Best practices for public universities building maintenance

Abstract

A university’s main function is to produce quality graduates, and in doing so, university buildings do play significant roles and are considered to be vital assets and resources. Hence, to prolong a university building lifecycle to ensure all university activities to continue performing at an optimum level, building maintenance management is central. Even though several previous studies have been conducted in this area, university buildings maintenance is still viewed as insignificant. The objectives of this research are to identify the current practices in building maintenance management for public university buildings, to identify the factors that contribute to public universities building maintenance costs and to determine the best practices for effective building maintenance management for public university buildings. Five public universities namely Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM) were chosen as case studies. The data was collected through interviewing ten building maintenance experts. Subsequently, the data was then analysed using single-case analysis and cross-case analysis. Based on the findings, current practices employed by the university maintenance department are prioritize maintenance, planned maintenance, preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance. Furthermore, based on the findings, factors contributing to building maintenance costs are fund allocation, technology, mechanical and electrical factors, aging of buildings, environmental factors and vandalism. Best practices, as suggested by the participants involved in this study, are preventive maintenance, prioritize maintenance, and planned maintenance.