Quantity Surveying

The aim of the research project done by the by the University of the Free State (UFS) was to establish the most important dimensions (ele- ments) that may determine the level of maturity of a social system, association or specified profession specifically as a learned society. A selected group of 107 professionals, including prominent quan- tity surveyors, board members of the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors, members of the South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession and academics who are seen as the leaders of the quantity surveying profession were requested to com- plete a questionnaire. 56 Responses were received from the invited group reflecting a 52% response rate. The questionnaire was based on research by the Project Management Group Wirtschafts Univer- sity of Vienna, Austria as well as research by involved researchers of the UFS (Project Management Group, 2006a; University of the Free State, 2007). The questionnaire for the project management matu- rity analysis was structured according to the dimensions or processes of a mature profession. Based on 11 identified dimensions that are seen as important indicators of a mature and learned society, the questionnaire consisted of 20 questions.

Hardie et al., (2005) examined the role of Quantity Surveyors in the generation of innovation, adoption, and diffusion in the Construction industry of Australia, and reported that Quantity Surveyors perceived themselves not to be blockers but promoters of innovation, and they are usually not team leaders but excellent team contributors and players. Musa et al. (2010) evaluated the impact of information and communication technology on the quality of Quantity Surveying in Nigeria and revealed that ICT has been adopted in the Quantity Surveying firms. Moohamad et al. (2014) conducted an empirical assessment of the consultancy services innovation practices in the Nigerian construction industry and observed that they were adopters of the product/technological, process and business system innovation. Nor et al. (2015) in a study of innovation practices in Malaysian construction firms, innovation is categorized into two; adoption and creation. The study concluded that old and big firms with non- public clients try to create innovation while young and small firms with public clients adopt innovative processes. Owusu-Manu et al. (2017) carried out an empirical assessment of Quantity Surveying firms' innovation practices in Ghana and found that Ghana Quantity Surveying firms are early adopters of product/technological innovation, process innovation, and business system innovation. In Nigeria, there has not been an empirical study on the innovative practice of Quantity Surveying firms. It, therefore, becomes imperative, to explore the acceptability of such innovative practices in the Nigerian construction industry as well as to determine the pertinent tools invoked in improving the quality of the service delivery and the extent of adoption of process and product/technological innovation in Quantity Surveying firms in the Nigeria construction industry.

BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying Maximising value for money in construction projects is crucial when dealing with tight budgets and strict contractual agreements. A quantity surveyor advises on these issues at all stages of a project and must therefore understand construction technology, legal issues and how to plan and monitor costs.

From Table 1 below it can be seen that 94.6% of the respondents know and have heard of the Quantity surveying profession, while 5.461% were unaware or have not heard of the profession. This clearly indicates that Quantity surveying profession is well known by Non-construction professionals. This finding is inconsistent with the findings of Onyeri (1989) that 95% of Nigerian populace had neither heard about the existence of quantity surveying profession nor understood the functions performed by quantity surveyors within the built environment. This is a reflection of changes which has taken place since the study was carried out. This implies that people are more aware of the profession in present days. Also, this result contradicts the finding of Olatunde and Okorie (2016) which state that 66.3% of the respondents have not heard about the quantity surveying profession. This could be attributed to the fact that students at that level do not even know a profession like quantity surveying exist.

Conservation practice started as the act of appreciation of heritage. It is a way to maintain, restore and repair heritage, which has been left by our ancestors, in the form of architectural remains or artifacts. Conservation of historic or heritage buildings needs an expert to do it. It is significant for students to become familiar with the general principles of conservation and with main conservation approaches towards all existing heritage buildings. Therefore the intent of this paper is to underline the need to teach undergraduates students of quantity surveying course the heritage conservation education. This aim is accomplished through the following objectives; to identify the most important of heritage conservation education to quantity surveyor students and to identify the need of heritage conservation education in quantity surveying profession. Quantitative method was selected for this study. The respondents were from the professional quantity surveyor registered with Board of Surveyors Malaysia who has experienced in building conservation project. Result showed that heritage conservation is important to the quantity surveying program because of the outstanding universal value, the nature of conservation works and the scope of quantity surveying basic services. There is a need to deliver theoretical and practical knowledge as well as skills in heritage conservation education for quantity surveying students. A combination of theoretical teaching and practical tasks in conservation education will enhance the knowledge and skills of quantity surveying students, especially in measurement, estimating, economic and construction technology for building conservation works.

