Is faster better : high speed graduates
- Duncan Cartlidge
- Jun 4
- 2 min read
How many graduates leave university with basic construction and taking off skills?
Judging from the increasing number of emails in my inbox from students asking for help and claiming the don't have a clue, the answer is very few. But does it really matter ?
I recently noted that The New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering (NMITE) in Hereford has positioned itself as the UK’s only wholly accelerated higher education institution. From September 2026, a BSc (Hons) Construction Management will join NMITE’s existing two-year accelerated engineering pathways, which including Integrated Engineering, and Autonomous Robotics. This means students can now complete a full construction management honours degree and enter the workforce, it is claimed, as job-ready professionals in just two years, rather than the traditional three or four years in Scotland. But is faster necessarily better? For sure industry will be rubbing their hands together. One major contractor commented: Amazing, somebody has at last realised what employers require by way of staff. Individuals ready for employment. Not academics with no experience of the real world.
NMITE claim that ‘higher education in the UK takes too long and costs too much’. Now where I wouldn’t disagree with HE costing too much, especially when the sort of total mismanagement of university finances became apparent recently. But, I’m not so sure about taking too long particularly as the NMITE programme includes a dissertation and work placement. Interestingly there are no traditional exams. Instead, assessment takes the form of a display of artefacts developed during the course, creative media presentations, debates and general question-and-answer sessions. I can’t help wondering how the professional bodies, particularly the CIOB will react to that? I speak from someone would has experienced on several occasions the CIOB’s forensic accreditation and mapping process.
I took time to look at NMITE’s web site and there appears to be a lot of multitasking from the staff. There is a strong emphasis sustainability but few if any professional body members – but perhaps I got the wrong end of the stick. I would challenge NMITE’s statement that 'construction students have a route to a full degree and professional status in just two years.' Degree yes, professional status – really? A degree does not a professional make? The institution operates a 9 – 5, 46-week academic year and to me it looks rather like a return to the 1960s IQS/RICS/CIOB courses but without the exams. There have always been tensions between academia and industry, see the above video, but does this seem like a switch from education to training?
Industry is looking for oven-ready self-basting graduates - psst they don't exist.
Duncan Cartlidge FRICS
Scan for podcasts
Comments