Abstract:
The role of undergraduate education in any country is widening gradually in new
directions. A variety of external parties are increasingly keen on quality undergraduate
education and construction education is no exception. The exploration of key aspects
and how these aspects affect an education system is, therefore, important to improve
the quality of education. This study aimed at exploring such key aspects and their
effects on a construction undergraduate programme. A case study research method
was adopted in this study. Accordingly, a top ranked construction undergraduate
programme in Sri Lanka was selected as an exploratory case study to identify key
issues with respect to learning, teaching and research (LTR). The findings identified
various factors under the three main aspects, course content, quality assurance and
environment, and their effects on LTR. These findings were then mapped on to three
frameworks, which offer a holistic picture of the key aspects of the selected
programme and how each aspect affects LTR. It is hoped that these frameworks will
be useful for such construction undergraduate programmes to improve the quality of
their programmes. However, more case studies reflecting different contexts are
required to validate and develop these into generic frameworks.
