News and Events

The Department is pleased to announce that the MSc courses listed below have been approved by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) as being suitable as a matching section for suitably qualified candidates wishing to qualify for CIBSE membership and CEng registration:

• MSc Building Services Engineering
• MSc Building Services Engineering Management
• MSc Building Services Facilities Management
• MSc Environmental Services

(Suitability for this purpose will be assessed by the university individually on the basis of previous qualifications held.)

The Department’s continued commitment to high quality and innovative research has been recognised in the last two UK government Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) in the Built Environment in 1996 and now also in 2001. The Department is one of only eight built environment departments in the UK, and the only one in Scotland, to receive an RAE 2001 rating of "5". This repeats our success in gaining a rating of "5" in the 1996 RAE.

BSc (Hons) Construction Project Management

Construction projects are becoming more and more complex and the need for graduates who are equipped to manage the entire construction project, from planning and design through to occupation has never been greater. This course provides students with knowledge and expertise relating to all phases of the construction process together with the leadership and managerial skills required to control this process.

To ensure that this course remains at the forefront of developments in the construction industry, the Department is working closely with industry to continually develop it and aims to provide students entering the course with sponsorship from industrial partners. Students will work closely with their sponsors, undertaking work placements during the summer vacations and basing final year project work on their industrial experience, providing a fast-track route to employment in a prominent role in the workforce.

IT is the driver that will enable the construction industry to meet the future needs of the global market. This course equips our graduates to provide an interface between construction and developing technologies and will put them at the forefront of the construction industry. Students will learn to design and draw buildings with computer aided design packages, visualise completed building projects and assess the life cycle of buildings using specialist software in addition to developing more general IT and programming skills.

For more information on how to join the first year of these courses, contact:
Karen Leitch
Tel: 0131 451 8062
email: Karen.Leitch@hw.ac.uk

BSc (Hons)/BEng (Hons)/MEng Architectural Engineering

A new course for October 2001, Architectural Engineering is concerned with the increasing need to provide society with sustainable, energy efficient and green buildings. In addition, the influence of environments upon the behaviour of people is increasingly seen as an important element in the design of modern buildings. The challenge to the Architectural Engineering student is to address these important issues that confront the construction industry and to provide an insight into how they can be realised during the early part of the 21st century.

We recently hosted a successful visit of accreditation panels from the Institute of Energy (IOE) and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).

For details click on Undergraduate Courses or contact Brian Robertson or Karen Leitch.

Added: 16 May 2001

Partnership Agreement with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Heriot-Watt University became the first university in Scotland to successfully complete a partnership agreement for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) on 28 November 2000.

The courses included in the partnership agreement are:

• BSc/BSc (Hons) Building Surveying
• BSc/BSc (Hons) Building Economics and Quantity Surveying
• BSc/BSc (Hons) Estate Management
• BSc/BSc (Hons) Building Services Quantity Surveying
• BSc/BSc (Hons) Construction Management
• BSc/BSc (Hons) Building Services Construction Management
• MSc Facilities Management
• MSc Building Conservation (Technology and Management)
• MSc Property Investment and Finance
• MSc Construction Management (Project Management)
• MSc Marine Resource Management

The RICS has introduced partnership agreements to replace the existing accreditation system and will only be forging partnerships with universities where the scale and reputation of the departments, the research and teaching rating and the quality of output are sufficiently high to meet the standards set by the RICS.

BSc (Hons) in Building Services Construction Management

This new course is for construction managers wishing to specialise in management of building services engineering projects. This is an integrated four year programme with flexibility built in to accommodate candidates with a variety of academic and vocational qualifications.

For further information contact Karen Leitch.

New Options for MSc Programmes  in Construction Management and Building Services Engineering

In distance learning mode it is now possible to study additional modules as an alternative to undertaking a dissertation at no extra cost.

Contact Jenn Deas for details.