Ph. D: Facility management in Dutch higher education

This book discusses whether, and if so, how facility management (FM) can contribute to
educational achievements at Dutch higher education institutions. Although there is increasing
evidence that the quality of the lecturer is decisive for the performance and development of
students (Marzano 2007; Mourshed, Chijioke and Barber 2010), and in addition, educational
leadership can shape the necessary boundary conditions for these primary actors to succeed,
nowadays this must be considered as a too narrow conception of what good education is all
about. Up to date, in literature there is a lively debate about the effective use of facility
design, as a mixture of designed features of physical facilities and services, to contribute to
education as well. We have seen many examples of the so-called human factor being
negatively influenced by seemingly fringe events, but that suddenly appears to be
precondition for education. Too warm, too cold, too crowded, too loud, too messy, and no
idea why this device doesn’t work are phrases that come to mind. We now know that the built
school environment and facility services that are offered are among the elements that can
influence good education. The evidence comes from a multiple disciplines, such as
environmental-psychology (Durán-Narucki 2008; Hygge and Knez 2001), medicine
(Hutchinson 2003), educational research (Blackmore et al. 2011; Oblinger 2006; Schneider
2002; Temple 2007), and real estate and facility management (Daisey, Angell and Apte 2003;
Duyar 2010; Barrett et al. 2013). Considering all the above, there seems to be a scientific
black box with respect to the relatively new scientific discipline of FM. Deeply rooted in
practice, the abstractions that have existed until now have hardly led to a fundamental
understanding of the contribution of FM to education. Therefore, the main objective of this
book is as follows.