A new discourse has proliferated in teaching and learning committee meetings- Large Language Models (LLMs), most commonly Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT). ChatGPT 'went viral' across HEIs during 2022 and it could be said that for academics, this has been more 'shock' than 'awe'. A shock that this Artificial Intelligence (AI) software can generate semi-credible coursework, and that students have swiftly enacted their agency. In this paper we take an 'employability' lens on ChatGPT and contribute to a growing body of research on AI within HEIs. Through understanding how employers and their employees are adopting LLMs in their workplace. Our Qualtrics survey of practicing engineers (N = 86) was undertaken over a four-week period during the period June-July 2023 and provides a 'snapshot' in time. That is, given the rapidity of how ChatGPT is metamorphosing, our data and subsequent conclusions are attributable to a version ChatGPT 3-3.5 in use during this period.

Postgraduate (PG) Built Environment education provides higher level skills, yet, concerns of losing such provision exist, as UK universities are experiencing financial challenges from systemic governmental underfunding. This article presents survey findings evaluating three areas in PG Built Environment provision: (i) Institutional context and programmes offerings; (ii) Programme viability and institutional decision making; and (iii) Implications of change in programme offerings. Collectively, these support an understanding of ‘What is offered?’ ‘Whatis viable?’ and ‘What is the result of change in provision?’ Participants included Senior academics from a range of UK universities and disciplines. Results suggest more PG programmes are being opened (72%) than closed (35%), reflecting institutional aspirations to grow numbers via new offerings. No consensus exists regarding numbers for financial viability, although 10 to 30 students was commonly noted. Decisions to open and close programmes are largely ‘top-down’, from University Executive or Head of School, whilst arguments for retaining programmes with low student numbers typically come from staff at programme level. Regarding implications of change, policy makers are encouraged to engage with universities, employers and professional bodies, as findings point towards more online PG degrees, Continuing Professional Development activities and inhouse specialist training.

In this paper, two case studies of enhancing undergraduate students’ learning through work-integrated learning are presented. Both interventions involve university–industry partnerships with local and regional civil engineering employers. Industry Mentoring (2010–2024) is a curricular activity with an authentic assessment. Third-year student mentees (n = 1130) were mentored by 298 practising civil engineers, representing 80 employers. Civil Engineering 4 Real (CE4R, 2012–2024) is a co-curricular hybrid programme of problem/project-based evening workshops (n = 133), attended by 594 students with around 2867 student attendances, supported by 218 engineers, representing 76 employers. Industry Mentoring and CE4R support students to network with employers, enhance their employability skills, and shape their professional identity. Through their free assistance, employers have established a talent pipeline, recruiting students for summer placements and graduate jobs. For employers, their engagement provides evidence of enacting their corporate social responsibility through providing a social value contribution to a local university.

This chapter considers the development of construction and engineering education that historically chartered an increasingly decoupled trajectory from being practical in nature, to include progressively more theoretical instruction. Indeed, over the last half century, construction and engineering education has become increasingly theoretical, and is now arguably delivered by academic staff with little practical experience of the discipline. This could be detrimental to those learning an inherently vocational subject, and perhaps understandably, calls to recouple theory and practice have recently gained traction, through vehicles such as Higher Education Apprenticeships. Whilst largely seen as positive, such recoupling may potentially create problems for the current staff base that are often characterised as ‘career academics’ with often limited ‘real world’ experience. Conversely, academics with industrial experience (or pracademics) are arguably better equipped to bridge theory and practice. Yet, ‘pracademics’ frequently feel an insecurity of identity associated with ‘imposter syndrome’ in a research-dominated Higher Education (HE) context. However, rather than being imposters, we argue ‘pracademics’ have a lineage going back centuries. We highlight the important role that pracademics play in bridging theory and practice and allude to their importance in achieving high quality, contextualised student focused experiential learning that is set to be an increasingly important aspect of HE provision.

Employability and skills development are contemporary issues in higher education. For vocational-professional disciplines, such as engineering, the signature pedagogy directs teaching and learning towards acquiring scientific knowledge. Engineering employers have called for graduates to be more work-ready and trained in team-working, communication and other professional skills. These skills can be developed and assessed within curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular settings. We consider how a sample of undergraduate civil engineers (N = 58) perceive the contribution of the above activities on the development of six professional skills (Problem-solving; Planning; Leadership; Team-working; Self-confidence; Resilience). Embedding these skills within curricular activities offers the greatest potential for helping all students improve their employment prospects. Finally, we make suggestions for improving the deployment of professional skills in our four undergraduate programmes, and higher education institutions in general.

