The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design

In contrast the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM), for civil, structural, highways and
transport engineering, currently accredits courses from around 50 universities,
with over 100 degree courses at MEng alone [JBM 2009]. However, the JBM
currently sets no requirement for building science and review of the accredited
courses indicates that only around 10 universities offer any identifiable building
science content, but this can be as little as one module.
Thus the opportunities for school leavers to gain any appreciable education
in building physics are extremely limited, with only around 20% of universities
providing any teaching in the field.
At the postgraduate level the profession is better provided for with a number of
courses which feature some aspects of sustainable construction. However the
technical content of these is extremely varied and only about 30 Masters’ degrees
are accredited by CIBSE for the additional learning required on top of a bachelor’s
degree to achieve the academic threshold for Chartered Engineer.
Current failings in undergraduate teaching
University courses take time to design, approve and implement and rely on there
being sufficient authoritative reference material on a subject. Unlike other science,
technology and engineering subjects, building engineering and architecture rely
heavily on teaching and material generated from current practice, which is where
most research and development takes place.
The lack of up-to-date case study reference material in the industry, the focus
of academic research on narrow subject areas and in some cases the reliance
on practitioner teaching means that University teaching can often fall behind
current practice in the industry. With four years being the normal course length
for engineers and five years for architects, the rate of change in practice and the
uptake of new technology driven by revisions of the building regulations, at three
to four year intervals, means that the education of construction graduates is likely
to be out of date even before they leave university.
Many precedents and case studies presently used in undergraduate teaching are
significantly out of date, as recent projects have not been evaluated to the same
extent or are drawn from “Practice Books” written by commercial architectural or
engineering practices to promote themselves and which are therefore sometimes
less than candid about the real performance of their designs. The reliance on
practitioners from industry, who themselves may struggle with keeping up to
date with new developments, means that there is often little critical examination
of the issues and inaccurate information about sustainability becomes received
wisdom through repetition.
The lack of building physics teaching at undergraduate level impacts throughout
the continuing education and development of professionals. Engineers
presently in the middle of their professional careers will have started in the
industry at a time when carbon did not feature in policy and the architect simply
installed insulation to the standard details in order to comply with Part L of the
building regulations. In 2004, 43% of professional engineering practices in the
construction sector indicated that they had experienced skills and competence
gaps among their professional engineering staff [CIC 2004]. That skills gap will
now be propagating through the generation of engineering professionals in
management positions and also those likely to be engaged with teaching and
tutoring at university.
28 The Royal Academy of Engineering