Quantitative analysis of defects in Malaysian university buildings: Providers ’ perspective

Facilities management is taking centre stage in the
discourse of academic institutions because of its relevance to facilitating
learning, teaching and conducting research. University buildings are
an important part of these facilities and considerable resources are
committed to their design, construction and maintenance. This article
is based on the premise that if there is information on the criteria that
infl uence the maintenance of university buildings, the characteristics
of defects in university buildings and the criteria within the users ’
value system, the maintenance and management of the university
buildings will be initiated and implemented more effectively and
effi ciently compared with how it is currently executed. The main aim
of the present research, however, is to determine the kind and nature
of defects in university buildings in Malaysia. The article reviews the
related literature and presents the outcome of a questionnaire survey.
The questionnaires were administered to 50 university maintenance
organisations. With a 66 per cent response rate, the fi ndings suggest
that some defects require maintenance more urgently than others.
On this basis it is concluded that resources should be directed to
the more urgent areas whereas less urgent ones can be included in
the next planned maintenance programme. The research found thatlift failure, faulty electrical systems and roof damage were defects
that respondents considered highly critical and that required urgent
maintenance intervention.