Unit Synopsis
While construction procurement is essential in planning delivery methods and procurement tasks of a construction project, cost planning is critical to the financial management of the project throughout all phases of the building life cycle. Construction procurement is always associated with cost and cost planning is dependent on construction procurement. In this unit, therefore, you will study cost planning along with the knowledge of construction procurement. You will develop skills to critically examine the complexity of issues associated with strategic procurement and components of sustainable procurement processes. You will also analyse the impact of construction procurement decisions on economic, environmental, social, and cultural outcomes referring to a number of national and international case studies. This will enable you to reflect on the key themes in relation to procurement strategies, i.e. partnering culture as well as management of risks, stakeholder relationships, and supply chains. The knowledge gained here will eventually make you confident in practicing construction procurement within complex construction management environments in the public and private sectors. In the cost planning spectrum, the unit covers broader insights of design economics, cost estimating procedures, cost control mechanisms, and life cycle analysis for construction projects. The application of critical self-reflection skills and research principles and methods relevant to the construction industry will help you to prepare for dynamic construction industry environments and make sound professional decisions.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisites:BLCN29001 Construction Technology andBLCN29003 Construction MeasurementImportant 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
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).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate 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. Research Assignment | 20% |
| 2. Group Work | 40% |
| 3. Reflective Practice Assignment | 40% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 82.35% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25.76% response rate.
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: End of unit CQU survey feedback
Students commented that this unit provided a great learning process.
The unit will continue to make the scaffolded learning and student skills development across this unit explicit. This allows students to monitor and plan their learning journey each week and confidently complete all assessments.
The teaching team made the scaffolded learning and student skills development across this unit explicit.
Source: End of unit CQU survey feedback
Several units cover ethical and behavioural issues. This could be covered over several weeks in one unit.
Ethical behaviour is critical to a successful career in the highly legislated, high-risk construction industry. The potential situations and implications vary due to context and subject matters at hand. Therefore, it is referred to in several units and knowledge fields to highlight its integral linkage to industry practice through examples.
Ethical behaviour in construction procurement was retained in this unit.
Source: Communication with students
Cost planning process could be explained in more details.
The teaching team will continue using Rawlinsons construction cost guide to show the cost planning process and add more practical examples of cost estimation and planning.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically examine concepts and principles of construction procurement and cost planning across the building lifecycle
- Apply contemporary practice and research knowledge to project-specific contexts, managing project budget and feasibility
- Evaluate the impacts of construction procurement decisions on economic, environmental, social, and cultural outcomes
- Reflect on the key themes of procurement strategies and cost planning in contemporary management contexts.
This unit enhances your professional construction management knowledge and industry attributes in areas such as elemental cost planning, budget and cost control, procurement methods and contracting as well as sustainable procurement strategies and life cycle assessment.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Research Assignment | • | • | ||
| 2 - Group Work | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Reflective Practice Assignment | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | ||
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | • | ||
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | ||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||
| 7 - Leadership | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |