Factors predisposing public tertiary education building projects to risks

Abstract

The studies show that risks occur during the construction of projects and affect performance in terms of cost, time, and quality. However, with the growing evidence of cost and time overruns associated with public tertiary education building projects, this paper assessed factors predisposing these building projects to risks. Using the survey method, four hundred fifty-two questionnaires were administered to consultants, contractors, and client representatives across five tertiary education institutions. The research instrument’s reliability value was 0.763 via the Cronbach alpha test. Therefore, of 452 questionnaires administered to the respondents, 279 were retrieved, representing 61.73% return rate, and analysed. Furthermore, the top three factors include financial constraints, location of the project, and project type. In contrast, economic requirements, special and legal conditions, and building use are the minor predisposing factors. The respondents had convergent views on eight out of eleven factors except for project duration, economic requirements, and building use. Besides, the eleven factors presented in the study were significant and recorded high mean scores, implying suitable parameters for measuring factors predisposing public tertiary education building projects to risks. Based on the preceding, the study provided information on the factors that could enhance the performance of public tertiary education building projects.