Behind a Great Personality

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Last Updated on Monday, 12 March 2012 17:23

Written by Suranga Jayasena

An interview with Mrs. Caldera

A quiet house surrounded by tall trees at the end of the street, I met this charming lady, Mrs. Suneetha Caldera, wife of late Professor Siri Caldera, introduced by a friend Archt. Nissanka Attygalle. She was Nissanka’s elder sister. Driven by my curiosity I enquired, and she was kind enough to tell me her memories about her husband.

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Preparing your Bill of Quantities for E-Tendering

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Last Updated on Monday, 14 May 2012 07:13

Written by Suranga Jayasena

It made me to write this bit of information due to question raised at the Public Seminar on 5^th January by Dr. Bingunath Ingirige; how to protect a BoQ from bidders changing descriptions.

I would take the above question as “how to protect the contents while allowing the bidders to change only the permitted cells”, assuming that we are talking about using MS Excel (2007 version) to prepare BoQs. Here’s how to do that.

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RICS: Alignment of Views

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 06:23

Written by Suranga Jayasena

Alignment of Professional, Academic and Industrial Development Needs for Quantity Surveyors: The Post Recession Dynamics

This is link article to an interesting research conducted by Prof. Srinath Perera and his colleagues at Northumbria University, UK. The researchers investigate the changing development needs of Quantity Surveyors within a post recession industrial environment that satisfies the aspirations of industrial, professional and academic stakeholders. This extends to,

• Analyse the Core Competencies of Quantity Surveyors to establish their relevance to the current and anticipated future needs of the industry.
• Examine the curricula and the views of academic providers and its delivery in respect of the Core Competencies.
• Examine the views of industry employers on QS education and the nature and content of engagement between academic providers and industry.
• Investigate the implications of RICS routes of membership and development pathways and its compatibility to QS education.
• Make recommendations as to practical measures to coordinate the effective provision of an appropriate balance of academic and professional skills through constructive cooperation between the academic and industry sectors.
• Suggest a model in which the RICS can motivate and manage the input of both industry and academia, such that it maintains appropriate control of standards, thus upholding its relevance in the process.

The outcome highlights the need for a concerted effort by all three parties, viz. academia, industry and the RICS,  for the development of Quantity Surveyors who are industrially relevant, professionally qualified and with a sound academic background. These findings are useful in responding to current and challenges of the QS Alumni.

Download Full final report here (8MB Pdf).

Download Executive summary here (2MB Pdf).

Download Main Report from RICS

Department of Building Economics - A Flash Back

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 09:01

Written by Suranga Jayasena

The Department of Building Economics was founded in 1983. Undergraduate program leading to BSc Quantity Surveying (Honours) degree commenced in 1985 and the graduation of the first cohort of students was in 1991. Then the first course revision of the Quantity Surveying program came in 1991. The department started the self-funded masters program in Project Management in 1996.

The landmark achievements of Department of Building Economics was the accreditations for BSc Quantity Surveying programme by the Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors (RICS) and the Australian Institute of Charted Surveyors (AIQS) in 1997 and 1999 respectively. RICS reaccreditations were followed in 2001, 2003 and 2006; and AIQS reaccredited course in 2005. Thus, the BSc in Quantity Surveying of the Department of Building Economics is the only such degree to be accredited by both RICS and AIQS in the South Asian Region.

The Department of Building Economics implemented the semester based modular system in 2005, and started new degree course BSc in Facilities Management programme in 2006. The BSc in Facilities Management programme received conditional accreditation by RICS in August 2006.