CIOB proposes relocating degrees to business faculties to overcome fatal unpopularity of construction courses at UK universities
The warnings about the demise of university construction courses in Sir John Fairclough's Rethinking Construction Innovation and Research report have attracted sympathy from the CIOB and at least one university lecturer – even though they are among the groups that come under fire.

"If the current rates of decline were to continue, the number of students in the built environment would rapidly collapse," concluded the report, published in February. "By 2009 the number of applicants to civil engineering courses would have fallen to zero, while the last applicant to building and construction courses would enter university by 2012."

Fairclough went on to warn that the rate of decline showed little sign of slowing.

He accused the professional institutions of contributing to the problem by jealously guarding their territory and promoting a limited picture of potential career paths and rewards. He also called on the industry to devise a broad qualification across the whole process of design, environmental planning, project planning, construction and beyond.

Chris Blythe, CIOB chief executive, agreed, and pointed out that if the current rate of decline continued the courses would close long before 2012 because they would clearly have lost their viability.

"We could get round it by pushing the degree out of the construction faculty and more into a business context," he said. "We would then need to find some way of dealing with the technical side."

According to Blythe, the industry was moving down that road already.

"We're starting to see a subtle shift in the age of new members that indicates people coming to us after they've finished a degree have been picked up by a construction company and are now seeking qualifications in our industry."

He also accepted that the professional institutions were hindering rather than helping. "There are a few sacred cows around, a few too many lines in the sand. We have our partnerships but there is always the opportunity to do a lot more. It takes time."

Albert McIlveen, senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes, said the challenge was to capture the imaginations of young people so they wanted to get involved in the industry.

Despite the relatively good starting salary for construction management graduates (£24,000, against the national average of £17,000), McIlveen says he still has to make do with an intake that has only mediocre A-levels.

"I'd give one of my digits to get 25 BCC-grade students here," he said. "It's the responsibility of the CIOB and the universities to develop a degree course that's more exciting, that leads to the feeling that you might make the world a better place. As it is even third-year students often have only a vague idea of how the industry works. Part of that is because of the fragmentation and because the various disciplines only want to teach their bit."

To view the report, visit www.dti.gov.uk/construction and select Fairclough Review.

Source

Construction Manager