Alignment of academic and industrial development needs for quantity surveyors: the views of industry and academia

Abstract

Education and training of Quantity Surveyors (QS) is subjected to conflicting pressures; firstly from Academic Institutions, which seek to address the academic learning of students; secondly from Industry, which is the graduate employer and thirdly the Professional Body, the regulator of the profession. This can cause tensions between these main stakeholders resulting in greater levels of employer and graduate dissatisfaction and obstacles to early career development of the Quantity Surveying graduate. These problems are further exacerbated in the current economic recession. The research investigates the changing developmental needs of QS within a post recession industrial environment. These must satisfy the aspirations of industrial, academic and professional stakeholders such as the RICS. The RICS provide a comprehensive list of basic, core and optional competencies for the QS. These were comprehensively reviewed to provide the basis for the survey questionnaires with the use of an Expert Forum and literature. Two detailed surveys were conducted; one to obtain views of the industry and the other targeting academia with respect to the RICS QS competencies and the debate of “training versus education”. The research revealed that the stakeholders, mainly the employers and academics, hold diverse views of the development needs for graduate QS. There is wide spread variation in the interpretations, the expected levels of attainment and the perceptions of the level of actual achievement of competencies by graduate QSs. The research proposes a framework that enables to define expectations, ambitions, and practical constraints in QS education that will lead to better understanding, effective collaboration and greater satisfaction in producing a Quantity Surveying graduate who will be seen as fulfilling the requirements of all stakeholders