Previous studies conducted on the integration of BIM within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) curricula surveyed between one and three key stakeholders to include the academic staff, students, and professionals within AEC industry. For example, Clevenger et al. (2010) administered questionnaires to students when exploring the incorporation of BIM into the construction management curriculum. Hedayati et al. (2015) surveyed both the students and lecturers when exploring the obstacles to implementing BIM in educational system. Abbas et al. (2016) sampled only academic staff (i.e. faculty members) when assessing the current state of BIM into the construction management programme within the engineering universities in Pakistan. Also, few studies adopted literature review (see Lee and Dossick, 2012; Elinwa and Agboola, 2013). Therefore, this study adopted a literature review, a desk review, and two questionnaire surveys of academia and students within the case studies of two selected public federal universities in Southwestern Nigeria to include: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; and the Federal University of Technology Akure offering quantity surveying honours degree programmes in Nigeria. The rationales for selecting these two universities are as follows: (1) they are the leading universities offering quantity surveying honours degree programmes for over three decades in Southwestern Nigeria; (2) their QS programmes are fully accredited by both the National Universities Commission and the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria; (3) they have the highest number of quantity surveying students’ enrollment at undergraduate study; and (4) they already have a dedicated QS software packages laboratory for teaching students measurement and estimating.

The accessible population for the study is from the list of registered quantity surveying firms from the Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) which indicates that 74 quantity surveying firms are registered in Lagos as at January 2012 while 52 are registered in Abuja as at June 2012 having a total of 126 firms where questionnaires was administered to one quantity surveyor per firm. The interview was carried out personally with some quantity surveyors in QS firms in Lagos and Abuja who were willing to participate. Of the 126 questionnaires administered, 68 questionnaires were completed and returned by the respondents representing 53.97% return rate This is considered sufficient for the study considering thatSaunders, Lewis and Thornhill (1997) considers the interval of 30-50 per cent to be a reasonable response rate for delivery and collection of questionnaires. 55.88% of respondents were from Lagos while 44.12% were from Abuja. A total of 13 interviewees responded to the interview. Computer aided statistical analysis was deployed in the data analysis process. All data collected by the questionnaires were input into SPSS 17 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) in defined format. This program allows great flexibility and versatility in data processing and is widely adopted in statistical researches. This was used for finding the mean item score and the rankings of the factors. The formulated hypothesis was also tested using Spearman's Rank Correlation. Spearman's Rank Correlation is a technique used to show whether any one set of numbers has any relationship with another set of numbers. This was carried out to check the influence of firm size and experience of quantity surveyors on knowledge management activities. The Cronbach’s alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. The cronbach’s alpha values for scales of measures of the research instrument ranged from 0.860 to 0.894. Since the degree of reliability of the instrument is more perfect as the value tends towards 1.0 (Moser and Kalton, 1999), it can then be concluded that the instruments used for this research are significantly reliable.

Even though this research has come to its end and has been completed as well as reached the objectives, it still comes with some weaknesses. This drawback may reduce the accuracy and increase the ambiguity of the research findings. Throughout the findings and analysis, the weak point of this research is the scope area of the research. The respondents of the study were only focused on the quantity surveying firms located in Klang Valley. As the result, the finding could not be taken a broader view though out Malaysia. The finding could be different from that one specific area. Besides that, the questions are constricted to the quantity surveyor. Thus, it does not encompass the other staff works in certain organization. The finding could be varying as the response could be taken from different point of view such as from the financing managerial sectors, administrative sectors available in the organization.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe are increasingly aware of the need to integrate sustainability education within the curricula. This triggered a number of studies that were conducted by earlier researchers in embedding sustainability education within the curricula. Thus, studies have been carried out to evaluate how students perceived sustainable development in their curricula, particularly in engineering and other related courses. Few of these studies were conducted in built environment, most especially in quantity surveying. It is against this backdrop that necessitated this study. The purpose of this study is to establish the extent in which sustainable development is embedded in the construction related curriculum using the perception of quantity surveying students. The study adopted literature review, documentary reports among others as a secondary method of data collection. Primary data were collected through online questionnaire survey administered to 330 randomly selected quantity surveying students in a university in the UK. Out of which 87 completed questionnaires were retrieved and suitable for the analysis. The quantitative data obtained were analysed using mean score, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis. The study identified 46 sustainability topics, which were grouped into 6 categories (i.e. A-F). Based on these categories, the study found that students’ knowledge level on sustainability was a little above ‘basic/limited knowledge with the overall mean score value of 2.38 on a 4- point Likert scale. The study further revealed that the students placed high importance on sustainability education, despite their knowledge level were found lower. The study findings would be used to establish the extent of sustainability within the curriculum in the quantity surveying programme. Also, this study would be of great value to academic staff and University management boards to develop a framework for incorporating sustainability education in the curriculum.

