About this course
- Entry year: 2012/13
- Course code: K230
- Applications: Full-time: UCAS
- Level: Undergraduate
- Tariff points: 280
- Department: Construction and Property
- Campus: Frenchay
- Duration: Three years full-time, four years sandwich, five years part-time (day release)
Part-time applicants please see 'How to Apply' section to download an application form.
- Delivery: Full-time, part-time day release, sandwich
- Study Abroad: No
- Programme leader: David Evans
Introduction
BSc(Hons) Building Surveying gives you a sound knowledge of the factors affecting property design and performance, whilst encouraging you to appreciate the wider social and economic framework influencing construction and property management.
In the National Student Survey 2009, UWE Bristol was ranked equal 3rd for Building courses, measured by overall student satisfaction.
The course aims to provide a broadly based education that reflects both academic depth and relevance to current Building Surveying practice. You study a diverse range of subjects that encompass: building design and technology, related sciences, defect analysis, applied economics, property law, refurbishment and property management. Skills development is an essential feature of the course and includes: team working, management, presentations, report writing, sketching, drawing, CAD, and IT including spreadsheets and word processing.
Whilst the course shares modules with other related programmes in the first year, the building surveying focus increases in subsequent years. At least half a module in each year involves you working with students from related disciplines. For full-time students, the Department's inter-professional approach includes projects where you will work with students from other disciplines within the built environment. This encourages mutual respect and understanding of the professions which you are likely to be working with during your career, and helps you to develop and practise the skills of presentation, negotiation, communication, and delegation.
Student's view
Interview with a graduate student
"I think the greatest challenge of building surveying, and what makes it fun, is the responsibility that comes with it. Building surveyors play a very central role in a construction project: all the information really goes through them. You need to monitor the job, see what people are doing, see where the project is going, and try and steer it back on course if necessary. One thing that you will learn very quickly as a building surveyor is your interpersonal skills."
Richard Virr
Structure
Content
Building Surveying encompasses a wide range of activities related to design, construction and property management. Whilst emphasis is placed on existing buildings, building surveyors are involved in all aspects of buildings, from conception, feasibility, design and construction to their strategic and tactical management, repair refurbishment, conversion and conservation.
The role of a building surveyor
The following information is adapted from the RICS website www.rics.org.
Building surveyors provide professional advice on property and construction for commercial companies and consultants, central and local government, and private individuals.
Building surveyors work in many areas of property and construction and no description of the services provided can be exhaustive. Building surveying firms, for example, are involved in areas such as planning and expert witness building surveyors can work in local authority building control. However, a building surveyor operating in the property and construction sector will undertake the majority of the following:
Construction design and building works (including conservation and historic buildings)
From the inception of a project the building surveyor liaises with the client to determine their requirements, inspect the site and develop a brief.
The building surveyor can provide advice on:
- Cost, timetable and legal approvals required to ensure that quality, time and cost requirements are met
- The selection of other consultants, such as designers and engineers
- The condition of an existing building.
Having decided to proceed with a project the building surveyor can:
- Prepare design sketches and drawings
- Advise on project costs and timetable
- Prepare specifications of work and contract documents
- Submit local authority applications
- Advise on legislative issues
- Suggest procurement routes, appropriate forms of contract and advise on tender lists
- Obtain prices for the work.
Once the project has started on site the building surveyor can administer the contract to ensure that it is built to the standards agreed and the contractual obligations are met, and agree the final cost on completion.
Building surveys and measured surveys
The building surveyor can undertake a building survey of a property and advise on matters such as the condition, defects and remedies, and the need for specialist investigation. Measured surveys can be produced to provide dimensional information on land or property or as a preliminary service before the start of building work.
Defect investigation and maintenance advice
A building surveyor can provide advice on the existing condition of a property and its future maintenance liability. She or he can review the effect on maintenance of life cycle costing, comparing the cost now against the future maintenance and replacement costs to match the anticipated building life and expenditure. The building surveyor can also prepare a planned maintenance programme and encourage preventative cost effective maintenance.
Insurance assessment and claims
The building surveyor can assist in preparing an assessment of the cost of replacing a building in accordance with a client's insurance policy. If a client needs to make a claim, the building surveyor can liaise with the insurer and loss adjuster.
Property legislation
Advice can be provided on many areas of property legislation such as planning, public health, historic buildings, boundary disputes and fire precautions and means of escape. The building surveyor can also act as an expert witness or an arbitrator if there is a dispute.
