Construction Engineering Education: Need, Content, Learning Approaches

Abstract

Market demands for improved infrastructure and a more sustainable built environment are increasing the importance and scope of construction engineering throughout the project development process. Despite this, many construction programs face pressures to increase coverage of construction management topics, lessening time for construction engineering. These two opposing trends form the background for this paper. The goal of the paper is to provide compelling reasons and useful guidance to restore the balance between engineering and management in construction education. The method of analysis is to identify the priority fundamental elements of construction engineering knowledge and to describe the learning approaches applicable to each. The main contributions are a structure and methods for learning about construction engineering that are applicable to all types of construction. The paper also includes recommendations for educators to increase coverage of construction engineering using new learning approaches, for industry to assist in offering relevant courses, and for researchers to further develop construction process models and other tools with potential benefits for construction engineering education.