Two ongoing and recurrent debates in the employment of academic staff are (1) how much industry experience should faculty staff have? and (2) what priority is given to research, teaching or both? Such debates take place worldwide and are particularly relevant to vocational subject areas. Through a statistical analysis of circa 200 job adverts for lecturer / assistant professor, senior lecturer / associate professor, and professor / full professor positions in Construction and Engineering posts in the UK, this paper investigates the essential and desirable attributes required for 'research', 'teaching' and 'overall requirements'. The analysis shows institutions unmistakably focus on, and coherently recruit for research, but demonstrate very little reasoned approach to recruiting for teaching. Indeed, findings identify 'administration' as the key teaching priority. Further empirical analysis demonstrates no significant difference in recruitment strategy before and after the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework, despite its aim to put teaching excellence to the fore.

Vocational disciplines such as engineering provide an ideal opportunity for contextualising the curriculum. The provision of co-curricular activities can stimulate students to assimilate their prior knowledge and skills whilst enhancing employability attributes. Team-based co-curricular activities linked to problem-based learning can offer students a quasi-authentic experience of engineering practice. In this paper, we provide a case study of a successful co-curricular initiative supported by local civil engineering employers. Civil Engineering 4 Real (CE4R) are evening workshops facilitated by practicing engineers, where student attendance is voluntary. Students use authentic documentation and collaborate in peer learning to solve industrial problems. CE4R has assisted student's anticipatory socialisation into their disciplinary profession. However, further research is required to establish the cognitive legacy that students gain from attending CE4R. There is also a need to explore the synergy that could be prompted through understanding the boundaries between CE4R and the programme curriculum.

For civil engineering undergraduates, short-term industrial work placement provides an invaluable learning experience. Notwithstanding the near-universal endorsement of short-term placement programmes, the resulting experience is rarely articulated through the student voice. This article provides an analysis of 174 questionnaires returned by placement undergraduates studying civil engineering at four higher education institutions in the West of Scotland. The commentary captures industrial placement statistics, employability skill sets and a preliminary semantic interpretation of participants’ testimonies. While the student journey to becoming a professional civil engineer is undoubtedly enhanced by short-term industrial placement, the findings disclose opportunities for university and industry to challenge and affect pedagogical discourse in relation to personal and professional development. The discussion is likely to resonate beyond civil engineering and may serve as a timely reminder of the necessity of periodically revisiting and reinvigorating academia–industry curriculum partnerships.

Career Academics’ are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematizes the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions and; current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue recent UK government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or ‘Pracademics’ in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy makers, institutions, and those implementing strategy. We argue research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic ‘drift’ and provides reflection for others on the UK context.

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From the mid-20th C., construction and engineering pedagogy and curricula have moved from long-held traditional experiential apprenticeship approaches to one ostensibly decoupling practice and theory. This paper traces this decoupling and explores modern-day opportunities and challenges for recoupling university education with industry practice. Within this context the UK Government funds Graduate Level Apprenticeships (GLA) and introduces the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), arguably signalling a desire to recouple. Nevertheless, many challenges from following previous UK Government policy prioritising research remain, particularly for post-1992 institutions. Arguably, Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) are at a pedagogical crossroads, considering whether to choose REF-ville, TEF-ville, and/or Apprentice Township. Do HEI's continue their increasingly decontextualized theoretical approach, or re-embrace construction and engineering education's experiential roots? We present and discuss opportunities and challenges currently facing HEI's, aiming to help inform decisions regarding recoupling theory and practice in construction and engineering teaching and learning, but potentially also other fields.

Career Academics' are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematises the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions; and current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue that recent UK Government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or 'Pracademics' in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy-makers, institutions and those implementing strategy. We argue that research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic 'drift' and provides reflection for others on the UK context.

Given the paucity of engineering history presently taught on civil engineering programmes, the purpose of this paper is to promote the role of historical testimonies for the delivery of an enhanced, contemporary and social system's educational experience. Drawing on the addresses of the presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) (1820-2014) as a source of inspiration and motivation, civil engineering students (n=428) were required to select and read six inaugural addresses of former ICE presidents and use these as a catalyst for writing their own ICE presidential address' while keeping an eye forwards to the year 2050. The results reveal that the ICE presidential addresses help introduce undergraduates to the real and human' world of civil engineering and provide the students with a social', as opposed to a scientific, understanding of their profession. Exploring and exploiting the substantial depository of knowledge, values, wisdom and social context of ICE presidential addresses are both innovative and novel and worthy of adoption and adaptation by other academies seeking to prepare civil engineering undergraduates as global citizens.

