kaushal keraminiyage, dr dilanthi amaratunga, dr richard haigh ece conference 2007

www.buhu.salford.ac.uk

Research Institute for the Built & Human Environment

Creating an effective higher education partnership between Europe and Asia in the Built Environment through the use modern distance learning technologies

Kaushal Keraminiyage, Dr Dilanthi Amaratunga, Dr Richard Haigh

ECE conference 2007



Layout• Background• The EUARSIA project• The scope of the study• Curriculum development

framework• Current status



Background• Disasters can occur at any time in

anywhere around the world.• But, low-income developing

countries– Face high levels of disaster risk and they

experience higher levels of mortality (RICS, 2006).

– Often fail to launch successful long term disaster recovery programmes due to lack of financial and intellectual resources.



The Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Case of Sri Lanka

Potuvil in Sri Lanka after December 2004 Tsunami




Kosgoda - in Sri Lanka after December 2004 Tsunami




This was a hotel in Potuvil Sri LankaBefore the December 2004 Tsunami



The Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Case of Sri Lanka• Preparedness, Relief and Recovery

– Lack of awareness is one of the major reasons behind the mammoth death toll (Karim, 2005)

– Availability and utilization of short term financial and humanitarian aids for immediate relief

– Poor response capacities of local institutions (specifically commercial and infrastructure related) has been identified as a reason behind unsuccessful post-Tsunami recovery activities.




• The role of higher education institutions to address the need of enhancing the response capacities– Local and Global Knowledge– Post Tsunami Sri Lanka as a case to

enhance the global knowledge



The EUARSIA project

• An international research collaboration – 3 European higher education institutions (Salford

leading) – 2 Asian (Sri Lankan) higher education institutions– Funded under the ASIALINK programme

• To enhance the capacities of the higher education institutions (local and global) for training, teaching and research activities required for the creation and long-term management of public and commercial facilities and infrastructure.



Scope of this study

• Development of a curriculum on the creation and long term management of public and commercial facilities and elements of infrastructure


Research Institute for the Built & Human EnvironmentCurriculum development

framework

Issues and characteristics of joint curriculum development Literature review

Outcome would be genericFlexibility issues

Request partners to submit related curricular details (e.g. module specifications) to a central

database based on the identified curriculum strengths and gaps of each partner

Investigation of issues and methodologies related to curriculum development

Investigate the characteristics (e.g. module contents) of existing facilities and infrastructure

management curricular within European and Asian partner institutions and identify gaps

Development of the module baseLiterature reviewDiscussions with partnersPartners submit modules to a central database

Use of the Virtual Environment for Built Environment Research (VEBER) – http://veber.buhu.salford.ac.uk



Curriculum development framework

Evaluate the standards / pre-requisites / skills demands of the submitted curriculum details

(modules)

Build the module base and the structure for the proposed joint curricular

The Joint Curriculum

Standardizing the module base

Module Compatibility Framework

Skills and requirements Audit

Curriculum customisation

Options to select different modules form the module base

Ability to customise the curricular for individual needs

Self skills / requirements assessment for partners on module basis

Customised curriculum to suit individual skills and requirements


Research Institute for the Built & Human EnvironmentCurriculum development

framework• Current status

– Module collection is completed (more than 20 modules)

– Module compatibility evaluations and skills audits being carried out



Acknowledgement• The authors wish to acknowledge that the

EURASIA project is funded by the European Commission under the Asia – Link program.

• This paper has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this paper are the sole responsibility of EURASIA and can under no circumstances be regarded as representing the status of the European Commission



Thank you

kaushal keraminiyage, dr dilanthi amaratunga, dr richard haigh ece conference 2007

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