Evaluating Construction Management Programs at the Graduate Level in the U.S.

Abstract

As the construction industry experiences rapid advancement and expansion in both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, it demands a better educated and highlyskilled workforce. The industry looks for professionals who have a solid foundation in the technical and managerial principles so that they can become industry leaders in the future. Therefore, it is a critical matter to develop construction management graduate programs in the right direction. A graduate construction management program can be designed to incorporate a broad range of subjects including construction management, construction technologies, and general management areas to develop well-balanced construction professionals. However, few studies were performed previously on the graduate education in construction management and the operation of graduate programs. Thus, a study is necessary to evaluate current construction management programs at the graduate level before discussing how we can develop them further. This study aims at identifying leading construction management programs in this nation and investigating how they manage and operate graduate programs. The authors chose the leading graduate programs by selecting the top 100 universities from the U.S. News and World Report, the most relevant ranking source for this study. The authors have developed a survey questionnaire, and the major findings obtained from surveying 15 schools are illustrated and explained in details in this paper.