New academic forum to help standardise Building Information Modelling education in Australian universities

25 October 2018

In September, CRADLE Fellow Dr M. Reza Hosseini travelled to Singapore to attend the 42nd Australasian Universities Building Education Association Conference (AUBEA 2018) and announce the formation of a new academic forum that aims to advance the consistency and quality of Building Information Modelling (BIM) education in Australian universities.

Together with Prof. Josua Pienaar (CQUniversity), Reza hosted a session at AUBEA 2018 announcing the formation of the Australian BIM Academic Forum (ABAF). In line with countries which are pioneering the use of BIM and have established similar working groups, such as the UK and the US, ABAF will bring together BIM educators to develop and promote the training, education, learning and research aspects of BIM through strong interuniversity collaboration. The idea for ABAF was initially developed by Reza and submitted as an application to the Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB), which acknowledged the need for an academic forum to support BIM promotion in Australia. The formation of ABAF is intended to address the growing need for industry collaboration and consensus on BIM education across Australian universities.

Left: M. Reza Hosseini and Josua Pienaar; right: AUBEA delegates.

The session at AUBEA 2018 hosted by Reza and Prof. Pienaar was attended by delegates from major Australian universities, along with delegates from India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. In discussion with delegates, a number of aims and objectives for ABAF were formulated, including:

• Exploring the challenges of BIM education across Australian universities and providing remedial solutions;
• Creating minimum standards for BIM-related curricula, with the objective of bridging the gap between tertiary BIM education outcomes and workplace performance requirements; and
• Creating and standardising baseline performance measurement for BIM education accreditation at Australian universities.

The rapid and continuing growth of BIM has presented the construction industry worldwide with challenges on multiple fronts, particularly a rising market demand for sufficiently skilled BIM professionals to meet the growing number of BIM-enabled projects. Therefore, there is a need for universities to keep pace with this demand and equip students with the BIM skills needed in the changing construction industry.

While Australian universities have made significant advancements in fostering BIM education, many institutions remain restricted in their offerings due to difficulties in developing robust BIM curricula, exacerbated by limited resources. Existing curricula vary markedly in quality and content across institutions, and even the best existing BIM programs are not systematically designed to fulfil the requirements of the Australian BIM industry. The formation of ABAF aims to bring together educators to address the existing disparities in BIM education, and to develop a consistent policy approach.

Delegates attend the ABAF announcement.

All BIM educators in Australia are invited to be part of this movement that will transform BIM training and education in Australia. The ABAF website is due to go live in mid-November 2018, while the working committee will commence monthly online meetings this month. It is anticipated that the first outcome, a document outlining the minimum requirements for BIM education and training across the Australian tertiary education sector, will be released in mid-2019.