The question in Figure 1 is aimed to identify the student’s personal opinion about the teaching mode in all of their class whether it is purely theory, balance between theories & real practice, practical or highly practical. The result of this question will gives a general overview of their learning experience in their class. This will helps to evaluate the situation and justify whether the involvement of practitioner is needed in their learning process. Based on Table 2, 13 (56.5%) of the total male respondent thought that their learning mode in class is purely theoretical and the other 10 (43.5%) thought that their learning mode class is balance between theory and practical. 31 (50.8%) female quantity surveying students in the opinion that their learning in class is purely theoretical, 28 (45.9%) balance between theory & practical and 2 (3.3%)is practical.

Ranking of the BIM benefits in the order of perceived importance to QS profession Table IV shows the analysis of the ranking in terms of the total mean score values for the 14 identified BIM benefits ranging from 3.77 to 4.34; this indicates that all the identified BIM benefits are considered by respondents as important benefits of BIM implementation in relation to the QS profession. This is supported by Badu et al. (2012) that an attribute was deemed important if it had a mean score value of 3.5 or more on a Likert scale of 5 point. It can be seen further from Table IV that six (out of 14) identified BIM benefits have mean score values between 4.03 and 4.34, and the remaining eight BIM benefits have mean score values between 3.77 and 3.98. In addition, the top six ranked BIM benefits that displayed mean score values ranging from 4.03 to 4.34 are: BIM provides fast, effective and efficient quantity take-off and cost estimation; improve cost database management which reduces loss of information; produce reliable and accurate quantities as well as competitive cost estimates; enhance communication and collaboration amongst team members; time savings in the preparation of estimating costs; and it generate accurate cost estimates for various design alternatives, respectively. This study finding affirms the previous studies, especially Stanley and Thurnell (2014) who asserted that there is huge potential for BIM use by quantity surveyors for such tasks as quantity take-offs, estimation and cost management, in a collaborative project environment. This finding is not surprising because the top six ranked BIM benefits are perceived importance of BIM in relation to the QS profession by the respondents. Therefore, the QSs both in the industry and academia including quantity surveying students need

Abstract. Recent developments in quantity surveying (QS) emphasised the importance of identifying cost significant elements (CSE). The knowledge on CSE of high-rise condominium projects (HRCP) is essential as high-rise residential multi-unit projects are the next option in building construction due to limited land areas in urban areas. This study aims to determine the levels of awareness among QS undergraduates of a private university in Malaysia on CSE of HRCP in Malaysia. The respondents’ knowledge on CSE has not achieved a satisfactory level. Both male and female respondents have the same levels of awareness on CSE. Remedial strategies to improve this situation are recommended.

profession nor understood the roles and duties of Quantity Surveyors in the Nigerian construction industry. The study also found that 56.6% of the respondents have low understating of what quantity surveying is all about while the remaining 53.4% either have moderate, high and very high understanding of the profession, this could also be consider as improvement over the years compared to 5% found by Onyeri (1989). Furthermore, this study also found that 80.7% of the respondents misunderstood Quantity Surveyors for Land Surveyors, Estate Surveyors or Civil Engineers. This finding is similar to what Kadiri and Ayodele (2013a) found that 82.8% of the 430 respondents surveyed in Osun State, Nigeria misunderstood Quantity Surveyors for Land or Estate Surveyors. The 19.3% of senior secondary school students in Benin City who understood the roles of Quantity Surveyors on construction projects was considered as an improvement to 8.1% of what Kadiri and Ayodele (2013a) found among young school leavers in Osun State in Nigeria. It was also found that 36.1% of respondents understood the subject combination they are required to pass at credit level before they could be admitted to study quantity surveying in the Nigeria universities and polytechnics. Finally, the 15.7% of the respondents who indicated interested in pursuing a further study in quantity surveying in the University and Polytechnic is an encouraging.

solving problems in Quantity Surveying Demonstrate an understanding of the limits of their knowledge, and how this influences analyses and interpretations based on that knowledge A student who successfully completes a placement year will be eligible for the Sandwich award and will, in addition to the above, be able to demonstrate the professional and personal skills necessary for effective employment within a professional environment.

Abstract: Quantity Surveying Profession (QSP) globally has undergone significant revolution and has embraced career pathways in providing excellent services within and outside the construction industry. The QSP adapting to the changes in the construction industry, and innovating to remain competitive has allowed them to adopt some specific attributes which makes them process innovation champions. Identifying these characteristics of the QSP for appreciation and implementation gave the purpose for this studies. Drawing from quantitative research approach, and using purposive and convenience sampling technique, data was collected and analysed. The study adopted descriptive statistics, Relative Importance Index (RII) and cross tabulations as its tools of analysis. After analysis, the outstanding attribute of innovative Quantity Surveying (QS) firms’ worthy of emulation were good managerial skills and capability, followed by team learning and competency. On individual perspective, all the identified variables were outstanding characteristics with interaction with others in the workplace ranking first, followed by open to experience while acting out of curiosity ranked last. Findings of this study could assist in understanding the set of characteristics which makes firms innovative. The identified attributes would also help other project teams in the construction industry to increase their innovativeness and output when they are examined, understood and implemented.

