Collaboration in English higher education estates

Crowe, P

Abstract

Globalisation and changes in public policy act as a catalyst for change in the English Higher Education Sector. Consequently, Institutions place a greater focus on their supply chain to offer services that best fit their requirements, during the construction and refurbishment of physical assets. The construction industry will need to offer innovation, value for money and other benefits that associate with the collaborative procurement movement, which has been gathering pace since the 1990s. The aim of the research is to develop a framework to evaluate collaborative practice in Higher Education Property and Estates’ departments in England. The work is practitioner research that relates to a real world problem. The objectives include: construct a suitable framework; develop the framework using a particular institution; and assess the framework in the wider context of England.

The research philosophy has foundations in both constructionism and pragmatism. The work develops the initial framework using literature. A Primary Case Study tests, relates and develops the framework in practice. To an extent, the literature review is able to provide transferability of the maturity model, particularly in relation to the implementation and motivation themes. Where the literature review could not provide transferability, a pragmatic approach is undertaken to improve the transferability of the research findings, which uses data from 44 estate strategies, 6 auxiliary case studies, 11 tender notices and industry sources. Data is generally qualitative and from such sources as interviews and documentation. The work uses thematic content analysis to explore organisations and summative content analysis to improve transferability. The work embraces Robson’s strategy for validity including that, which associates with prolonged involvement, triangulation, peer debriefing, member checking and audit trail.

The research deliverable includes a clearly defined framework. The Framework includes three maturity models, namely implementation, motivation and risk. Each model has a particular purpose in relation to clients overall deliverables. The implementation theme relates to working efficiently. The motivation theme relates to exceeding performance requirements. The risk theme relates to achieving performance requirements. The Framework is for use by Directors of Estates and other policy makers that make decisions concerning collaboration in property and estates departments. The particular emphasis is collaboration with supply chains. The purpose of the study is to create the framework. The study does not make generalisations concerning the use of collaborative features. The framework has been created using cross sectional data form across the English higher education sector. The framework will be of use in other sectors and geographical locations following further research.

Citation

Crowe, P. Collaboration in English higher education estates. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jun 28, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 28, 2014