In a fast changing world with corporate restructuring and continuous process enhancement, the role of a facilities manager continues to gain importance. With the ever increasing infrastructure stocks and large complex buildings such as shopping complexes, condominiums, office complexes etc, the demand for managing these facilities have created a niche market for facilities managers. The Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa has foreseen the importance and world wide demand for the facilities managers and embarked on an Honours Degree of Bachelor of Science in Facilities Management in the Faculty of Architecture under the Dean Prof. C. Wedikkara and the Head Dr. R. Rameezdeen in 2005 to produce professionals who will be capable of managing facilities in the built environment.

In fact, facilities management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the working environment by integrating people, place, process and technology of the organization. This discipline integrates the principles of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering sciences. In past years many companies were smaller than they are today. They often state or regionally focused and had relatively cheap energy, construction and work space cost; and focused on short term goals, objectives and requirements. But later the competition drives the business world to embrace quality, to re engineer processes and to look at the way in which work is done to bring about improvements in performance. The concept of customer satisfaction became a hard-nosed reality for business wishing to survive, let alone excel. The turbulence created by these changes has provided the catalyst for the emergence of the facility manager. Though no facilities management profession has existed in the past in Sri Lanka, those who are responsible for built asset management or property management has taken the responsibility of managing facilities. Corporate or organizational owners /tenants and their staffs have always had facility management responsibilities, handling them with varying degrees of success depending on the manager’s training, capabilities, and interest. They have found it necessary to assign one or more employees the task of planning, budgeting, securing, allocation, designing, constructing, furnishing, occupying managing, maintaining, redesigning reconstructing relocating and disposing of corporate facilities. Therefore the role of facilities manager has been vital for both corporate and public sector clients. Hence, good facilities management makes a huge difference to the efficiency and productivity of a company, its staff and even its clients as the proper application of facilities management techniques would enable organizations to provide the right environment for conducting their core businesses on a cost effective and "value for money" basis.

To enter the four year full time Facilities Management Degree programme, candidates should have offered at least one subject in GCE (A/L) from; Combined Mathematics or Accountancy and other subjects from: Business Statistics, Business Studies, Chemistry, Economics, Physics, Hard Technology and Higher Mathematics. In addition, should have satisfied following requirements in GCE (O/L) as; at least a credit pass in Mathematics I or II, at least a pass in Science I or II and at least a credit pass in English Language. The first student intake of the programme was 50 and currently there are 207 students at level one, two and three. The degree programme equips with problem based and industry focused learning, a dedicated team of lectures who are specialized in a variety of fields, 34 weeks of industrial training and a supervised research dissertation. The Sri Lankan industry has offered placements for industrial training to all our students in their organizations to train them as "readily available" facility managers for local needs immediately after their graduation. The department thanks them with gratitude for their fullest support. The core competencies associated with the facilities management degree are; Maintenance and Operational Management, Administrative Services, Space Planning and Management, Building / Engineering Services, Real Estate and Property Management, Facility Planning, Financial Planning, Health, Safety and Welfare, Conflict Avoidance, Management and Dispute Resolution Procedures, Technology, Procurement and Tendering. The programme emphasizes facilities management as a strategic business discipline and is structured to cover interdisciplinary subject areas as; Property Management, Management and IT Studies, Services Technology, Construction Technology, Project Studies and Dissertation. Further, the Department always obtains feedback from the academic and industry professionals to shape the programme along with the current practice and the need. A "Department Industry Consultative Board" is formally established to obtain the experts advices from the industry twice a year and further few senior professors from leading foreign universities continuously guide to maintain the expected standard of the programme. With these all support and the effort of the team of dedicated lecturers in the Department, the cause was able to receive the accreditation from the Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors (RICS), in year 2005. RICS today is a leading source of property related knowledge, providing independent, impartial advice to governments and global organizations. With all these success, the Department is producing "world-class" facility managers to cater to Sri Lankan market needs, to the regional market, to UAE market where facility management has reached to its peak and to the global market with the graduation of its first intake in year 2010.

If any local or international organization needs further information of our graduates or this programme, please contact: