Engaging students with industry experts

Group photography session among Prof Venkateswaran, Dr Suntoro and FAM students and staff

The Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) Department of Building and Property Management organised an industrial talk featuring Building Management Association of Malaysia (BMAM) Founder Secretary General Prof S. Venkateswaran and Meadow Facilities Sdn Bhd Managing Director Dr Suntoro Tjoe at UTAR Sungai Long Campus on 16 July 2019.

Present at the event were Department of Building and Property Management Head Low Chin Kian, FAM lecturers and students. Low said, “These talks provided students with a platform to listen to the experts sharing their industrial experiences so that they will know what the industry requirements are and they can better prepare themselves for their future careers.”

Prof Venkateswaran speaking about the history of buildings in Malaysia

Prof Venkateswaran presented the first talk titled “The Landed Property-Stratified Building Continuum-Issues and Challenges”. In his talk, he spoke about storeyed buildings and its origin, early high-rise buildings, development in the mid and late 1970s, Strata Titles Act 1985, Asian economic crisis in 1997 and many more. He said, “The issues and challenges faced are economic cycles of supply-demand, and maintenance and management of high-rise commercial and residential buildings. The cost factors are constantly increasing due to inflationary pressures, additional compliance requirements and emerging new building technologies, including sophisticated facilities and skills gap in the maintenance and management of buildings.”

“The government-owned buildings are usually accommodated by the municipal council, the district office, post office, courts and the chief minister’s office and are still seen in many cities such as Seremban, Ipoh and Melaka. Until the early 1960s, there were no significant high-rise buildings in the country due to adequate land for horizontal expansion of buildings and there were no sophisticated mechanical systems available to construct, use and maintain high-rise buildings,” said Prof Venkateswaran.

Dr Suntoro explaining the building blocks to students

In the second talk, Dr Suntoro presented “An overview of Property Management Industry in Malaysia” whereby he spoke about asset lifecycle, Malaysian Property Management Standards, management process in a development project, strategic pillars and 11 competencies of facility management and building blocks that form support structure of the five pillars, namely People, Process, Workplace, Technology and Environment. He explained the management process in a development project, important events in a development project, the appointment of property manager and the governing acts.

“Property Management is the management, maintenance and control of any land, building and any interest therein, excluding the management and maintenance of property-based businesses, on behalf of the owner, for a fee by the Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers while Facility Management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating People, Place, Process and Technology,” said Dr Suntoro.

The talk was followed by a Q&A session between the speakers and students.

Low presenting the token of appreciation to Prof Venkateswarana (left) and Dr Suntoro (right)