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It is of major concern to the surveying profession that the seven years between 1994 and 2001 witnessed a decline in the numbers of UK student surveyors of nearly 50 per cent. This was significant, especially when considered in the context of rising student numbers overall. The RICS decided to implement an education policy with the aim of increasing graduate quality. Changes were introduced in UK universities from September 2001. A number of universities saw their professionally accredited courses withdrawn as the RICS imposed academic entry standards and research output based on the UK Government's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) criteria on which to base their “partnership” relationships. Figures released by the RICS in 2003 indicated that surveying student numbers increased by 17 per cent in all areas except building surveying, where they fell by just under 25 per cent to 445 in 2001. The paper seeks to answer a number of questions. Why were building surveying courses failing to recruit students whereas other surveying courses have increased their numbers? If the figures continue to decline or remain at these low levels, what is the future for the BS? In short, could building surveying become an endangered profession?

All UK university BS course leaders were approached by questionnaire and approximately half responded. The study was partly funded by the RICS Education Trust.

The small amount of quantitative data collected suggests that recruitment is static at a time when other built environment courses are recruiting well. Course leaders expressed strong views about the impact of the education reforms.

Failure by some BS course leaders to provide some statistical data prevented completion of the quantitative part of the study.

Key recommendations have been made to the BS Faculty Board of the RICS about the future of BS education.

Highlights some of the difficulties associated with the process of acquiring essential building surveying skills, and proposes the use of computer technology together with video‐disc technology, to improve and test knowledge acquisition. Outlines the current situation in surveying education, discussing class size, lecturer shortages, monitoring progress and the right teaching environment. Reviews communication media in the form of printed literature, videos, films and slides, concentrating on media interactivity, storage and quality. Explores computer‐aided learning and the state of education using these methods. Suggests that this form of education can provide the vehicle to test and improve the technical knowledge, competence and skill of a building surveyor.

There are rising issues with the delivery performance of Malaysian low-cost housing (LCH) because the occupants are inclined to perceive safety hazards. Among the safety issues raised during the occupancy period in LCH are structural instability and falling building fragments. Without defining the occupants’ requirements in the early housing development, it is hard to determine the prevailing safety factors. Hence, this paper emphasises the application of post occupancy evaluation (POE) that incorporates participation from the occupants as a tool to assess the safety performance of Malaysian LCH. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework of POE integrated with safety elements for Malaysian LCH.

This research was carried out with a quantitative method using questionnaires as the survey instrument involving safety inspection survey and satisfaction surveys. The inspection survey and Occupants’ Satisfaction Survey were carried out based on 24 LCH projects located in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In total, 380 samples were used for both surveys. Statistical correlation was used to affirm the incorporation of occupants’ participation towards safety performance in the POE approach. The Spearman’s rho (r) correlation was used in the analysis for variables in both surveys which consisted of an ordinal scale.

The correlation result revealed that there was a significant relationship among all safety attributes between safety performance and occupants’ satisfaction. Therefore, a framework consisting of POE and safety elements has been proposed based on the significance of both variables. The development process of the framework used the vital phases of POE and inputs of safety elements which consisted of three main stages: planning phase as safety input, conducting phase as safety process and applying phase as safety output.

The surveys were limited to the rented People’s Housing Programme located in Kuala Lumpur and not extensively to all LCH programmes in Malaysia. The surveys were also not carried out to other LCH programmes such as the Hardcore Poor Housing Programmes and the low- to medium-cost housing because of the limitations of time and resources.

This research has introduced a new dimension for safety performance assessment in LCH using the POE as the safety performance tool. By allowing the participation of occupants for safety assessment, this study stresses the fundamental concept of POE by highlighting the importance of obtaining feedback from the building occupants.

As a proactive measure, the proposed framework was introduced as an improved procedure to inspect safety performance in LCH during occupancy, in lieu of the current assessment process. Receiving complaints from the occupants after the occurrence of incidents is demarcated as a reactive approach, whereas the current inspection survey does not incorporate the occupants’ participation. Feedback from occupants is not a routine of building assessment during occupancy; hence, using POE is generally a new dimension of safety performance in Malaysian LCH.

This paper seeks to present the second part of research funded by the RICS Education Trust to investigate the impact of the 2001 education reforms on Building Surveying. The first part of the research involved the collection of data from university course leaders.

