by Martin Avis
There has been much talk recently about diversifying entry into the surveying profession and the changes that are needed in this direction. However, no matter what new methods are devised, cognate degree courses — those which provide exemption from the professional exams — are likely to remain a major route. Cognate degrees provide about 70% of the current intake into the RICS: in most cases these graduates are intelligent, well-educated and sought-after by employers.
The number of places on cognate degree courses is severely restricted, not by the profession but by the way in which the Government and higher-educational establishments allocate their financial resources. The Government decides which general areas of education shall receive what proportion of the funds available, and how much each institution will receive. Then the individual institutions decide precisely how these allocated funds are translated into available places on particular courses. Although this system is under review it is unlikely to change in the short term.
In practice, politics, not the market, decide how many cognate surveying graduates are produced. In real terms this means that for any increase in surveying students there has to be a decrease in numbers on other courses — not the “soft” targets such as sociology or chemistry which are in other programme areas for funds — in subjects such as architecture and planning, where there is also a shortage of graduates for the employment market.
Currently there is a high demand from would-be students for the available cognate surveying course places, and even with the inevitable decline of school leavers in the 1990s there is no immediate likelihood of a decline in either the numbers or quality of the intake. None the less, to reinforce this strong position in the student market it is prudent to spread the appeal of existing courses to more students. Pupils from the independent schools, for instance, seem much better informed and apply in much greater numbers than those from state schools.
The main difficulty lies in maintaining the quality of courses provided and the perception of this by school-leavers, students and employers.
Course quality depends primarily on the staff responsible for delivering the courses, and to a lesser extent on the other facilities available to assist in the educational process.
Staff salaries in education are fixed by the negotiation of national rates between employers’ and employees’ unions within the constraint of government-supplied cash limits. This poses two problems for a vocational course. First, like most public-sector employees, the average rate of academic pay has slipped further behind the private sector; and second, in vocational-type courses, the gap between professional and educational salaries has grown ever wider.
In addition to an increasingly adverse pay differential, academic life is also becoming less attractive as a career because the pressure to perform — not just through teaching but in research, administration, fund raising, and maintaining contact with industry — means that the allegedly more relaxed life style of academia is now perceived to be a myth by any young person wishing to do well in their career.
Departments related to surveying are classified as “low cost”, based on the old tradition of stand-up lectures to large numbers of students. Such departments now have to struggle to convince the councils and committees who make these designations that changing technology (computers) and project teaching are essential, and the subject requires more small groups and individual supervision. The relevant bodies do not have the funds and are reluctant to change the designation.
A further obstacle to progress is the lack of funds available for research relevant to the surveying profession. The traditional sources of research funds are the government-funded research councils. These do not have targeted category areas directly relevant to surveying and they have had their total funds reduced.
This gloomy situation reflects the lack of esteem (and funds) accorded to education.
On the positive side, surveying cognate degree courses are potentially well able to respond to the current Government’s imperative to go out and raise support from industry.
In my recent post at Reading University and my present one at Oxford Polytechnic, I have been involved with two types of initiative. First, I have helped to fund research from a diverse range of sources including the RICS Education Trust, the Department of Health, the PSA, and a wide range of private organisations including Barclays Bank, Kingfisher Holding Co and Marks & Spencer. My colleague Dr Neil Crosby has also raised research funds from a variety of surveying firms. These types of initiative need to be extended, with action and support from educationalists and those in industry.
Second, Chesterton have sponsored my professorship at Oxford, the first to be directly sponsored by an individual surveying firm. This has encouraged a close association exploring in-house training, research and helping to expose undergraduate students to inputs from practice to mention an increase in my academic salary! All this is being achieved without any compromise of academic freedom or integrity. In a similar vein, Barclays Bank are providing sponsorship for a Readership in Management of Property Assets. These initiatives by Oxford and the response from the property world are most encouraging.
There is still much to be done if we are to retain and attract high-calibre staff to reinforce and improve both the employer’s and the student’s confidence in the quality of education.
Apart from more direct sponsorship of posts and funding of research — which will inevitably come in the main from the larger organisations — it would be reassuring to see methods devised for all employers of cognate graduates to contribute to higher education. The simplest would be the payment of a standard fee to educational establishments for each student employed from them. For example, a fee of 5% of each student’s first-year salary would bring in some £30,000 pa from employers to a department like Oxford, and would enable us to take a variety of measures to upgrade academic staff, support research, provide equipment and generally improve methods of delivering undergraduate education.
Education and the property industry need each other and I look forward to more dialogue and contribution between the two. The attraction, good education and involvement of quality graduates is vital to us all.