On enrolment at university, undergraduate civil engineering students begin their journey towards a professional career. Associating with graduate engineers throughout their studies provides students with potential role models and assists them to accustomise progressively to the industry. While the procurement of guest practitioners to deliver workshops and lectures remains buoyant, opportunities for students to secure summer placements within the civil engineering sector has been problematic since the 2008 financial crisis. Graduate mentoring of student mentees can help to bridge the shortage of vocational placements. This paper discusses the results from a graduate mentoring initiative involving third-year (N = 345) civil and environmental engineering student mentees, 83 graduate mentors and 31 employers. The results show that the student mentees overwhelmingly support and validate the opportunities that this initiative has provided. On completion of their mentoring meetings, and on return to the fourth year of their studies, the majority of the students commit to making behavioural and attitudinal changes regarding their own continued professional development.

Construction education is context-laden, navigating and reflecting the byzantine influences of period, place and person. Despite considerable rhetoric, in UK higher education and construction studies in particular the importance of contextualized teaching is being devalued. Over the past decade a growing number of new teaching staff to university lecturing has limited or no industrial experience of the construction sector. This paper explores the rise of the career academic in construction education and implications for teaching standards and student learning. Whilst career academics exhibit research skills and afford funding possibilities that universities find appealing, pedagogical studies suggest that experience-led, contextualized teaching offer students enhanced educational value. Policy-making and pedagogical strategies that continue to value research at the expense of teaching excellence coupled with recruitment of career academics as opposed to industry professionals present new challenges for construction education, teaching and student learning.

Undergraduate civil engineering students have access to a rich and diverse bank of textual and graphic knowledge concerning their chosen profession. However, over a number of decades, commentators have raised concerns that students have insufficient understanding of the role of civil engineering in society. Indeed, the call for universities to educate 'global engineers' emphasises the need for students to be schooled in the humanities, in parallel with their core computational studies. Unfortunately, engineering students in particular are not accustomed to regular exploratory reading. This paper considers the use of the National Geographic magazine as a means to ignite students' curiosity in the world around them. The results from a pilot study and a content analysis of a number of editions from over a decade show that this periodical regularly carries themes directly concerning the impact of civil engineering in society, be it political, financial, environmental, social or ecological.

Undergraduate (UG) civil engineering students should graduate from university with knowledge that links their computational competence in structural engineering and mechanics to construction technology principles, processes and practice. However, there appears to be a paucity of evidence to suggest that UG civil engineering students receive sufficient instruction in construction technology throughout their degree studies. This paper presents evidence from a study employing the weekly New Civil Engineer (NCE) publication as a vehicle for introducing construction technology to first year students. The results reveal that students found this publication interesting and inspirational.Whilst this innovative approach to teaching construction technology would be best 'blended' throughout the UG course, its introduction, application and success arguably requires a multi-disciplinary and carefully 'engineered' approach. Given the diversity of academic staff, individual motivation and the professional demands of a contemporary mass higher education system, the prospective benefits from 'blended' learning in UG construction technology studies will in all probability remain unfulfilled.

The project to modify Glenfarg water treatment works by Scottish Water, working in conjunction with its partners Black and Veatch Ltd and Scottish Water Solutions, received a gold award and 'the ultimate accolade' of 'The Most Considerate Site 2009' at the considerate constructors scheme (CCS) awards. Although previous projects undertaken by Scottish Water have achieved high considerate constructor scores, Glenfarg exceeded previous projects' standards. This level of performance was delivered across the eight categories of the scheme: considerate, environment, cleanliness, good neighbour, respectful, safe, responsible and accountable. The steps the project team took under each of these categories to deliver the project are reviewed in this paper. The paper also outlines some of the challenges the project team faced while delivering such a high level of performance. Furthermore, the paper makes particular reference to 'soft' management skills and the development of a project organisational culture that emphasised pride and passion through engagement of the workforce. Overall, the paper presents valuable insights into how performing beyond the CCS requirements remains a dynamic and ongoing activity for all parties involved with the scheme.