This research involved the collection of data from large national, mainly London‐based, employers of building surveyors at a focus group meeting.

The paper finds that issues of concern to these employers include the extent of construction technology knowledge of graduates, the delivery of contract administration, the placement year, post‐graduate conversion courses and the high referral rate for the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC). Recommendations include advice to universities on the design of building surveying undergraduate and conversion courses, a call for further research on the high APC referral rate, and greater liaison between industry and universities.

The main limitation of the research is that the employers from whom data were collected were mainly large, national firms. Further research would be required to elicit the views of smaller regional organisations.

Both parts of this RICS Education Trust funded research provides a foundation for the Building Surveying Faculty of the RICS to complete their review of the education and training of building surveyors.

The research provides useful data on the impact of RICS education reform on building surveying, but mainly large, national firms.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the implementation of building information modelling (BIM) concepts of the various processes involved in building surveying practice can lead to a reduction in waste. In turn leading to a synergy between BIM functionalities and lean production concepts.

To verify and validate the existence of this synergy between the two methods in building surveying, evidences were gathered from previous literature that supports these interactions. Next, a questionnaire was conducted for the purpose of identifying new interactions and providing further evidence to support existing interactions. Finally, based on the findings from previous literature and the results of the questionnaire, an interaction matrix was constructed linking the two concepts with the relevant evidence found.

The results of the questionnaire show that the BIM functionality with the highest interactions, maintenance of information integrity, had a high correlation with the reduction of variability, cycle time, batch size and promoting standardization of value flow. 4 D model-based scheduling, the second highest functionality, showed a high correlation with the reduction of variability, cycle time, batch size and an increase in the use of visual management. Finally, the results of the interaction matrix between the two concepts showed that the BIM functionalities with the most interactions were maintenance of information integrity, visualization of form and the automated generation of models and documents. The lean principles with the most interactions were reducing variability, cycle time, batch size as well as “enables visual management”. While most of these interactions were positive, negative interactions were also observed. These negative interactions were due to the fact that the level of competency and knowledge in BIM for building surveyors is at reduced levels which can lead to increased human errors.

The significance of this study is to provide the basis for building surveying organizations who wish to implement BIM and how this would lead to a synergy between BIM functionalities and lean principles. Both positive and negative interactions were considered to provide these organizations with different options for waste elimination.

Although studies have shown the relevance of building information modeling (BIM) in cost estimating process, efforts at investigating BIM based detailed cost estimating among professional quantity surveyors through quantitative approach are scanty. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the usage of BIM-based detailed cost estimating software and assesses the drivers to BIM adoption within the Nigerian quantity surveying consulting firms.

A comprehensive literature review, pilot study and questionnaire survey were adopted. The survey targeted both the BIM users and non- BIM users’ quantity surveying consulting firms in Lagos, Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean score, standard deviation, Mann–Whitney test and factor analysis.

The study found that 46.58 per cent of quantity surveying consulting firms are aware of BIM and have adopted it for detailed cost estimating, while 49.32 per cent of quantity surveying consulting firms are aware but have not adopted BIM-based detailed cost estimating, and 4.10 per cent of quantity surveying consulting firms are not aware at all. Also, the study identified various BIM-based detailed cost estimating software used in quantity surveying practices and found that Microsoft Excel is often used alongside 3D software, Autodesk QTO, Navisworks, Innovaya Composer and CostX are prevalent BIM software used for detailed cost estimating. In addition, the study identified 21 drivers to the adoption of BIM in quantity surveying practices. The result of factor analysis grouped the 21 identified drivers into five principal factors: improved whole lifecycle/design quality, enhanced decision and visualization, cost and time saving, marketing and support for quantity surveyor tasks and government and client pressure.

This study provides significant insight into the application of BIM to quantity surveying consulting practices, thereby enabling consultant quantity surveyors to make informed decisions to select BIM cost estimating software to suit their practices. Further, the study findings can be useful for individuals’, clients’ and contractors’ quantity surveyors to be fully aware of the opportunities BIM could bring in relation to their service delivery.

Accurate cost estimating, effective cost monitoring and control are essential elements to a construction project success. This study further emphasized the importance of BIM to quantity surveying practices, particularly in the area of the detailed cost estimating.