Dilapidations
The building surveyor can advise on the extent of a tenant's liabilities under a lease, and negotiate a financial settlement at lease expiry.
CDM regulations: planning supervisor role
Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations most construction work requires the appointment of a Planning Supervisor to ensure that health and safety is considered throughout the design and construction process. In this role the building surveyor will ensure that a Health and Safety Plan governing the conduct of the works on site, and a Health and Safety File, containing information for future use, are produced in accordance with the Regulations.
Project management and monitoring
Building surveyors can also act as a Project Manager/Employers Agent for larger projects, co-ordinating the design team and providing strategic advice on all construction issues. She or he can also act on behalf on investment funds and banks to appraise the work, monitor its progress and authorise payments.
Miscellaneous services
Other services provided by building surveyors:
- Approval of plans submitted by lessees and inspection of the building works
- Acting as an Approved Inspector; examining building or proposed plans and work on site to ensure that they comply with the Building Act and Building Regulations
- Working in local authority building control
- Surveying a property to see if it meets the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act
- Providing energy efficiency advice
Teaching and learning
Teaching methods are varied depending on the module; lectures, studios, project work and tutorials all have a part.
The teaching staff provide a friendly, enabling environment for learning. They are also actively engaged in research or professional practice, ensuring that you learn directly from the latest academic and business developments.
Each year normally has a mix of A-level, Access, and students with National or Higher National Certificates or Diplomas. Tutorial groupings in the first year combine the relative experience and skills of the students.
Modules are assessed through a balance of examinations and coursework in each year. Coursework may include essays, reports, portfolios of drawings or sketches, calculations, lab reports, presentations, projects, studios and, in the final year, a dissertation. Whilst most coursework involves individual submissions, some modules in each year require teamwork. Examinations are held in either January or May.
Study time
The course may be studied either full-time (with or without a sandwich placement year) or part-time by day release, and you may switch modes if your circumstances change. The day release course is designed to take five years but may be extended if necessary.
Some students start with a year full-time, then complete the course with a further three years part-time, so they can work to support themselves, and gain valuable work experience. Many employers will pay fees and give time off for part-time students.
Special Features
Professional accreditation
The course satisfies the academic requirements for full membership of RICS Building Surveying. On successful completion of the course, you are required to spend a minimum of two years in practice, and pass an Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) set by the RICS before gaining full membership. Details of RICS membership requirements can be found at www.rics.org
Placements
If you are doing the full-time course, you may spend your third year in a placement to gain practical experience, and to qualify for a 'sandwich' degree. The integration of a placement into courses is highly favoured by employers, and you will normally be paid by your placement employer. A placement connects university with work, allowing you to consolidate your knowledge and skills by applying them in a professional situation in the real world. This experience will also enrich and focus your final year studies. A year's income is also useful to many students. We offer support and guidance to help you find a placement, and you will be visited by a tutor who will also be available if you have any problems.
Your placement can enable you to complete one year of the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) which means that you could become a member of the RICS only one year after graduation, which increases your appeal to potential employers.
Interview with a placement student
"My name's Sally Gilbert, and in my year out in placement I worked for a company in the USA called Facility Engineering Associates. They are an engineering firm that specialises in condition assessment, repair and restoration, structural engineering. Although in America they don't have a specialism called building surveying, they are engineers and we fitted very much in to their area of expertise.
"I was a Project Engineer, and I went out on various projects. There were four different departments and we were encouraged to go out with all four, doing repair and restoration, geotechnical work, condition assessments (which we would know as surveys) and all sorts of other different types of work.
"We were based in Washington DC so there was opportunity to go to some pretty amazing buildings. Early on in my placement I was working on the Capital Building and we did some night work there, so I got stand on the dome late at night. I also did some work at the Watergate hotel, which is also famous for the scandal with Nixon.
"In a typical week, we would come in to the office on a Monday and do the usual admin kind of work. Then we'd have a group meeting and you'd be assigned a project and a project manager and you'd spend part of that week, maybe all that week out on a particular project. Typically projects lasted three or four days on site and then you would come back and write up your reports. Every week was very different for me, which was great and I also got involved in some design projects, some roof redesigns.
"I was lucky enough to get a lot of responsibility fairly early on in my role. I was very pleased to be offered a project management role at the Watergate hotel. The company were looking at selling it and wanted a condition assessment, so I co-ordinated the lift consultants, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing consultants, co-ordinated with the client and the engineers on site, so that was very good. Later on in my time I had some much smaller projects, such as a small housing development and again I saw that through from start to finish and just had my work over looked by a senior member of the staff.
