Learning, teaching and research for construction undergraduate programmes : an exploratory case study in Sri Lanka

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.