Acknowledgement

The journey of my study was filled with recurrent question of ‘Why CST, why not Australia or other countries for masters?’, from anyone who I informed that I am on study leave to College of Science and Technology. I considered this on positive note, as the lone civil servant in the first batch of the Masters in Construction Management course, I was dedicated to upgrading my knowledge and abilities in the local context to find solutions to problems unique to Bhutan. Self-tenacity overruled all barriers along the journey of this study.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Royal Government of Bhutan, College of Science and Technology and Department of Roads for the opportunity to pursue masters my graduate studies.

It is virtually impossible to carry out research of any scale without the cooperation and support of those who are not only generous in time, but also consciously choose to help in any possible ways. I would like to place on record my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Chimi Wangmo for reading the various drafts of the dissertation and for the suggestions and feedback. Your guidance and insights throughout the dissertation was informative and inspiring. I am also very grateful for the autonomy and scope to think my own thoughts and follow my logical instincts.

Sincere gratitude to Dr. Kazuhiro Marumatsu, Assistant Professor, Electronics & Communication Engineering Department, who despite his busy schedules, provided value guidance and mentorship in the development of proof of concept model. Your time has had a great impact on the research study. Thanks to Madam Karma Kelzang Yuden for your time for editing the draft of the chapter on proof of concept. 

I would also like to acknowledge the time and expert opinion of interviewees mostly heads of the organizations, who made themselves available for the interview, despite their very busy schedule. Their inputs and insights made this thesis possible.

I would also like to thank the Research Supervisory Committee for their valuable feedback and critical comments that helped to fine tune my thesis.

Finally, my endearing and enduring gratefulness to my family, who have remained the bedrock of my study.

Along Phuntsholing – Samtse – Tendu Highway

Covid pandemic has caged physically and the academic workload has sealed mentally within the boundary of college campus. The craving to go out was impatient. Wander within the campus was adequate and bored. Finally, rays of hope risen with drastic drop of number of positive cases and college relaxing the containment mode.

Overhead signboard at Chukha - Samtse boarder

Casually, the idea to go out to a place never visited before popped up; the name of the place – Samtse! Discussion further enhanced to stretch until the furthest – Sibsu. Yet, the final destination was to the extreme end – Tendru.

Namlakha 

A moment break at Namlakha, the highest point on Phuntsholing – Samtse highway enlightened on various places the highway passes through and the view of lowland was wide and clear. Far into and through village unknown, the view of beautiful mountain ranges ease from the rays protected by blanket of clouds.

Mesmerizing beauty of green paddies from Chengmari until Tendru made the day on top of the newly resurfaced road.

Beautiful paddy on the way

The halt at old Gola bazaar and the taste of Puri breakfast with local special curry was yet another memoir to remember. However, Changmari cake that is said to be the first homemade cake in the country was the best.

Gola Bazaar Puri and Chengmari cake

Journey to and fro from Phuntsholing township development site until Amochu bridge was gruesome and rigour. Hot weather with cloud of dust is not a good combination.

Backed into the campus, the same old work with new perspectives and energy, the wander begins yet again.

If you want to gain enough of the subject – Construction Management, College of Science and Technology is not a wrong choice. I am proud first batch of students studying Masters in Construction Management; 6 years of gap after my undergraduate from the same college. Welcome to pursue Masters in Construction Management. However, profound disclaimer is, unlike Australia and other universities of foreign countries, there is no handsome remuneration or part-time job, but you get the full monthly salary if you are government and corporate employee. 

You are likely to be rich enough with subject knowledge after 18 months! 

College campus

 

རྩོམ་རྗོད་ཚིག་བདུན་མ། - ༥

མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭའི་ནང་དུ།།

དཔེ་དང་དོན་གྱི་གནས་ས།།

ཞིབ་འཚོལ་འབད་བའི་དུས་ཚོད།།

བཟོ་སྐྲུན་ལས་སྡེའི་དཀའ་ངལ།།

བསལ་ནིའི་བསམ་བློ་གཏང་ནས།།

ཕན་པ་རྒྱལ་གཞུང་མི་སེར།།

འགན་ཁུར་རང་གི་འབག་གེ།

 

Photo from University of Newcastle 

 

An Idle Gate

Idle – thee stands lone forever,

Frame – beholds thy form stand sturdy,

Color – persist an eternity whenever…

Thee shalt make unto CST graven image.