"My job required a lot of teamwork. On most reasonable sized projects there's between four and eight people working on it and you all have different responsibilities, but you have to co-ordinate with one another when you come back to the office to write your report as it all has to be consistent.
"I came in to contact with all sorts of interesting people, and I did see Hilary Clinton and George Bush in a car! We worked with clients, owners of buildings, structural engineers, people who ran the airports, engineers at the airport.
"I think what I enjoyed most about the job was it's varied role, mostly you'd be working with different people every week, it certainly kept you on you toes and the extremes of temperature in America were quite interesting.
"Building surveyors have responsibility for all sorts of different things in the construction industry, but basically we are concerned with the fabric of a building, and mostly buildings that are already in existence. Usually there are issues such as the building coming to the end of its expected life, and we look at why a building is failing and come up with solutions. We do a bit of design, we touch on quantity surveying, project management, and a lot of building surveyors specialise in historic buildings.
"My background is construction, primarily in the manufacture of building materials, and I was looking for more challenges and I shadowed a building surveyor with the national trust and enjoyed it very much.
"My advice to anyone considering a career in building is to make sure you've got some thermals because it gets very cold outside! And spend some time with someone shadowing before you take the course, and do a work placement.
"When I came to UWE for an interview before I started the course, I was very impressed with how personable the Department was. I was also impressed by the facilities here. I didn't look at many other universities because I was keen to come to Bristol. They are very supportive, and for most of the lectures we have a tutorial so you can bring up any concerns.
"I have to say the course was very challenging, it's very varied, no one week is the same. Only in our last year do we have four modules right across the full year but in previous years you're changing modules every semester, so no sense of getting bored.
"I think a sandwich course is an excellent idea. I had work experience already, but I have seen the benefits for the younger students in my peer group. It's made them much more confident, seeing the working environment. It makes you much more marketable when it comes to getting a job at the end.
"The skills that really developed for me were my essay writing skills, which have been incredibly helpful in my report writing. And being part of a team and interacting with younger people has been something that's been great for me. I've really enjoyed splitting my time between my peer group and getting in to student life and then my friends that are older.
"As a mature student, qualifications weren't so important for me, and it was pretty much my construction industry work experience that got me onto the course.
"In my first year I lived with a friend in Bristol, I rented a room from her. In my second year I decided to go for the full blown student experience and I lived with five guys, four of whom were from my course, we had an interesting experience and it was good fun.
"I think the social life in Bristol is excellent. I come from London originally and one of my concerns was that I would miss the theatre and the arts but in fact, Bristol is brilliant. It has great theatres and fringe play houses, everything is geared towards students and is cheaper, and there are some great bars and good clubs.
"Whilst I love the buzz of London, it's not a very friendly city. I lived there for twenty years and it's rare to bump into anyone you know whilst walking around the west end or city of London. What I love about Bristol is its incredibly small community spirit in what is essentially a big city. Certainly when you're in the student pubs and clubs you nearly always bump in to someone you know, it's a very friendly environment. I also like the fact it's close to Wales and lots of other outdoor places where you can go walking and mountain biking. It's incredibly well positioned and it's only two and a half hours from London."
Fieldwork
Field trips, in the UK and Europe, and visits are an essential and integral element of the course, as are links with the surveying profession.
In the induction week at the start of your first year, there is three day visit to a field centre in Wales. There you will take part in activities and visits as an introduction to the course, your lecturers and your fellow students. The activities are designed to help you to get to know each other and to develop teamwork, and do not involve spending nights in a sodden tent or hanging off a cliff on the end of a rope!
Other visits during the year will be made to construction sites and historic buildings in places such as Bath and the National Trust village of Lacock.
In November of your second year we will visit recent graduates working in London, who show us the buildings on which they are working, and also a landmark construction project and a notable building. This is in addition to visits in and around Bristol, to see sites and properties and to hear from recent graduates. In the second year, you can also opt to join a Foster Firm scheme that provides a number of site and office based visits.
In your final year, we have a six day field course in a European city, exploring issues of sustainability and conservation of historic buildings, comparing practice with the UK.
You are asked to contribute to the costs of field courses.
Study facilities
A range of specialist facilities are provided by the Department. A suite of computer rooms supports software for word processing, data analysis and spatial enquiry. They provide access to e-mail and internet, including Faculty and University websites which enable you to use a vast number of specialist electronic journals and publications, and resources provided by lecturers to support their modules.
A Project Room provides space for you to work on individual and group assignments, together with a range of materials and equipment. An audio-visual group provides support for photography, digital imaging, filming and sound recording.
