MSc Building Surveying
Attendance
Full-time, Part-time
Full-time – one year
Part-time – two years
Start date – September
At a glance
About this course
This is a fast-track conversion course for graduates from unrelated disciplines who want to become chartered building surveyors. The course is also suitable if you are a professional working in a property or surveying role and want to improve your skills and career prospects in residential and commercial building surveying or building control.
Building surveying is an expanding professional discipline dealing with the inspection, maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings. The course includes practical laboratory and project work to improve your career prospects in the public and commercial sectors throughout the UK and overseas.
A key teaching resource is a University-owned Georgian terraced house. This is used for practical teaching sessions both in pathology and structural mechanics. This property has been adapted to open up its structure for inspection purposes. Industry professionals also use this resource for training purposes with the support of our teaching staff.
You benefit from a range of teaching, learning and assessment techniques. Intensive study weeks allow you to work on complex, professional briefs with other students. One of the modules is an international project which currently takes place in Shanghai with assistance from international surveying firms.
The majority of teaching takes place within a newly refurbished, dedicated building at our City Campus. The course is fully supported by online resources that allow students to learn flexibly in addition to face-to-face teaching.
We have recently bought high-tech non-destructive testing equipment including flexible endoscopes, borescopes and a thermal imaging camera for detecting heat loss that you can use in practical projects.
This course is designed to be adapted and updated, so that you are as fully prepared as possible for a successful career ahead. The postgraduate construction, building and surveying courses were first established with the MSc Property Appraisal and Management in 1991. Many of our former students are now in senior positions throughout the profession.
Associated careers
After completing your course, you will be able to proceed to the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence.
You gain the core knowledge essential to a successful career throughout the surveying profession, focusing on roles such as residential building surveyor, commercial building surveyor, property developer or building control officer.
Our graduates are found throughout the surveying profession from international surveying practices to sole traders in private practise. We welcome their continuing involvement with this course, from participation at employer fairs through to advising students during integrated projects.
Professional recognition
This course is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Course content
Modules
Construction fundamentals
You identify construction styles and examine a range of solutions available to construction professionals in designing and constructing domestic and low rise commercial buildings.
Professional skills
This module is based upon the relevant RICS mandatory APC competencies and gives you with the key professional skills that you require in order to obtain employment and progress within your chosen career path.
Law for the built environment
You explore the legal environment in which real estate and the wider built environment operates. You examine the main duties of property owners and professionals arising out of contract and tort, and develop your understanding of land ownership and rights and interests in land. Having developed a thorough understanding of the relevant wider legal framework you can place the following legal studies in context.
Economics for the built environment
You examine the operation of land and property markets and the economic basis of development and the construction industry.
Building pathology
You describe the key characteristics of common building defects and apply a diagnostic process so that a probable cause can be identified. You evaluate strategies for further investigations that allows the precise cause of a defect to be identified. You employ an appropriate estimating technique to calculate the approximate cost of an elementary repair project and specify the repair works required.
Planning development and sustainability
You look at issues related to the physical change of the built and natural environment which are essential to conducting property valuation. Including site identification, marketing and disposal of the completed development, regulatory land use planning systems and sustainability.
You consider the impact of change factors, such as funding which affect the success or failure of development projects.
Structural principles
You study basic principles of structural behaviour such as compression, tension, bending, shear, torsion. You carry out structural assessment including structural calculations. You undertake structural calculations and designs.
Contract administration
You evaluate standard forms of contract and develop procedures to successfully fulfil any party's contractual responsibilities. You study contract procedures from the letting of a contract through to the financial settlement of the completed project
Landlord and tenant law
You learn about the rights and duties of landlords and tenants. You learn how to apply landlord and tenant law to solve practical lease management problems and deal with dilapidations claims.
Fire safety studies
You study the combustion process through a sound knowledge of the physics and chemistry of fire. You learn about the physiological and psychological effects of fire. You study fire safety legislation and evaluate its influence on building design. You assess and critically evaluate the means of escape in case of fire from buildings including fire safety management systems.
Building surveying commercial studies
You study professionalism in building surveying and the use of appropriate surveying, recording and report writing techniques. You study the impact of statutory obligations on building surveyors and their clients and the application of health and safety and Disability Discrimination requirements.
Refurbishment project
You evaluate the technical, design and ethical issues raised through the reuse of existing buildings and develop a proposal for a project based on the conversion of an existing building. You develop creative problem-solving skills in a simulated professional context as well as skills in research, report writing and graphical presentation.
International project
This module provides an opportunity to gain experience of the global nature of building surveying and reflects the challenges associated with working on a real live project for a client. We work with local practitioners and other experts, so you benefit from insights from professionals working in that location.
MSc
Dissertation consultancy project
You develop your applied research methods, providing a firm foundation for your dissertation/consultancy project.
You are supported by a tutor throughout this module, chosen according to the nature of the research you are undertaking. The tutor acts as a mentor during the process of your research and writing up phase.
Assessment
• coursework • exams
Entry requirements
A good degree in any discipline or an equivalent professional qualification.
If English is not your first language you must also have an average score of 6.5 IELTS with at least 6.5 in writing and 5.5 in all other skills or equivalent.
If your English language skill is currently below IELTS 6.5 we recommend you consider a Sheffield Hallam University Pre-sessional English course which will enable you to achieve an equivalent English score.
Fees
Home and EU students
2013/14 academic year
Full-time – typically £7,995
Part-time – typically £2,665 for year one and £5,330 for year two
International students
2013/14 academic year
Typically £10,980 for the course
2014/15 academic year
Typically £11,250 for the course
How to apply
Complete the application form available at www.shu.ac.uk/study/form