Tartan Construction scoop top student prize
After several grueling rounds of competition, one team emerged victorious, and that was Tartan Construction from Glasgow Caledonian University. They collected their award from immediate Past President of the CIOB, Paul Nash, at the Awards Dinner on 20 July, having beaten five other finalist teams to the award.
As ever, it was a tough finals week for Global Student Challenge finalists in Hong Kong.
After several grueling rounds of competition, one team emerged victorious, and that was Tartan Construction from Glasgow Caledonian University. They collected their award from immediate Past President of the CIOB, Paul Nash, at the Awards Dinner on 20 July, having beaten five other finalist teams to the award.
They will also receive £2000 in prize money along with access to mentoring from industry leaders who will offer advice and guidance with their professional development. In the final, held at the University of Hong Kong, Tartan Construction held off the challenge from five teams from around the world in the process of becoming champions. Alongside the UK, the other countries represented in the final were Australia, Hong Kong SAR and China.
The annual CIOB Global Student Challenge invites teams to compete at running a virtual construction company in a simulated environment using the MERIT software. Developed at Loughborough University, it has been used to train young professionals since 1988 as part of in-course modules in degree programmes. The software enables students to develop business management skills, requiring them to take decisions on staffing levels, estimating and bidding, managing cash flow and capital and seeking investment opportunities.
Around 50 teams from universities all over the world entered the 2017 competition, which began back in March. After six rounds of competing the top six ranking teams travelled to Hong Kong for the finals which ran from the 16 to 20 July.
Tartan Construction from Glasgow Caledonian beat out CUBE from the University of Cambridge to the top prize while Kier from Loughborough University came third. The other three finalists were: Team Hong Yining from The Hong Kong Polytechic University, UPON from Chongqing University and NLMA from Melbourne University.
Tartan Construction’s win marks the third time that Glasgow Caledonian University have won the competition, following on from Cali Construction in 2016 and Saltire in 2015.
If you’re feeling particularly eager, you can fill out this form to register your interest for next year’s competition.