Importance Of Project Management In Schools

Universities around the world are beginning to realize that the project management concepts are essential and need to be incorporated in the academic curricula. However, it is difficult to see the considerable effort by the universities at the national level in developing countries. There could be the possibility to see few project management related courses offered by the academic institutions in developing countries.

Project management education in UK Shinkins (1995) identified the project management concepts which have been taught at the University of Westminster, UK. Some of the project management topics taught at the University of Westminster was as follows: i) Introduction to project management. ii) Change control, risk management. iii)

xi) Project timing. xii) Networks and schedules. xiii) Financial controls. xiv) Contract law. xv) Contract administration. xvi) Team, team selection, leadership. xvii) Finance accounting, cash flow. xviii) Quality and business process reengineering. xix) Contract and project reviews. xx) Roles and responsibilities of project management. xxi) Networking and scheduling (PERT and GANTT charts, WBS). The above mentioned list of topics indicates the multidisciplinary nature of project management. It also suggests the need to develop a separate project management curriculum in order to fully address the above mentioned topics. Another important element of teaching project management topics at the University of Westminster was computer based instructions. The students were given the opportunity to learn how to manage projects using computers. The areas which were covered using the computer based instructions include: content knowledge, self-knowledge diagnostic skills, applications skills, teamwork skills and self control. The topics that is project management overview, defining the project, work breakdown structure, project activity charts, defining the project network, finding the critical path, calendar scheduling, elements of the