Recent BIM survey results reveal that many professions such as engineers and contractors are lagging behind the architects in adopting BIM (McGraw-Hill Construction, 2010; NBS, 2012). Notably, quantity surveyors are found to be slow to embrace the use of BIM. According to the RICS BIM survey (Matthews, 2011b), many quantity surveyors are still not aware of what BIM is and only small numbers (10%) claimed to have used BIM. There is also a little evidence to show that BIM is systematically introduced by the quantity surveying (QS) profession in UK. According to the initial background studies, the majority of literature available on BIM focus on the architects’ and designers’ interest at the utmost and only a very few connect BIM and the practice of quantity surveying. In addition, there are also limited case studies found within the UK to portray the integration of BIM into QS practice. This signifies an alarming need to gain quantity surveyors attention into this new technology and help them to keep up with the pace of other industry professionals to maintain their competitiveness within the industry. Hence, research about the integration of BIM into QS practice in the UK is a timely need. In this paper, the authors aims to bridge the knowledge gap of BIM based estimating or take-off technology and the UK standards and practices of measurement and cost estimating, this research investigates how a BIM model to support the estimating process according to the RICS standard of NRM1 order of cost estimating and elemental cost planning, and reviews the technical requirement for BIM based software tools to support NRM1. In order to achieve this aim, the following three objectives have been established:-

The situation in the eleven professional quantity surveying firms deals with Swart and Kinnie‟s (2010:69-73) exploitative learning and a planned framework category, which aims for staff members to generate expert solutions. Swart and Kinnie (2010:69-73) affirm that exploitative learning combined with a planned framework deals with long-term ventures, where individuals apply traditional procedures to facilitate predetermined solutions. Matzdorf et al. (2000:93) note that professionals need to avoid being trapped in a limited area of specialty, with limited knowledge. Professionals should not be restricted to offering only traditional services, but rather offer additional services that the client may want. Learning related services allows employees to take part in explorative learning. Explorative learning combined with staff members‟ related knowledge may enable staff members to develop related service skills through an on-the-job experience. Staff members in the two groups of firms (sub-section A and sub-section B) are relatively certain that employees would be groomed to perform all organisational services. According to management, employees would only be groomed to perform related services when clients regularly employ related services. The puzzling aspect of this matter is that management restricts employees from learning project management skills, for example, even though project management can benefit the employees‟ general quantity surveying abilities.

Various researches have been conducted on the strategies that the construction companies have utilized over time. However, not many studies have explored the effect of commitment of the top management, the communication process, organizational culture and activity coordination on performance of quantity surveying firms. Munuhe (2014) explored these factors at H-Young & Co. East Africa Ltd. He established that strategy implementation is influenced by organization culture, commitment of top level management, communication process and activity coordination. However, the study did not focus much on how these factors affect the performance of the firm. The research was also based on a single firm (H- Young & Co. East Africa Ltd) and hence generalization of the findings is not reliable.

The article aims to determine the challenges faced by newly established quantity- surveying firms (NEQSFs) in securing tenders in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was implemented in the study which included a literature review and a questionnaire survey to identify the barriers experienced by NEQSFs. The results revealed that the specific challenges faced by NEQSFs are political influence and corruption in the awarding of tenders, excessive discounting of professional fees, and favouring large and established firms over NEQSFs. This article is relevant, as it contributes to the understanding of key challenges faced by NEQSFs and reveals gaps to be filled in order to position these new firms on a higher platform to be able to operate within the profession. Furthermore, it also demonstrates to potential entrepreneurs the importance of considering these challenges in the start-up and growth of their businesses.

Quantity surveying has increased expectation by client because of the service offered and this coupled with greater competition both internally (from the same profession) and externally (from the globalisation) has resulted in a challenge to their professional status. To meet these challenges QS needs to enhance their professionalism and status in order that practitioners can maintain a competitive advantage. Knowledge is a key feature of the surveyor's portfolio and therefore effective knowledge management skills can help to improve their expertise. Practitioners learn from experience and this is a continuing process. In any organisation junior members draw on the experience of seniors as part of their learning experience and to some degree that learning flow can be reversed. What is required is some means by which that learning experience, together with intuitive 'knowledge', can be 'captured' and disseminated to colleagues within the same organisation.