Integrating BIM in Higher Education Programs: Barriers and Remedial Solutions in Australia

Abstract

Despite the increasingly widespread adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Australia, a steady pipeline of BIM-ready graduates needed to meet industry demand remains elusive. Anecdotal evidence suggests that universities in Australia have not been successful in delivering BIM-enabled graduates of the right calibre due to a plethora of barriers. This paper aims to identify, define and delineate barriers to integrating BIM education into programs in Australian higher education institutions (HEIs), and unearth the antecedents of these barriers. A post-positivist philosophical design was implemented to undertake a cross sectional and mixed methods approach to collecting and analysing primary data. Data was collected through qualitative methods-18 structured and seven semi-structured interviewswith key BIM educators in Australia. Data were analysed using Nvivo. Findings reveal that four thematic groups of barriers hinder effective BIM education integration in Australian HEIs. These are: 1) change management challenges; 2) curriculum and content limitation; 3) educators' problems; and 4) disconnect with the industry. The research concludes that a major overhaul is needed to change the modus operandi via which the industry, accreditation bodies and government policy makers engage with HEIs to define BIM education programs. However, given a notable dearth of investment and collaboration from the industry and government, HEIs cannot manage the change needed for running effective BIM training programs. Therefore, cross government/industry collaboration and financial support is needed to stimulate a cultural shift in existing HEIs' provisions to generate future generations of highly skilled and competent BIM enabled graduates. This paper represents the first attempt to contextualise HEIs' capacity to deliver advanced BIM training given a wider and prevailing economic and political topology that currently fails to adequately support the supply of fully trained graduates.

What Determines BIM Competition Results of Undergraduate Students in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry?

“…Clevenger et al [ 19 ] studied the way to integrate BIM technology into architectural engineering-related courses. Casasayas et al [ 20 ] divided reasons that hinder BIM education in Australian universities into four aspects: change management adjustment, curriculum and content restrictions, problems of educators, and disconnection from the industry. Through the research, they pointed out that researchers should provide the link between graduates’ preparation for BIM and their employability in the Australian market.…”

Establishing a Collaboration Model for BIM Training Program in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): A Vietnam case study

“…The rapid development of BIM creates a high demand for experienced BIM professionals in the construction industry market. However, many countries have had a shortage of BIM personnel for years [9,14,15]. To meet the industry demand, educational institutions have introduced BIM-related training programs in different modes such as higher education, on-job training, vocational training or professional training [10].…”

“…To meet the industry demand, educational institutions have introduced BIM-related training programs in different modes such as higher education, on-job training, vocational training or professional training [10]. Many researchers reported that BIM education is much more than instructions of software package usage; the more important is introducing the consistency in BIM approach and collaboration between all disciplines involved in a construction project [15,1]. It is not only about the new system and tools; it is about how people involved can together use the tools and systems efficiently to achieve the common goals.…”

Defining a BIM-Enabled Learning Environment—An Adaptive Structuration Theory Perspective

“…BIM educational programs start with creating awareness and educating students and trainees on how to use different industry-specific BIM software packages (e.g., Revit, ArchiCAD, Navisworks, Rhino3D, Aconex, etc.) for modelling, viewing, simulating, scheduling, or data sharing (see [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]). Courses often begin by highlighting the benefits and barriers of BIM, including the reasons for BIM adoption in the AEC-FM industry (e.g., [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]) and the progress on BIM knowledge and authoring/manipulation skills (e.g., [28][29][30][31]).…”