Idle gate unique to the changing greenery of campus. 

རྩོམ་རྗོད་ཚིག་བདུན་མ། - ༤

སྔོན་ལས་མ་རྫོགས་སློབ་སྦྱོང་འཕྲོ་བརྐྱང་དུ།།

ལྷབ་པ་འོང་བ་སེམས་རེད་དགའ་བའི་སྲུང་།།

སྒོ་ར་ནང་ལས་འཛུལཝ་ད་ཚོར་བ་མྱོང་།།

རྒྱལ་ཁབ་མི་སེར་ཡོངས་ལ་ཕན་པའི་འགན།།

ལྷན་ཚོགས་ནང་ལས་ནང་བའི་བཀའ་སློབ་དང་།།

རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཐུག་དོན་སྒྲུབས་པའི་འགན་ཁུར་འདིར།།

ཞི་ཡོག་བདག་གི་ཧིང་ལས་སྨོན་དེབ་འཕུལ།།

PS: Pardon the spelling err. 

ཚན་རིག་དང་འཕྲུལ་རིག་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ།

 

To First Year Students

Welcome my dear friends. Welcome to the College of Science and Technology. It is indeed great pleasure for me to see all young and energetic fresh ladies and gentlemen walking to and fro. Welcome once again. 

I want to share something that is relevant and you should know being a fresher in the college. Let me declare myself that I am not responsible to bluff or responsible person to let you know which sometimes you may think, ‘it is mere rubbish and I know how to act’. 

I know almost every high school friends these days dream of coming to CST. Courses offered are more or less same as what you want to pursue through government scholarships pertaining to technical trainings and studies. Moreover job market is good as compared to graduates from outside country. It is indeed the place where you can sigh for the hard work that you have put in. 

Many of you have come here out of necessity and few out of luxury. Every parent wants to see his/her son/daughter become either engineer or doctor. For the under privilege parent like me, it was my necessity to get admit here and support my parents and long chain relatives. And for those well-off, it is their luxury to become an engineer. My dear friends get inspire you and motivate to become good engineers. 

 

www.docstoc.com

When I was in first year, our previous director was worried for when College of Science and Technology (CST) is said to turn out to be the College of Sever Tension (CST). It was like virus among students and it goes viral to those coming as first year and I know you are aware of it. Getting in nineties and eighties or seventies in high school and expecting the same isn’t possible. Impossible because it is technical. I don’t mean someone should be genius like Einstein rather it is your logical power to get work done and be an exigent student and I know you all were toppers in school. Everything counts for hard work. You have a mountain to climb up. 

I know many of you have already chosen the narrow conduit, ‘what to do’. It is always great to know beforehand, what you are going to do. It is truth in itself to get enlighten yourself, what you are going to do and what you are going to be. Now you have come out from the narrow conduit and it is for you that you need to again get in the sharp conduit of ‘how to do’. Every possible and expected guidance and care will be given. The way which you need to go will be vividly shown adorn with the exigent character that you should not forget to nurture. It is in your hand as to how to manage you. 

You can’t expect the next four years to be like the last two years in your high school. Everyone is treated as an adult. No one will come forcing you to do what needs to be done for your own goodness. It is you that you are adult that need to be careful to maintain the journey and fuel accordingly. It will be your own dignity that needs to raise your head held high to justify that the college life is golden life. It is your own responsibility to get transform from and lazy sluggish caterpillar to a beautiful and lovable butterfly. And hope that transformation will be each and everyone’s definition to consider college life as Golden Life. 

