Abstract
The construction industry is highly fragmented and is known for its adversarial culture, culminating in poor quality projects not completed on time or within budget. The aim of this study is thus to guide the design of quantity surveying (QS) programme curricula in order to help students develop the requisite knowledge and skills to work more collaboratively in their multidisciplinary future workplaces. A qualitative approach was considered appropriate as the authors were concerned with gathering an initial understanding of what students think of multidisciplinary learning. The data collection method used was a questionnaire developed by the Behaviours4Collaboration (B4C) team. Knowledge gaps were still found across all the key areas in which a future QS practitioner needs to be collaborative (either as a Project Contributor or as a Project Leader), despite the need for change instigated by the multidisciplinary revolution in building information modelling (BIM) education. The study concludes that universities will need to be selective in teaching, and innovative in reorienting, QS education so that a collaborative BIM education can be effected in stages, increasing in complexity as the students’ technical knowledge grows. This will help students to build the competencies needed to make them future leaders. It will also support programme currency and delivery.
Highlights
The construction industry is changing rapidly due to changing clients’ needs, global trends and the gradual introduction of new and disruptive technologies and processes to improve efficiency (Celik, 2013; Shayan et al, 2019)
The module is designed to promote reflection on individual and team working and the multidisciplinary nature of built environment (BE) projects, so that students are encouraged to practise and further develop both the discipline-based and the generic key skills required by a Built Environment (BE) professional, including collaborative working and interpersonal skills
Collaborative multidisciplinary learning has become an inevitable trend in recent years due to the need for academics to educate undergraduates so they can work effectively in collaborative teams, putting together virtual buildings and capable of taking care of our built and natural environments
Summary
The construction industry is changing rapidly due to changing clients’ needs, global trends and the gradual introduction of new and disruptive technologies and processes to improve efficiency (Celik, 2013; Shayan et al, 2019) It is widely believed, especially among industry practitioners, that built environment curricula are slow to respond to these changes, as explicated in successive studies (for example: Beckman et al, 1997; McHardy and Allan, 2000; Owusu-Manu et al, 2014; Palm and Staffansson Pauli, 2018, among others). The process of designing, constructing and maintaining a building or facility requires several individuals and built environment professionals working together to achieve the desired project outcomes Such professionals include architects, architectural technologists, engineers, Industry and Higher Education 35(3). The education of practitioners to this end has never been so important and worthy of further investigation (Babatunde et al, 2018; Beckman et al, 1997; Palm and Staffansson Pauli, 2018; Scott, 2015, 2016)
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