Program Overview

Digital technology is revolutionising construction and professionals in the industry are racing to keep up with the changes. Innovations such as drones, laser scanners and 3D software packages are revealing skills shortages and creating new job opportunities across a wide spectrum of the industry. The University of Bolton’s ground-breaking BSc (Hons) Digital Construction and Surveying with foundation year degree offers you the knowledge and skills to take advantage of these new opportunities, while ensuring you possess a solid grounding in the traditional technologies, principles and methods that underpin modern construction.

Our dedicated and experienced staff will guide you to develop a strong understanding and practical know-how in essential areas of construction and surveying. The foundation year is the first year of this degree, offering an excellent grounding in the fundamentals of these areas alongside study skills development. It’s designed to prepare you for degree-level study.

At degree level, we’ll cover areas such as construction technology, including site investigations, materials, specifications and plans, along with areas such as contract procedures and procurement, measurement, legal and regulatory frameworks, construction project management, project finance, and sustainable construction, so that you can gain in-depth knowledge of the core elements essential for a career in the industry. We’ll also focus on integrating digital technologies such as building information modelling (BIM) into the planning, building and maintenance of structures, exploring how these enable smarter working, increase productivity and enhance outcomes for clients.

In the coming years, we expect the industry will be transformed by new and emerging technologies. Therefore, we’ll support you to gain vital academic and lifelong learning skills so that you are well prepared to research these innovations, apply your knowledge in new ways, and keep abreast of inventions and enhancements in construction and surveying throughout your career. Overall, we aim to prepare you for a long and successful career in this exciting worldwide industry.

Highlights

• Developed in consultation with our Industry Advisory Board (IAB), this programme is designed to respond directly to the current and predicted future needs of the industry. Our IAB brings together a diverse range of professionals and organisations from a wide variety of construction and surveying related specialisms.
• Coupling learning in key traditional areas such as construction management, architectural technology, building surveying and quantity surveying with the chance to gain expertise in current and emerging digital technologies, this unique course seeks to prepare you to start your career immediately after graduation while future-proofing your skills and knowledge so that you’re ready to adapt as the industry evolves.
• We’ll cover recent innovations such as 3D laser scanning for reality capture and drone photogrammetry for surveying, and consider probable further developments in building design and management software, and building information modelling (BIM). Software and new technologies have the potential to offer powerful solutions that will further enhance the future management and maintenance of building projects, as well as areas such as the monitoring of wellbeing of users of the structures. Change is coming and we aim to prepare you for it!
• We’re committed to helping you develop your employability and career network. You’ll be encouraged to attend guest lectures that enhance your learning, help you make contacts in the industry, and contribute to your professional development.

Key Features

• Our dedicated staff team have a wide range of professional experience, industry knowledge, technical expertise and academic credentials, offering you a variety of perspectives and broadening your horizons.
• By designing the course assignments and projects so that they mimic industry pipelines and standards, we aim to give you an industry relevant education that prepares you for a career in construction and surveying.
• We have strong relationships with many organisations in the industry, allowing us to offer you a work placement over the summer period of level 2 (HE5) of the course. This industrial experience can prove very valuable in improving your CV and helping you make personal contacts with potential employers. It’s not unusual for graduates to gain excellent references from their placement providers, or even gain employment with that company.
• We prefer to keep lecture and practical classes relatively small, so that you have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and get help, as well as benefit from the ideas and support offered by your classmates.
• Our well-established links with the construction industry mean we can continually monitor and update the course to make sure the content is industry-relevant, introducing you to the latest thinking, technologies and innovations.