austrian society for surveying and geoinformation (ovg) how to enhance the interest for surveying...

Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)

How to Enhance the Interest for Surveying Studies (in Austria)?

Reinfried MANSBERGER

Gert STEINKELLNER

Scientia Est Potentia – Knowledge is Power How to Enhance the Interest for Surveying Studies Prague, Czech Republic, June 7-9, 2007 Reinfried MANSBERGER & Gert STEINKELLNER

Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Content of the Presentation

• Introduction

• State of the Art

• Reasons for Decreased Interest of Surveying Studies

• Strategy to Improve Interest for Surveying Studies

• Summary & Conclusions


Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Introduction

“Official Warning: Don’t study Surveying”

Background information:

increasing number of students

limitation of available jobs

dismal situation of employment

in the field of surveying

Alfred Gromann (President of Austrian Federal Office of Surveying)

Letter addressed to rectors at Universities of Technology in Vienna and

Graz published in the Journal of the Austrian Association for

Surveying, 1932 (!)


Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Messages

“Job possibilities of graduates in surveying are nowadays

good to excellent” (Geofuture, 2007)

“Graduates of surveying are objects of desire” (Geoinfo, 2007)

“Specialist with international highly recognised

academic qualification” (Geoinfo, 2007)

“Nearly all students of surveying will find a well-paid job

after having finished their studies” (Geoinfo, 2007)



State of the Art in AustriaProfessional Fields

Fields not integrated in surveying education:

urban and rural planning,

land valuation, and

real estate management

Consequence:

professional activities in these fields are normally not part of the portfolio

of an Austrian surveyor



State of the Art in AustriaNumber of Incoming Students

Incoming students in Surveying at the University of Technology in Vienna and at the University of Technology in Graz (since 2004)



State of the Art in AustriaWrong Motivation of Students

„ … to do field working by land surveyingand to have close contact to people”

But the reality is:

Management duties

ITC-activities

Consulting tasks

Planning activities

……..



State of the Art in AustriaWrong Public View of a Surveyor in Austria

Pure technician with an excellent knowledge in mathematics and

geometry

Person needed for the procedure of buying or selling land

Archivist of parcels and boundary lines

Mathematician and sometimes pedantic person with a specific liking of

high-accurate surveying instruments

Person providing geometrical information for civil engineers, spatial

planners and other engineering professionals and

Male person



State of the Art in Austria Pros & Cons for Employment of Surveyors

GPS-technology

WebGIS applications

Risk management

Global change

….

Modern surveying instruments and computers

Simplification and Automation of surveying processes

Outsourcing (Central Europe to low-wage countries)

…


Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Reality of Surveying Activities

The professional and educational profile of surveyors is a combination of the

areas of measurement science and land administration, supported by and

embedded in a broad multidisciplinary paradigm of spatial information

management.

(Stig ENEMARK, 2000)



Reasons for Decreased Interest Inadequate Education & Wrong Marketing

• Restrictions in the maximum of lecture hours (due to Bologna Process) ?

• Name of study courses (Geomatics, Geoinformatics, …) ?

• Image of Technical Universities ?

focus to much on technical and natural sciences ?

missing information of new contents (social and human sciences) ?

disincentive to many potential students - especially to female students!



Strategy to Enhance InterestRaising Questions

• How to attract surveying courses for young people and how to improve the

role of surveyors in society?

• Who are the potential players to promote our profession and the

appropriate education?

• Should promotion of profession be done on a local, national or global

level?

• Which measures have to be done or have to be enhanced to bring

students to the lecture halls of surveying institutes?



Strategies to Enhance InterestPromotion of Role of Surveyors

• Stabiliser of public order and the work of surveyors as a precondition of a flourishing economy

• Guardian of rights of property and user as well as Guardian for a safe system of records in land administration systems

• Producer, Administrator and Distributor of local, national and global spatial data infrastructure

• Manager of land, water and other natural resources

• Enabler, Mediator and Advisor for urban and rural planning and development, including conflict resolution

• Hinge (Interfaces) in global, national and local early warning systems for disaster prevention and risk management

• Active partner in the development and use of e.g. global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and high resolution imaging systems

(Holger MAGEL, 2006)



Strategies to Enhance InterestExtension of Professional Activities

• Strengthen the cooperation with related professional bodies on national

and international level

• Take leadership in all described professional activities

• Enter strategic partnerships with local, national and international

authorities and to increase their self-confidence in the cooperation with

politicians and other professions

• Think about new fields of profession and new value-added products and

to enter new alliances with other professions



Strategies to Enhance Interest Promotion & Marketing (1)

To make the profession more attractive and to motivate young people to

study surveying, the surveyors and the surveying associations have

• to organize concerted actions on national and international level for

making the real occasional area of surveying profession popular

• to communicate the important contributions of the surveying profession for

the society, the economy, and the environment to the public

• to intensify the participation in the public discussion to all land-related

issues

• to communicate the broad field of profession and the manifold activities of

surveyors to young people (potential students)



Strategies to Enhance Interest Promotion & Marketing (2)

To make the profession more attractive and to motivate young people to

study surveying, the surveyors and the surveying associations have

• to inform incoming students about all different branches in surveying

studies (measuring sciences, land management)

• to promote the surveying profession in the primary and secondary

education

• to support colleagues in countries or region with lacking or missing

surveying education in their efforts to improve the situation and

• to encourage women and other underrepresented groups in the surveying

profession to enrol study courses in surveying



Skills in Fields of Sciences Needed for Specific Branches in Surveying



Strategies to Enhance Interest Adaptation and Modernisation of Curricula

The surveyors and the surveying associations have:

• to adapt furthermore curricula to the new challenges of profession

• to provide up-to-date teaching and learning technologies to the students

• to intensify the mutual cooperation between all institutions involved in

surveying education on a national and international level

• to create new inter-university study courses on national and international

level

• to provide CPD (continuous-professional-development)/ LLL (life-long-

learning) to all academics in the profession


Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Summary & Conclusions (1)

• Stakeholders have to

develop sustainable strategies to enhance the interest improve the marketing for the profession itself improve the marketing for products and services accord and supervise the promotion on international level

• Central Europe: necessary to extend activity fields

planning issues real estate management


Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)Summary & Conclusions (2)

Surveyors have to

increase self-confidence in the public discussion of all land- and environmental-related topics

comment all political or legal decisions in the context of land

point out their valuable contributions to meet the challenges of global mega-topics (e.g. global change, achievement of millenniums goals)



e n d(Thank You)



Ass.Prof. Dr. Reinfried MANSBERGERInstitute of Surveying, Remote Sensing and Land Information (IVFL)University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU Wien)A-1190 Vienna, Peter-Jordan-Strasse 82, AustriaEmail: [email protected]

Dipl.-Ing. Gert STEINKELLNERFederal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV) A-1025 Vienna, Schiffamtsgasse 1-3, AustriaEmail: [email protected]

Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG)www.ovg.at

austrian society for surveying and geoinformation (ovg) how to enhance the interest for surveying...

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