Building surveying education within UK higher education institutions: exploring patterns, trends and future developments

Purpose: This research aims to identify the prevailing provision of building surveying educational courses within the United Kingdom (UK) and examine the pressures confronting the higher education (HE) sector via a critical analysis of published data. Such work has not been previously undertaken. An in-depth discussion is presented with an accompanying theoretical model of institutional decision-making which highlights the deleterious impacts of utilising prevailing statistical indicators to measure the sector’s performance. Design/methodology/approach: An inductive and interpretivist methodological approach was adopted that utilises a three-stage “waterfall” approach to analyse secondary data. A sample of HE institutions offering building surveying courses is then critically analysed in terms of: course provisions and geographical location; prevailing accreditation and isolation from alternative courses within the wider built environment; and course performance and student satisfaction. Findings: While statistical performance criteria used to measure building surveying courses’ performance meets UK Government-imposed checks and balances it systematically fails to align with societal needs to adequately repair, manage and improve building stock. The polemic discourse presented concludes that established wisdom regarding course performance measurement requires reconsideration to enable the HE sector to meet society’s future building and infrastructure demands. Originality/value: A novel approach to analysing building surveying course provisions is provided that utilises the tools, techniques and methods adopted by governments and HE institutions themselves to measure course performance. The findings presented constitute the first attempt to critically analyse how the current modus operandi is impacting upon educational provisions.