Compared to some property and construction professions, building surveying is relatively young, having come into existence a little over 30 years ago. The RICS Education Reforms of 2001 initially had a detrimental impact upon recruitment to building surveying courses in the UK and at a time of acute skills shortages this led to some soul searching about the future of building surveying education.

Central to this debate is whether the profession maintains its strong technical focus or whether it should take on a more management centred approach. The move towards non-cognate graduate conversion courses in the UK also presents educators with a dilemma – how can a substantial body of technical knowledge be assimilated during fast-track education?

The paper presents archival analysis research which compares the curriculum (its depth and breadth) when building surveying was in its infancy (exactly 30 years ago) with that of the present day.

The analysis revealed significant differences in curricular, mostly for fairly obvious reasons. However there do appear to be some possible shortcomings in the modern-day curriculum examined.