Facilities maintenance management practices at higher education institutions (community college campus) / Syaidatul Liza Khusnin

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are very important for the development of the country because they generate knowledge, improve the quality of human resources and encourage innovation. The infrastructure built by HEIs is important, serves multiple purposes and has a high occupancy rate, which highlights the need for good maintenance procedures. However, there is a significant lack of maintenance focus in management at HEIs despite being dedicated to improving the efficiency of the academic structure. The maintenance of university buildings is always seen as an unimportant activity. Therefore, this study is to examine the practice of Facility Maintenance Management applied in 3 Premier Community Colleges that have been operating for over 20 years in Selangor, namely Sabak Bernam Community College, Selayang Community College and Kuala Langat Community College. The data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 27.0 software. The objective of this study is to identify the current maintenance management practices used in Community Colleges in addition to examining the issues and problems that arise in maintenance at Community Colleges and to suggest the best maintenance management practices in campus buildings for Community Colleges. The research questions were addressed by adopting a quantitative method approach, which is through survey. The respondents are among the users who use the facility services at the Community College such as top management, academic staff, administrative staff and students at the community college. For the research findings, it can be concluded that Community College prioritizes planned preventive maintenance while using corrective maintenance techniques and responding to problems that arise. Respondents favoured preventive maintenance, emphasizing the value of technical personnel with proper training and effective communication in dealing with maintenance problems. Maintenance management also requires a committed budget, a proactive strategy and effective communication, and prevention is considered to be economically beneficial in the long term. Meanwhile, the problems and issues identified in the maintenance management at the Community College stem from the lack of long-term planning, inefficient monitoring systems, insufficient maintenance for building systems, lack of data and technology management, insufficient maintenance staff, absence clear maintenance policies, and budget constraints in managing building maintenance. Through the research that has been carried out, the researcher has suggested some best practices in maintenance management for community college campuses with the objective of improving more strategic maintenance in the organization so as to preserve the lifespan of the facility for the use of educational facilities.