Study visits

Construction management

Trips, site visits, live projects, competitions and projects give you the opportunity to experience the real construction environment.

Construction students across all levels have plenty of opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom with practical onsite experience. Below are just a few examples.

Undergraduate annual residential field course

Each year, BSc (Hons) Construction Management second year students attend a week-long residential field trip, along with students from BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology.

The trip allows students to put theory in practice, working in small project groups on exercises to develop their professional skills and to broaden their related experiences.

The students set out a series of simulated construction works, producing a topographic plan of the area, learning how to measure buildings, land and levels.

In addition to cultivating engineering surveying skills, the exercises have emphasise teamwork and the development of management skills while also placing participants under a certain amount of project-pressure to complete the exercises in the allocated time. But it's not all work – table football and good food are all high on the agenda too!

The field trip is always a very positive experience and receives great feedback from students:

"The field course gave the opportunity for nearly an academic year’s worth of classroom and short practical session material to be put into real-life situations. The trip was a fantastic experience for everyone and saw most people getting to grips with surveying even if they had struggled previously."
Gareth Miles, (BSc Hons) Construction Management student

Take a look at recent field course images in our construction gallery.

Postgraduate annual international field trip

Each year the MSc Construction Management course take part in an international field trip.

2010 saw the students visit Hong Kong and Dubai. The trip gives an international perspective to the course and introduces students to some of the real-world challenges in the construction industry

"Construction is an international market and our graduates have to be prepared to work anywhere in the world," explained Alan Hurst, Senior Lecturer in Construction Management. "By asking our students to consider how a construction company expands its business internationally we are simulating a situation which they could find themselves in for real in industry."

The students agreed that the trip had been an invaluable experience and the project had provided plenty of opportunities for them to debate the many options available to the industry. "The Hong Kong trip provided us with important exposure to the international construction industry," said student Ali Mohamad. "It really expanded our horizons and gave us first hand knowledge that you can’t get in the classroom."