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TUITION FEES OPINION £10 A WEEK TO SAVE THE WORLD
By misrepresenting the tuition fee issue, the British media is harming the country’s ability to build up the engineering workforce it desperately needs, says Dr David Tann
Increasing the amount universities are able to charge in
tuition fees was controversial and almost completely misunderstood. The negative publicity has been hugely damaging because it will undoubtedly lead to many youngsters – particularly those from less affluent backgrounds – opting not to take up valuable opportunities in further education. In the case of building services engineering, the stakes are particularly high because of our role in helping the nation meet its energy needs. Students all have access to loans and
the repayments are not triggered until they start earning more than £21,000 a year. Their repayments can also be subsidised by employers in the future – and often are. However, it has suited some people with political agendas to present this as a debt just like any other. The average repayment for a part-time student – the majority in our industry – is estimated to be the equivalent of £10 a week. This is a tiny price to pay for a highly rewarding career that offers a rare opportunity to enhance the built environment and tackle major issues like climate change.
Affordability The earning potential of building services graduates is higher than many other professions – average salaries are around £34,000 after graduation. While this makes them eligible to make repayments earlier, our graduate engineers are better placed to afford them. The negative publicity about finance
is harming our industry. Employers and educators need to work more closely together to redress the PR balance and represent the opportunities offered by a career in building services, while also emphasising affordability. We must not get this wrong. We are desperately short of skilled building engineers. Recent figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) suggest that we will need to more than double engineering
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£10 a week is a tiny price to pay for a highly rewarding career that offers a rare opportunity to enhance the built
environment
graduates in the next five years to keep pace with the UK’s building and infrastructure growth targets. In London alone, it is estimated
that another 18,000 building services operatives are needed and that 60% of them should be graduates. However, this is not just about numbers. The technical challenges faced by our industry are increasingly complex – successful graduates will be those with a full understanding of how building systems work. There is a growing realisation across
the sector that the archaic structure of our supply chain, which forces different professions to work in silos, hamstrings efforts to deliver properly integrated and, therefore, effective renewable and low carbon building solutions. Young engineers are busily reinventing this. Collaboration and integration are second nature to them and are key to delivering low and zero carbon technologies that perform to their full potential. The industry is also facing a new skills challenge, with a particular focus on retrofitting existing buildings. This rapidly evolving backdrop presents new challenges to educators and also to employers. Ironically, despite the increase in
tuition fees, universities will be worse off. The change in fee structure is part of the government’s strategy for relieving
itself of the burden of funding higher and further education. From now on the vast majority of the cost will be borne by students and employers – this will not deliver more money to universities.
CIBSE’s pivotal role To produce this new breed of collaborative, multi-skilled engineers, we have to find new ways of supporting ourselves and, by extension, the industry. Our collaborations with industry will be even more important. We already co-operate through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs); joint research; sponsored part- time study and so on – and we will have to do much more. CIBSE can also play a pivotal role
in presenting a coherent message on behalf of everyone who has the interests of the industry at heart. We have a positive message to sell and we must make sure we never miss an opportunity to remind anyone who will listen that building services engineering is an exciting career. It presents opportunities to work on fantastic projects and do something about climate change and the energy gap. And all for just £10 a week.
l DR DAVID TANN is head of the Department of Urban Engineering at London South Bank University
www.lsbu.ac.uk
August 2012 CIBSE Journal
19
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