Teaching BIM in a multidisciplinary department

Universities need courses to reflect what is happening in the macro environment. With Building Information Modelling (BIM) being mandated for all UK Government projects from 2016, many within built environment industries are already adopting BIM working methods. It is therefore essential that students are equipped with the skills and understanding of BIM concepts to be relevant and achieve employment in a rapidly changing construction industry. In order to achieve this BIM needs to be added to the curriculum. One of the reasons that the UK government wants to introduce BIM is that it allows collaboration across the disciplines in construction. In literature there have been a number of examples of the approach taken by Universities but these focus on the way it is taught rather than the mode of delivery. This paper examines lecturer, employer and student perceptions of the optimum way to teach BIM in a multidisciplinary department. It indicates that BIM teaching improves student employability. The mode of delivery preferred overall for BIM teaching is via standalone modules and in collaboration with other built environment courses dealing with both theory and software. The ranking of separate modules for theory and software was very low indicating the preference for both to be taught in a single module.