Australia is facing a massive challenge to build enough homes for its growing population, with one of the biggest barriers being a nationwide shortage of skilled surveyors, urban planners and construction staff to make those homes a reality.
But the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) is working hard to fill that workforce gap, with its School of Surveying and Built Environment (SBE) delivering job-ready graduates with a focus on the housing industry needs.
Head of School SBE Professor Sherif Mohamed said our students developed their knowledge and skills through professionally accredited academic programs that adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to residential construction.
“Urban planning and construction students start their collaboration from the beginning of their university education to reap the benefits of integrating social, environmental and cultural aspects of sustainable construction,” Professor Mohamed said.
“Similarly, surveying and urban planning students work collaboratively with both field survey data and planning requirements to ensure they are making informed decisions about land use,” he said.
“It is that inter-disciplinary approach that makes University of Southern Queensland graduates unique, having the capacity to integrate information and knowledge in two or more disciplines.
“Ultimately, learning how the surveying, planning and construction disciplines interact goes a long way in solving issues facing the housing industry”.
The University of Southern Queensland’s Surveying program is one of the largest in Australia and is the only one in Queensland. In fact, the University of Southern Queensland represents around 70 per cent of all Surveying students in the country.
The unique online course offerings mean University of Southern Queensland students can often be studying or upskilling while working in industry at the same time.
Professor Mohamed said the School of Surveying and Built Environment offered a well-established surveying program which had grown and developed alongside industry for more than 25 years, and boasted thousands of job-ready graduates over its history.
“The industries of surveying, planning and building/construction require more people right now than ever before, and we are proud to be strengthening that workforce with extremely capable and industry-connected graduates here at the University of Southern Queensland,” he said.
Find out more about the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Surveying and Built Environment.
