Impact of RICS education reforms

Citation

Hoxley, M. (2002), "Impact of RICS education reforms", Structural Survey, Vol. 20 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.2002.11020daa.001

Impact of RICS education reforms

Impact of RICS education reforms

After one academic year of operation of the new entry requirements for RICS accredited courses we are in a position to predict their likely impact. What is clear is that there is likely to be a severe shortage of graduates in some disciplines of surveying in two and three years' time. At one UK university with which the writer is familiar (it is not his own) there were 45 graduates from the Building Surveying degree this year. All of these graduates had a job upon graduation and the university concerned is unable to satisfy local and regional demand for graduates and year-out sandwich students. This year a cohort of less than one-third of the size of the final year "completed" the first year. I say "completed" because many of these so-called high flying academic entrants have to re-sit subjects they have failed at the end of the summer. Ironically, students studying virtually the same diet of subjects but on a technician level degree did remarkably better than the high-flyers. The students on the technician course are, of course, mainly mature, lacking high academic qualifications but more highly motivated to succeed. Some of the best building surveying students that the writer has taught have been ex-tradesmen studying late in life. What every academic knows (but which the RICS seems incapable of grasping) is that it is outputs not inputs that matter when assessing any educational endeavour.

The scandal of this situation is that the RICS is not being completely honest with its membership about the motive for these reforms. No-one could possibly argue with the wish to raise standards, but it is only the level of salaries that will determine the calibre of applicants for surveying courses. The gamble that the RICS is taking is that, by restricting demand, in a couple of years' time salary levels will be forced upwards. This may be to the ultimate good of the profession, as school leavers are attracted on to surveying courses by these higher salaries. However, in two years' time there are likely to be many disgruntled practitioners trying to recruit a graduate who is unlikely to be available and, if he or she is, is likely to be very expensive to employ. I would suggest that these same practitioners are likely to be more concerned with their own profit margins than with entertaining altruistic notions about their profession. The big risk of this strategy is of course that other professions may step into the void created by this lack of capacity. For building surveyors this situation may arise at a particularly unfortunate time when their workloads are rising, coinciding as it will with client demand fuelled by deadlines imposed by legislation on disabled access, asbestos management and possibly home selling. Of course what may save the blushes of the RICS (and make the entire endeavour a complete waste of time) is that we may have hit another recession by then!

Papers in this issue

I apologise to our international readers for the above airing of domestic linen in public. To make up for this diversion there are some papers of an international flavour and origin in this issue. Yiu et al.'s paper on contractor selection for small building works in Hong Kong is particularly interesting as it highlights the problem of the relatively high tendering costs of such work. Although based on case studies in Hong Kong, the paper will be of interest to anyone involved with organising relatively low cost repair and maintenance work. Also originating from Hong Kong is Balendran et al.'s paper on the strength and durability of high performance concrete incorporating pozzolans at elevated temperatures. Pickard and Pickerill's paper is the second of two papers which take an international perspective of conservation finance. Of particular interest to UK based surveyors will be Wynn's paper on flood defences and the surveyor, and Swerling's paper on changes in legislation that impact upon commercial lease renewals.

Mike Hoxley