A Study Of Cost Manangement Of University Infrastructure Projects

With the popularization of higher education in the past ten years, colleges and universities are expanding on a larger scale. In order to ensure the teaching, research and services in the univerties, the construction of infrastructure has developed rapidly as well. At the same time, the problems in the management of construction projects are growing increasingly prominent, particularly in the management of project cost. Case studies have shown that there are "three excesses" in most of the construction projects, namely, the final account exceeding the budget, the budget exceeding the budgetary estimate, and the the budgetary estimate exceeding the estimate, which results in the fact that the projects can not be put into use or production as planned and take up the teaching and research funding, affecting the planning and development of the overall construction of universities.Based on the summary of domestic and international construction cost management theory and experience and taking into consideration of present infrastructure project management features of domestic colleges and universities, this study applies literature review, interview, survey and case study to investigate the five procedures in cost management of infrastructure projects in colleges and universities, i.e., decision, design, bidding, construction and audit settlement. By conducting an interview with the infrastructure and audit management personel and analyzing and comparing project cost reports, material price analysis forms, project cost cost analysis tables, estimates, budgetary estimates, budgest, balance sheets, the presetn study finds out that:firstly, the first two stages have the greatest impact on the project cost at 80%-90%; secondly, there are quite a few disadvantages in the present "lowest bid" approach which is subject to improvement; thirdly, the price of infrastructure project equipments and materials has a great impact on project cost and the market price information system is not mature; fourthly,the quality and efficiency of audit settlement should be improved. With a comprehensive analysis of survey results and cases, the writer suggests that to solve the problem of "three excesses" in the infrastructure projects in colleges and universities, colleges and universities should make scienctific and rational decisions; quota designs should be put in application; the "second-lowest bid" model should be encouraged; equipments and materials should acceptabe for both quality and price; and the efficiency and quality of audit settlement should be improved. With each of the procedures done, it is hoped that this study will have some implication for the improvement of overall project cost management in infrastructure construction among China's colleges and universities.