A Conceptual Framework for Facility Management in Higher Education Institutions in Saudi Arabia

A utilization of facility management (FM) practices may greatly simplify the process of managing and operating the facilities of higher education institutions. Thus, this paper presents a conceptual framework for effective and efficient operation and management of facilities of these institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This field of research is significant given that the top management at the Ministry of Education level in the KSA is concerned about the high cost of operational expenditures and cleaning contracts of universities. As a result, 8% percent of the financial support has been reduced in last two years. Yet, more reduction in the support is expected in the coming years, which necessitates a reconsideration of practices and restructuring of responsible departments. The ministry's set of actions in this context is justified by the stringent goals mandated by the Saudi 2030 Vision and the National Transformation Program (NTP) to rationalize the expenditures of all government sectors. Therefore, this paper summarizes the current practices of FM in universities and identifies the opportunities and challenges they typically face. Given the common structure and regulations of the public universities in Saudi Arabia, this study takes Shaqra University (SU) as a sample study. Therefore, SU's facilities were assessed through data collection and analysis. Additionally, interviews were conducted with the property and maintenance departments' teams to understand the current management and operations practices being implemented at the university. The results show that SU professionals do not comply with the correct practices of FM. Practical implications of this work include setting up good practices for managing and operating higher education facilities, where the adaptation of the correct FM rules will improve the liability of the educational infrastructure.