Impact of Construction Technologies on Education in Denmark

At the Technical University of Denmark the training in how to adopt BIM tools in the design and construction processes has increased due to a request made by companies in the Danish construction industry. The growing interest in BIM is partly due to the fact that Danish state clients were forced to require BIM models in IFC-format from consultants since 2007.

As a consequence of the demand most Bachelor of Sciences and Master of Sciences students in Denmark have been taught interoperability and BIM tools since then. At the Technical University of Denmark a multidisciplinary course in “Advanced Building Design” at MSc. level has been developed. Through project work the goal of the course is to provide training in interdisciplinary skills and teamwork as well as using building information models at the final stage of the engineering education.

In addition to preparing drawings according to the present requirements which are valid in all ordinary projects, the students should hand in BIM models in IFC format and document results from the use of clash detection tools. A number of experiences have been gained from the course. The students underestimate the effort it takes to integrate components from different disciplines in a BIM model.

The student evaluations of the course have been very ambiguous, since some have seen this as a good opportunity to simulate real building construction projects and learn how to use BIM tools in a multidisciplinary team, while others are very sceptical about working in multidisciplinary teams. Universities should be aware of their role in influencing students, since the students are very loyal to the software tools that have been taught in at the university when they are selecting software products in their projects.