Facilities Management: The Future of Universities - Term Paper Example

Facilities Management - The Future of Universities For effective and efficient delivery of studies in addition to maximum utilization of campus facilities and space, universities have to restructure the available facilities to meet growing needs for their services. Even as restructuring is an essential part of managing facilities, the concerned authorities must find a balance between several components such as improving and increasing academic, research and administrative facilities, promoting student-based learning and enhancing student environments, strengthening the university’s capability to promote private and public capital funding in addition to identification of areas of improvement and efficiencies in managing the physical environment and its further development. By considering these components, there will be a holistic improvement of university facilities, therefore ensuring the needs of both the students and staff is taken care of. According to Fenker (2004), facilities management is a process whose function is to ensure buildings and other technical systems support the operations of an organization while the International Facilities Management Association (2013) sees facilities management as being the integration of the existing physical workplace with the people and the functions of the organization. The International Facilities Management Association (2013) perceives facility management as incorporating various principles such as business administration, architectural designs in addition to the behavioral and engineering sciences. Consequently, in restructuring campus based teaching facilities universities should apply a range of scientific principles and methods involved during the processes of decision-making, planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling of the physical environment of learning in order to achieve educational goals and objectives (Alexander, 2013). Such a process will also take care of other areas such as collective decision making that takes care of the needs of all involved in the selection of suitable sites for establishment of campus venue, design and construction of new campus plants and grounds, revamping and modernization of old facilities, provision of necessary equipment for both academic and non-academic activities in addition to reviewing management practices and processes. However, to come up with the facilities that will offer maximum value to its users, Brooks and Atkin (2003, p. 13) outlines the stages that will yield effective facilities management as consisting of analysis stage which relates the gathering of all the relevant data about organizations objectives, policies as well as it needs in addition to the appraisal of available resources, systems and the physical assets. The second stage is about finding solutions by assessing available options then making an evaluation the options against set objectives of the organization which will inform the development of facility management strategy. The third stage in facility management according to Brooks and Atkin (2003) involves the implementation stage which covers the completion of the process of facility management strategy by having in place implementation plan that must integrate essential features such as procurement, training as well as communication. For this steps to be effectively implemented, university administrators should in addition to involving specialists in architectural engineering, bring in experts in facilities management. Involving facility managers at early stages will help assess such factors as the number of user of the facilities and the implication (BIFM, 2013). The core functions of universities as institutions of higher learning is to foster student-based learning through enhancing student environments to make them suitable for the educational goals to be achieved. Consequently any form of restructuring should take into consideration that universities are centers of material resources provided for both the students and staff to optimize their productivity and efficiency (RICS, 2014) in teaching, learning and research processes. Further, awareness of the fact that knowledge transfer does not only take place within the four walls of lecture halls and from lecturers to students but through a wider perspective of discovery, exploration and interaction with the internal and external environment will inform creative and innovative development of the necessary university facilities. Universities exists take care of the social, economic and political needs of a dynamic society and should therefore, be in continuous contact with their external environment. These institutions get their ideas from the surrounding external environment in the form of people and material resources and later churn out same of the finished products and services into the society. For this process of input and output to be effective through offering quality products in form of graduates into the external environment, the quality of university facilities must also be of high standards by developing state of the art facilities that prepare students for life in the global village (Alexander, 2013). The state of art educational facility should possess essential teaching, learning and research resources incorporated into the designing by planners and the management team. Such facility will take care of various resources that assist in knowledge acquisition such as acoustical and audiovisual design engineering, behavioral sciences, building systems design, surrounding community and public relations, environmental studies in addition to electronic data processing