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The ever-changing market for the construction sector in Hong Kong is having a profound impact on the employability of its professionals. To produce ‘preferred’ graduates, tertiary education institutions need to obtain feedback from professional bodies and other industry stakeholders on course curricula in order to ensure that their graduates will meet the changing needs of the industry. The Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) has been producing surveying graduates for construction, real estate and related industries for over 30 years. It provides academic programmes with an aim to enable students to develop their full individual potential, to practise and to lead within their chosen professional discipline. In the coming academic year, the existing three surveying degree programmes in BRE will be combined into a common surveying programme with the purposes of widening the knowledge base of the students and providing more flexibility for the graduates to meet the changing market needs. A survey was conducted which aims to assess the perception of the new common surveying programme and to solicit views on improving the academic programmes according to the industry needs. This paper presents the core survey findings obtained from three target groups - i.e. undergraduates in the Department, alumni, and employers. The results reveal the trend in higher education that more generic knowledge for surveying professionals is required at undergraduate level including basic technical skills, language, presentation skills and computer skills. In addition, linkages between higher education institutions and the industry should be strengthened in order to provide practical training. A sandwich programme is also increasingly desirable. This study helps to formulate the new degree programmes and, more importantly, to adjust and improve the curriculum for surveying education in a wider context.
Wong et al. (Fri,) studied this question.