LECTURER: Hi, my name is Rene van Meeuwen,
I'm the Program Director for the Building Information Modelling
Master's Program and Graduate Diploma.
I've been teaching at UWA now for 20 years
and take all of my knowledge from construction
into my teaching practices.
Building Information Modelling has become a new paradigm
in the construction industry, which hopefully I'll elaborate more on
in this presentation.
The University of Western Australia acknowledges
that its campus is situated on Noongar land and that the Noongar people
remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land
and continue to practice their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.
In this presentation I'm going to run through
the five best reasons why to study BIM,
practical experience that you'll receive
by studying the BIM program and career possibilities
after graduation.
The graduate diploma of BIM and the master of BIM
require either a bachelor's degree or five years experience
in the construction industry.
This will give you direct entry.
In terms of how long it takes full time, the graduate diploma takes six months
and full time, the masters of BIM takes one year.
If you wish to study part time
you can have two years to do the graduate diploma
and up to three years to do the master's program.
I think the really exciting thing about this masters program
and the graduate diploma is it has been industry led
from the very beginning.
So, although as a academic I do some teaching,
most of the teaching is done by professionals
who are working in the industry.
This gives us a new learning experience which is always up to date.
We've had lecturers who worked on the new stadium,
which is a celebrated project here in Perth
and now we have other teaching staff
working on such infrastructure programs, programs like Metronet.
So, the other exciting part about the BIM program
is that it does allow the people who do the learning
and gain the knowledge to become true innovators
in the construction industry because they do lead projects.
So, the reasons why you would study
if you are in the construction industry already, mind you,
we have had also QSs and lawyers
study the masters of program already.
However, it has become a new standard in construction.
I think this is a really important aspect of the degree,
that knowledge so far has been driven through the industry
rather than through any university systems like a master's degree.
And therefore it gives the participants of the masters
a real insight into the construction industry overall
and how it has become a new standard.
And in a instance, for example, government projects now
are mandatory to use BIM as part of their entire program.
So, it will become something even more pronounced in the future.
It will also put you in the front seat of the construction industry.
So, we have found that the BIM management
and project management is now done by managers
who have been experienced because of the use of BIM
throughout the whole working process of construction.
And as I've already mentioned, it will also allow you
to become an innovator because you do hold the reins
to the construction projects from the initial briefing
from the client to the completed project
and then facilities management overall.
We've also found that the graduates and professionals through networks
and events have become an important part of meeting the new graduates.
We have students who have completed their masters
and participants all over the world.
We have a lot in the East Coast where construction industry
is even bigger than in Perth.
And it's a really good way of getting to meet the other members
who have already finished the masters or the postgraduate.
I think it will also allow anybody who's in a career
in the construction industry to jumpstart your career further
because you get a lot deeper understanding
of the construction industry and it removes a lot of barriers
to the professional segments within the construction industry.
So, if you were originally an engineer, structural engineer,
for example, it could lead to a lot better possibilities
because not only do you then have the engineering experience,
you have the BIM experience.
Industry partners have become a really big part of my job actually.
I look after all of the industry partners that we have
and this is a really important aspect of the degree
because it does mean that the staff that are doing the teaching
are also the professionals who are doing the construction industry innovation
as we speak.
You'll get to be taught by these individuals
who deliver a fantastic very specific and very up to date learning experience.
But I think the other experience that you'll get at UWA
is because of our multi-mode delivery of the information
it means that you can fit it in to your career
and you can also fit it into your learning style.
There's a vast number of opportunities in BIM
after you've graduated and these ones are the more pronounced
in terms of if you wanted to shift from your current industry
into a new industry.
However, for example, if you are a QS and you get BIM
and you do the degree, it means that you could head up
a team of QSs in the whole BIM environment.
So we've found that BIM managers
have become a new role within the construction industry
and a lot of our graduates have taken on BIM management roles
in large digital engineering firms.
The term digital engineering is actually a very current term
and it relates to the shift that engineers, in particular,
are making from more manual drafting traditions
into now three dimensional modelling.
The two other main areas is construction leader and project management.
So, we just find that BIM managers do tend to work
on site for leaders and to do project management.
I'd just like to say thank you for listening to this video
and I hope to see around the halls of the masters of BIM soon.