BLAR13047 - Construction Economics 1

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

As you study this unit, your overall aim is to: understand macro economics, the markets and their dimensions, World and local economies and policy instruments; fully understand the effect of supply, demand prices and stocks; and become familiar with procedures, principles and methods of project costing, bills of quantities and life cycle analysis.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026

Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 30%
2. Written Assessment 35%
3. Written Assessment 35%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student
Feedback:
The lecturer should provide more guidance/instructions on where to access resources related to each assignment.

Recommendation:
The resources are in Moodle, and the lecturer will provide guidance/instructions in the tutorials.

Action Taken:
The lecturer discussed the assessment questions in class in addition to the conversations in the Q&A forum. This resulted in a higher success rate for this unit.
Source: Student
Feedback:
The unit/lecturer should use the MS team to provide improved support and speed to questions as other units do.

Recommendation:
A team will be provided for the unit, and all students are encouraged to use it to talk to the lecturer and among themselves.

Action Taken:
The MS Teams platform was introduced to this unit. The unit coordinator posted several messages encouraging students to use the platform for general conversation, while Moodle forums encourage learning-related conversations.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluation Unit Comments Report - T1, 2025
Feedback:
The gap between the feedback for the previous assessment and the next assessment submission due date could be increased to ensure an effective and successful submission.

Recommendation:
There were delays in providing feedback on some assessments. Hence, returning feedback within two weeks of the submission due date, normally set for each assessment, could not be maintained for some assessments due to the lecturer's personal issues. However, the teaching team is obliged to maintain this in the next and future deliveries. The teaching team found that the gap between each assessment due date in the current delivery is close to 4 weeks, which is sufficient for students to prepare their next assessment, provided that feedback on the previous assessment is given within 2 weeks. This will be recommended to continue in future deliveries.

Action Taken:
In Progress
Source: The Lecturer and the Unit Coordinator communication
Feedback:
Teaching team suggests applying guest lectures in future deliveries

Recommendation:
It is recommended to have a guest lecturer or special speaker in some weeks to keep the students engaged with practical examples or industry situations. These sessions are intended to expand the students' knowledge on life cycle cost analysis and bills of quantities. One such session is planned to conduct towards the end of the teaching term making it an addition support for students to the last assessment task.

Action Taken:
In Progress
Unit Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the various activities, and marketplace relationships that exist in the national economy
  2. Explain the need for economic policy and the ability for policy to resolve economic problems
  3. Describe the impact of supply and demand on the construction industry
  4. Describe the basic requirements, procedures and benefits of building lifecycle costing and project cost estimating
  5. Have an understanding of how computer based estimating tools can assist the preparation of project costing, estimating and administration

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication
2 - Problem Solving
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
6 - Information Technology Competence
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment