertake analytical and evaluative research that will result in the production of a dissertation.