There are well equipped laboratories for concrete and environmental services, environmental physics, earth sciences, and surveying technology, each with specialist technicians supporting both teaching and research.
The Department is based in a large modern building, to which a new set of studios and teaching rooms (designed by a member of the Department) have recently been added.
Student representatives sit on a wide range of committees at University and Faculty level, where they can influence discussions and decisions which affect your learning experience.
Careers/further study
Building Surveyors evaluate the design, construction and performance of all types of buildings, and advise property owners on how to maintain, refurbish, conserve, convert and restore existing buildings, and administer or advise on building regulations. Building Surveyors have an interest in design and technology, geography and sustainability.
Graduate destinations
Find out what our graduates are doing six months after graduating- includes examples of careers, employers and further study. Download a PDF from graduate destinations.
Key employer partnerships
The course is supported by a group of employers who contribute towards resources used in teaching, offer sponsorship and placements to students, and who are keen to employ our graduates. Find out more about our construction partner employers.
Creating employable students
UWE places strong emphasis on employability and skills development at every level. Through work placements, volunteering, study abroad and UWE initiatives which nurture talent and encourage innovation, students gain valuable real world experience and graduate with diverse career opportunities and a competitive place in the job market.
See great graduate prospects for further information.
Be inspired
Read about some of the key jobs in construction and property.
Useful links
UWE - careers in surveying
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
The UWE careers service provides guidance and support throughout your studies in addition to useful resources, CV checks, career coaching and details of current job vacancies.
Entry
Typical offers
- Tariff points: 280
- GCSE: Maths and English Language at grade C or above required.
- Specific subjects: None specified
- Access: Achievement of the Access to HE Diploma; achievement of level 2 credits in Maths and English Language.
Advice on typical offers
In addition to the 'typical offer' given here, please read the general information about entry requirements.
Advanced entry
If you have a Foundation Degree, Higher National Certificate or Diploma, you can apply for entry into the second year (full-time) or third year (part-time) of the course. With an HNC, you should aim for Merits in all your H2 (generally second year) units, where a Distinction can cancel a Pass.
Fees
Full-time
For more information on fees please visit our money matters page.
Part-time
The fees for the academic year starting in September 2012 for part-time students are £750 for each 10 credits. Credits are the measure of an amount of study, and part-time students will normally study around 60 credits in the first and second years, 75 credits in the third and fourth years and 90 credits in the fifth year.
You pay the fees one year at a time. You can pay all the fees at the start of the year or you can pay in instalments over the first three to six months each year. For more information on payment of fees please visit our money matters page. You can also now take advantage of the fees loan from the Government.
You or your employer can, if you wish, pay some of the fees with the rest coming from the Government fees loan. If you decide to do this, we recommend that you apply for the maximum fees loan as early as possible, because it can take a while to be processed and it is easier to reduce the fees loan later (when you know how much you or your employer wish to pay) than it is to increase the fees loan.
How to apply
Please see the general information about applications.
Students who successfully complete the Built and Natural Environments Foundation course may be permitted to transfer onto the first year of this degree course.
We welcome applications from students without the conventional entrance requirements but who do have substantial relevant work or other experience and whose motivation and skills would enable them to succeed on the course.
Students with disabilities
We welcome applications from people with disabilities.
Following is a list of the types of activities that the course normally involves. We are committed to supporting students with disabilities, and wherever possible we will make reasonable adjustments to these activities to enable students with disabilities to successfully complete the course. We encourage applicants to disclose any disabilities or support needs in their application forms, so that we can offer information, advice and support. There is a Disability Service at UWE Bristol and a Disability Support Co-ordinator in the Faculty.
- Use a computer
- Read and produce drawings, plans and maps
- Visually inspect buildings and locations, including physical movement around and through buildings and locations
- Visually inspect construction sites, including physical movement around and through construction sites
- Participate in field courses or activities away from the University
- Measure distances and sizes of buildings, materials or sites
- Team working and negotiation
- Laboratory work involving observations and physical manipulation
- Take part in discussions and presentations
Open days
We run open days throughout the year, when you can meet lecturers and current students, see the facilities and resources that we offer, and visit the student accommodation. Please ask for details. For further information regarding the course, you are welcome to contact: David Evans (Programme Leader) David15.Evans@uwe.ac.uk or Julian Spicer (Admissions) fet.admissions@uwe.ac.uk, +44 (0)117 32 84242
For further information
Page last updated 14 December 2011