This paper explores the patterns of the current needs of users' social characteristics in post occupancy evaluation (POE) associated with the environmental performance of green buildings using systematic literature review (SLR). This paper aims to establish a conceptual nexus between environmental performance mandates and the current needs of the users' social characteristics.

This paper adopts a SLR approach designed using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for 21 articles that were selected as qualitative synthesis in this study. The search parameter for the selected articles in this review was limited to publications in three databases, Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald, between January 2016 and January 2023, with the help of qualitative software ATLAS.ti 9© in the presentation of the network codes. The initial literature search has retrieved 99 papers which sequentially excluded 42 papers due to exclusion criteria, and the researcher was left with 57 papers. Out of 57, 14 papers were then removed due to duplication of records found in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and 43 articles were further screened for qualitative synthesis. A thorough critical appraisal was applied to ensure that only selected papers were included, consensus was achieved among the authors and 22 papers were excluded. The qualitative synthesis has finalized 21 studies, and they are selected as confirmative findings.

Using network codes presentation of ATLAS.ti 9©, the result shows that the social characteristics are influenced by the evaluated building category and the users' category – the stakeholders (owners, designers) and the occupants. New-fangled elements in environmental performance mandates are legitimacy and accessibility. The users’ social characteristics are derived from the category of users, where the stakeholders (designers, owners) are relatively a novel benchmark in meeting the POE objectives towards environmental performance. The least attention on the users’ social characteristics based on the findings shows that image, experiential (conjoint), happiness, interactive behaviour, morale and values are depicted as the social current needs in the environmental performance using POE. However, all stakeholders and the building occupants’ social characteristics must have a confirmative relation to the performance mandates, especially for newly performance mandates elements: legitimacy and accessibility.

The research limits the literature search between the recent January 2016 and January 2023 in Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald databases. Limiting the year of publication to the recent years is important to select and rank relevant scientific papers which encompass the reviewed subject. Other limitations include the selection of papers focusing on the POE approach and environmental performance as the main subject of evaluation. Other evaluation purposes that are not related to environmental objectives are excluded in this study.

The characteristics of the social elements become a challenging subject in meeting the environmental performance needs as they lean more towards intangible elements. The novelty of the findings is drawn from the new pattern and current needs of users' social characteristics in POE for environmental performance.

Three dimensional (3 D) laser scanner surveying is widely used in many fields, such as agriculture, mining and heritage documentation and can be of great benefit for as-built documentation in construction and facility management domains. However, there is lack of applied research and use cases integrating 3 D laser scanner surveying with building information modeling (BIM) for existing facilities in Malaysia. This study aims to develop a scan to as-built BIM workflow to use 3 D laser scanner surveying and create as-built building information models of an existing complex facility in Malaysia.

A case study approach was followed to develop a scan to as-built BIM workflow through four main steps: 3 D laser scanning, data preprocessing, data registration and building information modeling.

This case study proposes a comprehensive scan to as-built BIM workflow which illustrates all the required steps to create a precise 3 D as-built building information model from scans. This workflow was successfully implemented to the Eco-Home facility at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Scan to as-built BIM is a digital alternative to manual and tedious process of documentation of as-built condition of a facility and provides a detail process using laser scans to create as-built building information models of facilities.

This paper presents the findings of a research project which investigates the market for the chartered building surveyor to act as the “panel expert” for insurance companies in domestic subsidence claims cases. The key players in the process of a claim are considered and hypotheses, that building surveyors are discriminated against in favour of engineers, and that this is due to the training of each profession, are stated. The hypotheses are tested by questionnaire studies of building surveying firms, insurance companies, loss adjusters and higher education institutions. The hypotheses are largely confirmed but the results throw interesting light on the subject. The paper concludes with recommendations for professional bodies and universities to assist those surveyors wishing to practise in an increasingly important area of work.

Deals with the surveying of stone slate roofs within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Initially examines the history of stone slating in the area and then identifies problems today due to lack of new materials and loss of craft techniques. Gives practical advice on the surveying of the roof coverings and preliminary guidance on preparation and equipment. This is then followed by a standard format approach to the survey dealing with the coverings, ridge, verge and other details, followed by the internal inspection and condition of the slates, battens and fixings. Discusses costings and concludes that a standard format is the most suitable and that the building professional should be aware of regional variations when working with the material. Detailed surveys of the roof will allow repairs and replacement to be specified confidently.