International Project Management (IPM) students participate in an annual Case Study trip each winter semester. The international Case Study is an essential part of the IPM curriculum. A complex construction project from a foreign country is chosen as a Case Study. It allows students to implement the knowledge gained during the study courses to critically examine an actual project and design alternate and improved scenarios.
This winter semester, from 9 - 13 January 2023, the IPM students visited Liverpool, UK, for the Case Study "Conception and construction of Everton's New Football stadium at Bramley Moore Dock". Everton Football Club is one of the two English professional association football clubs based in Liverpool that competes in the English Premier League. The stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is under construction and will become the home ground for Everton F.C. It is due to open for the start of the 2024–25 season, replacing its current home ground at Goodison Park. Bramley-Moore is a former commercial dock that sits behind locked gates next to a wastewater treatment plant. It is intended that the new stadium will become the heart of a new multi-million mixed-use development in the area containing shops, housing and other venues.
A week-long intense Case Study workshop in Liverpool was hosted by the partner University in UK – Liverpool Business School at Liverpool John Moores University. Post COVID -19 pandemic, we were delighted to do an onsite Case Study.
The Case Study Week started with a glimpse of the LJMU campus and a guided city tour of Liverpool by Timothy Whitehill, Project 5 Consulting. In the following days, the students participated in intense brainstorming sessions and preparation of research objectives and questions. Students had the opportunity to visit the old Everton Stadium at Goodison Park as well as the site where the new Everton stadium is being constructed.
At the Bramley Moore Dock site, students attended an elaborated induction session, witnessed the latest technology integration, and gained insight into the project management of such a large-scale complex project. The students critically examined the project challenges with inside-out and outside-in views and investigated the project parameters and consequences for the project, construction management, sustainability and mobility. Moreover, students also focused on how innovative solutions, such as BIM, could improve the construction process and proposed the latest novel trends in energy and supplies for such a stadium to cope with current energy challenges.
The Case study Week was concluded on 13 January 2023, with the final presentations. The students presented their analysis and proposed suggestions from a Project Management perspective.
The onsite Case Study Week was indeed an enlightening experience for all the students. The bundle of memories from the beautiful city Liverpool, warm hospitality by Liverpool Business School and an in-person visit to such an outstanding project will accompany them for their whole life.