of hardware specifications. However, such restructuring cannot occur in isolation given that other authorities have to be involved for financial, security, environmental conservation among other reasons (Alexander, 2013). Depending on the location of the University, facilities management is a collective responsibility of several bodies such as the federal, state and local government authorities, the community as well as the staff and students who utilize such facilities. As the highest authority in a country, The Federal Government functioning through the Federal Educational Ministry provides the overall policies to guide the educational system as well as overseeing implementation. Therefore, any plan to restructure university facilities must have approval from the necessary bodies that will facture in security, financial assistance and environmental conservation (Brooks and Atkin, 2003). For the restructuring of a university facility to translate into better service delivery, the position of the university plant has to be put into consideration as a major component of the facilities available for learning, learning and research. The university plant represents the space interpretation of what a curriculum is. The university plant gives the curriculum its physical expression which is evident in the construction and organization of the school plant as a controlled environment where core business of knowledge transference processes takes place. Therefore, university facilities must be managed in such a way they give meaning to the planned curricula and extra-curricular activities. Educational programs offered by a university are the yard stick that defines the level of restructuring and therefore should inform what will be the most suitable university plant for particular courses offered (Fenker, 2004). Within the university facility, the needs of students and the teaching staff is to have appropriate places that would suit a range of educational activities to confer, search, observation, read, write, discuss, listen, reflect, experiment, and record. For the teaching staff, there is the requirement of an extra place to set up an office, conference hall for team building and planning, facilities for diagnosis of different student needs in addition to facilities for preparing instructional presentation. These facilities must also respond to the new perceptions about learning processes which goes beyond memorization of knowledge to incorporate student involvement by depending on applying, synthesizing, analyzing as well as evaluation of knowledge. This perspective will therefore stress the need for flexibility in terms of university space in order to accommodate the complexity of learning environment (Booty, 2009). With the recent explosion in the in enrolment as well as increasing number of academic programs while resources continue to be limited, universities must put flexibility at the center of any future planning process. Current needs for new or renovation of existing facilities should put into consideration the dynamics in educational sector, by having allowances for future inclusion of other resources such as technology as well as new programs and additional number of students. Through such undertakings in facilities planning, Booty (2009) envisions a scenario where the institution make available expansible spaces that will allow for ordered growth in future as well as convertible space will economically accommodate any changes in the programs offered in and versatility of the facility which will support various functional spaces that can be adjusted within a short period of time. According to the assertion by Brand (1995), buildings can only be useful occupants and neighbors in situations when they are adaptive to the changes in social needs. According to the author, changes are inevitable but what separate lasting monuments from the rest is the ability to change with time. However, all this is only achievable in situations where there are team efforts among facilities planners, budget analysts, administrators, academic staff, and fiscal as well as institutional research staffs (Fenker, 2004). Having multipurpose facilities within the campus is an important step towards integrating both academic activities and community needs. These facilities are effective in minimizing the costs of restructuring as they can accommodate a range of activities within specific times. Creating enough space in multipurpose facilities may create space for continuing education programmers, social activities as well as recreational activities. Correct planning and scheduling of how multipurpose facilities are exploited will make them accessible even to the community during school hours. Such strategic planning will reduce the problem of duplication of university facilities such as conference halls, theatre, library, sporting as well as gymnasium facilities in addition to being a cost effective undertaking that brings the community closer to the institution (Friday, 2003). In some cases, many universities were established years back and therefore have a number of buildings that have been in existence for more than fifty years. These buildings require modernization to improve the processes of teaching and learning. To renovate and modernize such buildings as well as dilapidated ones, universities should undertake a proper assessment of how to make them suitable for functions such as team planning, workrooms, library, students conference, services area for instruction of large groups of students, spaces for instructional media, laboratories, arts as well as music studios, study areas in addition to physical education facilities. Therefore, such buildings