Anywhere you go and dwell, there are assured rules and regulations that you need to abide by. The difference and privilege of seniority will be there. It is your stupidity if you can’t align to the norms of what is expected by universal. No senior will rag you neither scold you for nothing. It is their duty to remind you if you step away from your desired manner. Don’t feel bad instead except it as good and you should not forget that your turn will come to do the same as perceptive senior. 

So, lastly, where the knowledge is free; where the seniors aren't dominance; where you will learn to attain the ultimate joy of golden college life as caterpillars and worship to fly away as beautiful butterfly, I once more welcome you to the College of Science and Technology.

Thank you!! Be happy!!

It's not the end of Road

No matter how sensitive and conflict-ridden the consequences, failure in exams don’t spell the end of the road in a student's life. Success is not destiny. Failure is not fatal.  Evaluation is an important part of an education system, and failing is a part of it.

Failures at times can bring about an attitudinal change in life. Many students try to change their ways after they experience failure. The guilt of letting the parents and teachers down brings about a major change in their personality.

Exams are benchmark for judging a student. It is true that failure is not the end of the world but teachers are the ones who have made the student believe in this. The student cannot escape this pressure because the entire education system is geared around exams.

When failure isn’t expected, students get severely tensed and devastated.

When we fall short, experience a setback, or things just don’t go our way, we have two choices: give – up or regroup. One of the biggest problems with failure is when we think it means something to our worth or our value. If we can frame failure differently instead see it as an opportunity to learn and grow, then it stops being a source of self – criticism and self-doubt, and becomes a tool for self- improvement. And we can do it.  

CST, College of Science and Technology is only college in the country that offers various engineering degree courses. When it produces maximum engineers for it is sure the quality isn’t compromise. For that matter failure is guaranteed. 

Let us know!!

All are considered brilliant academically. Faculties considered us grown up and too treat as the same. From the moment of first assembly we were tagged grown up and yea we are. But what if you don’t know the difference between senior and junior? Isn’t it something that the grownup should know and have that skill to act accordingly?

First let me introduce CST. CST stands for College of Science and Technology. Once upon a time it was RTI (Royal Technical Institute) and in 2000 it was upgraded to RBIT (Royal Bhutan Institute of Technology) and later renamed the current name. Don’t misunderstand still for RTI and RBIT, which offered diploma and certificate once upon a time. Many enquire to say, are you in RTI? Whatever be it is only college that offers under graduate degree in Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, IT engineering and Electronics and Communication Engineering.

It is evident that only toppers can make through here. And the reason for us to tag grown up is clear and bold.

Once you are here, you should know that you are not only to learn from books. It is a place where you learn to socialize. It is place where you should know the fundamental nature of friendship and sharing. It will let you know the sense of brotherhood. And important thing you should know is the seniority. It is everywhere. You can’t avoid it wherever you go. If you can’t accept the fact of seniority then you are liable to be ragged and seniors will show that the fact that you should except and learn. This is what happens in western world and India. And CST doesn’t have this culture. This college will prepare to be what you are supposing to and survive in a real world. If someone can’t survive these facts then I doubt whether you will survive in real world?  

Ragging was not here. It is not here and it will not triumph in future too. There is one, that was here from the start of the college, still prevails and it will be in future- briefing.

Cool CST....

There are differences between ragging and briefing. Literally briefing mean information that is given to someone before they do something, or meeting where this happen. If somebody goes beyond the limit of what is desired by mass and if someone dare to deflect away from certain norms, deserve to get briefing. But no ragging!!

Ragging means baiting or bullying someone. In India and western world, we can see lots of student suicide because they can’t clutch the pain of embarrassment. They will be surrounded by seniors and harass them physically.

It is lucky enough that seniors in CST aren’t like that.  The post in Kuensel Forum is not true. He/she was too mean.They were briefed not ragged. They were briefed on timings that they failed to attend important occasions- teacher’s day and picnic with lectures. They were briefed on dress codes in dining hall, necessity to attend prayer which is held once a week and about zero tolerance of substance abuse. 

Remember that being best you are here and to be best in you is better than anyone else or yourself. We are not perfect, no one is, but you are academically sound, for if you were not, you wouldn’t be in this college and no one of us would be!!