Quantity Surveying (Hons) Heriot-Watt University

Overview

Quantity Surveying (Hons) from Heriot-Watt University will give you the knowledge and skills necessary to become a professional quantity surveyor. Quantity surveyors provide clients of the construction industry with financial, contractual, and technical advice ensuring they receive value for money from the projects they invest in and the built assets they construct.  

You’ll learn the fundamental elements of building construction before focusing on quantity surveying practice and learning how to manage the cost and legal elements of a project. 

This industry-focused degree will ensure you have the knowledge, leadership, and management skills necessary to work as a professional quantity surveyor, involved in all stages of the design and construction process. This could include providing advice on business strategy, working with architects and design consultants, through to overseeing the onsite construction phase until completion of a built asset. 

Your learning environment  

BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying is taught though a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory practicals, projects, and field trips allowing you to get to know and build relationships with your teaching staff, academics, industry professionals, and peers. Your learning will be assessed through a combination of coursework and examination.  

During your studies, you’ll benefit from and have access to our specialist equipment, computing software, and laboratories, including a light structures lab with equipment to test steel reinforcing bars, immersive virtual reality software, a wave basin which can simulate any sea condition, a geotechnics lab with a range of soil testing equipment, a hydraulics lab with three tilting flumes and state of the art measurement capabilities, a building services lab containing fully-instrumented laboratory test rigs for drainage, and an extensive structures lab with a rail track test centre and a fatigue testing facility.   

Gaining employability skills is at the heart of our programme and you’ll have lots of opportunity to gain practical experience. In year two you can participate in a week-long field course, Constructionarium”, which provides hands-on construction working alongside professional engineers and tradesmen to construct scaled down versions of buildings, bridges, dams, and other engineering structures from all around the world.   

You’ll increase your networking experiences in year three through participating in a mentoring scheme referred to as our “Culture of External MENToring (CEMENT)” scheme, which links students with professionals in practice to offer work placements, graduate employment opportunities, and site visits. 

Customise your learning 

You’ll take eight mandatory courses in year one introducing you to management, economics and principles of cost control, construction technology and digital modelling, and urban geography. You’ll also take a course designed to inspire awareness of the contribution of your discipline to tackling global challenges and its connection to other disciplines. You’ll work in teams, learn to cope with complexity, gain core study skills, and thrive on ambiguity.   

You’ll participate in a walking tour of Edinburgh in year one, viewing the architecture of the Old and New Town and take part in construction site visits. You’ll can also attend a three-day residential field trip within the United Kingdom.  

You’ll take seven mandatory courses in year two including surveying and geographical information systems, construction technology, introduction to accounting and finance, building services technology, cost modelling and measurement, a course on building information modelling using software, and a course to increase your employability and professional skills.  

You’ll customise your learning in year two through choosing one optional course in semester two from global communications in English, the economy, and environment and behaviour. 

You’ll study seven mandatory courses in year three which will further enhance your construction and management skills. You’ll also choose one course between design issues, and energy and buildings. There is an overseas residential field trip in year three which you can choose to participate in. 

During year four, you’ll participate in a collaborative group exercise as part of a design project and complete your research dissertation. You’ll take three mandatory courses to increase your quantity surveying skills in cost and value management, quantity surveying practice, and construction information management. You’ll choose one course in year three from social sustainability, sustainable and intelligent buildings, and environmental planning.  

Throughout your studies, you’ll have the opportunity to transfer to our Malaysia campus for a year or semester through an inter-campus transfer.  

An exchange or inter-campus transfer is administered by Heriot-Watt’s Go Global programme and allows you to expand your horizons by taking your studies to worldwide destinations.  

Industry  

We work closely with industry to ensure our course content is up-to-date and reflects the current and emerging needs of industry and employers. You’ll gain the right blend of knowledge, practical skills, and soft skills to set you up for life after graduation.  

The University is also a Corporate Member of the Association for Project Management. 

Accreditation

Our BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying degree is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).