have to be renovated to make them accommodate modern equipment and supplies that are essential for the attainment of set academic goals and objectives (Brooks and Atkin 2003). Improvement of university facilities should be accompanied by the necessary maintenance instructions and procedures. In many cases, when new facilities have been developed or bought and then handed over to the administrators, virtually no consideration is given to maintenance of such facilities. Many of the facilities take a long time for any form of renovation or modernization to be effected even as the educational needs of society keeps changing due to technological innovations. Continued use of these facilities without periodic maintenance procedures make them architecturally obsolete and as a consequence cannot contribute to functional education (Booty, 2009). Although maintenance of new buildings as well as renovation and modernization old ones need expertise and commitment in terms of human and material resources, the results are worthwhile since university administrators will not spent more at a later stage when in some cases they will need to bring down such buildings to put up new ones. According to Booty (2009), the cost of renovating dilapidated buildings that have been neglected for long can be as high as 80 percent of the cost of constructing a new building from the foundation upwards. Administrators must be responsive to the causes of facility dilapidation in order to make them serve the intended purposes for a long period of time. Many of the causes of facility aging and deterioration are preventable while others that are natural such weather changes can be managed. Lack of maintenance policy in most universities is among the reasons of aging and deterioration of school buildings, equipment as well as grounds. The university staff and students who are the regular users of these facilities do not have the necessary knowledge, skill and attitude to maintain the available resources. Lack of initiative prevents those who are regular users of the facilities from to integrating maintenance policies into daily management practices of universities (Booty, 2009). In many of the institutions, facility maintenance is haphazardly handled with the necessary repairs being undertaken when existing problems multiplies and disables essential functions in the university. This perception of the available resources considers facilities as liability instead of perceiving them as asserts (Alexander, 2013) which if well utilized will lead to further development as costs of maintenance will reduce. However, for uninterrupted teaching, learning and research to take place within the universities, facility maintenance should be a regular undertaking to ensure clean and safe environment as well as availability of adequate facilities for academic transactions. Regular maintenance of facilities should take into consideration that property takes the second largest share of expenditure of most organization after expenditure on staff (PFM, 2014). Consequently, maintenance of university facilities should take care of preventive, routine, emergency repairs, and predictive maintenance needs of available facilities to ensure their functionality at all times. From the foregoing critical evaluation, universities as places of higher learning need to have modernized facilities that will facilitate teaching, learning as well as research for improvement of efficiency and productivity. Having a proper developed plan is important in ensuring the necessary components are included in the restructuring processes in addition to taking care of safety, costs and environmental preservation. Universities should also invest in facilities that are highly flexible for them to accommodate future needs that might result from increased enrollment or introduction of new programs and technological advancements. Maintenance of facilities is another important area that users should take into account to ensure continued service delivery. There is a need for a change of attitude towards maintenance of facilities by perceiving buildings as part of asserts available to the universities and not liability for the administrators. Regular renovations and refurbishment will ensure the cost of maintaining facilities by the universities are low while avoiding the need to bring down dilapidated building. References Alexander, K. (Ed.). (2013) Facilities management: theory and practice. London: Routledge. BIFM (2013) Starting at stage zero: Engaging facilities managers in the construction process. BIFM [Online], Available at: http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/news/7053 [10 February 2014]. Booty, F. (Ed.). (2009) Facilities management handbook. London: Routledge. Brand, S. (1995) How buildings learn: what happens after theyre built. London: Penguin Books. Fenker, M. (2004) Organizational Change, Representations and Facilities. In Alexander , K. (ed.) Facilities Management: Innovation and Performance. London: Taylor Francis. Friday, S. (2003) Organization Development for Facility Managers: Leading Your Team to Success. New York: Amacom. IFMA (2013) What is Facility Management?IFMA [Online], Available at: http://www.ifma.org/about/what-is-facility-management [10 February 2014]. PFM, (2014) RICS calls for action in promoting the benefits of strategic FM to business [Online], Available at: http://www.pfmonthenet.net/article/69485/RICS-calls-for-action-in-promoting-the-benefits-of-strategic-FM-to-business.aspx [10 February 2014]. RICS (2014) Facilities management [Online], Available at: http://www.rics.org/ke/join/pathway-guides/property-pathway-guides/facilities-management/ [10 February 2014]. Read More