Abstract:
International schools have a number of facilities and different types of buildings including school buildings, office buildings, physical education buildings, indoor sports buildings, outdoor sports facilities, walkways, playgrounds, swimming pools, ponds, garden areas and trees. The people who use the building consist of students and personnel of different races and ages. In the schools, student activities are diverse and facility management helps support teaching and learning activities. The research focused on studying the existing organizational structure of the schools and their facility maintenance units. It also aimed at studying the facility management process of these international schools. The research was conducted by interviewing, surveying, observing and collecting data from the six international schools: Harrow International School, Trail International School, Lycee Francais International de Bangkok, Saint John's International School, Ramkamhaeng Advent International School and Ruamrudee International School. From the research, it was found that all the six international schools had high-rise and low-rise buildings, ranging from one to six floors. The facility system comprised electrical, lighting, communications, sanitary and elevator systems. There were two types of facility management in these schools. In Harrow and Ruamrudee, there was a facility management unit while Trail, Lycee Francais International de Bangkok, Saint John, and Ramkamhaeng Advent did not have a specific facility management office. Regarding their policies, it was discovered that the schools that did not have a clear policy did not take a proactive approach to maintain the facilities. They were likely to repair rather than maintain the facilities. The schools that had a clear policy would maintain the facility systems and had facility management plans. There were two types of organizational structures for maintenance work in these international schools: 1) a mixed type, where maintenance was done by school workers and hired workers from outside, found in Trail International School, Saint John's International School, Ramkamhaeng Advent International School, Lycee Francais International de Bangkok and Ruamrudee International School; 2) the facility system management and administration done by a hired maintenance company, found in Harrow International School only. This study suggested that approaches of facility management practices of these international schools seem to relate with the tuition fees, physical resources and the school's policy.