| THE EDUCATION AND PRACTICE OF THE GEODETIC SURVEYOR IN WESTERN EUROPE | |
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Since the 1989 report was published there has been a major upgrading of the education of the geodetic surveyor in Belgium. The former system of part-time evening education has been replaced by a full-time university education at three establishments. In Italy there has been an initiative by the university of Florence to introduce a three year programme leading towards the award of a Diploma. No details are available at the time of writing (1995). The RICS examination system and its membership is open to foreign candidates, mostly from former British overseas territories.Similar relationships with former colonies exist in France, Spain and Portugal. It will be noted that the Scottish educational system differs from the English; it has a wider secondary school curriculum and, because entry to the university is one year earlier than in England, honours degree courses are normally one year longer, ie of four years' duration. Ireland has a similar system to Scotland. To summarise the picture, shown in greater detail in each country appendix, are the following points. In most countries except, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and the UK, higher education in specialised Geodetic Surveying (B + three years minimum ) is represented by two types university education:
A second cycle of two years is currently being introduced in Spain to build up a scientific education upon the present vocational 3 year university education. For this cycle, unlike the first, a numerus clausus policy will operate. The UK system is a hybrid of these two levels: a three year programme followed by a possible one year intensive study in a specialist subject such as cartography, computer science, geodesy, geodetic surveying, geographical information systems, photogrammetry, or remote sensing. These courses lead to MSc level and have been long established, some for over forty years. Similar courses can be found also in France. Technician education (Bacc + two years programme) is universal except in Italy where the education is given entirely at secondary school level. In most countries, the scientific aspects of Higher Geodesy are also linked to courses in Geophysics, Astronomy or Space Science. The Geographical Engineer courses in Portugal are of particular note in that they are based in the Departments of mathematics not geography as the name might suggest. In Belgium two new courses are based in departments of geography and one in civil engineering. In some universities there is a strong competence in aspects of surveying within Civil Engineering courses (eg in Italy), although this tends to be somewhat ephemeral according to the personal preferences of staff at anyone time. The scope of education in these higher institutions, depicted in Figure 1, can be summarised as follows
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| Published by the Comité de Liaison des Géometres Européens / The European Council of Geodetic Surveyors | Back to Main Contents |  |