Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the main challenges that digitalization in different sectors, like construction and civil works, imposes to the higher education system, as it is defined in Spain. The relevance of this exploratory analysis is to identify strengths and challenges that the current higher education system and to identify potential ways of find paths promoting the improvement.

The adopted methodology is to review the curricula of several relevant degrees directly impacted for some of the dimensions of BIM, in order to identify potential courses capable of providing room for BIM integration or benefits from it. The global strategy of the education program will be confronted against the requirements, to identify potential tensions.

Recent advances in building information modelling (BIM) have disseminated the utilization of multi-dimensional (nD) CAD information in the construction industry. From December 2018, the Council of Ministers of Spanish Government [1], has adopted two main actions enforcing Public Sector behaviour, which look to heavily promote the BIM deployment in Spain.

Those actions were:
• To setup a inter-ministerial committee to promote BIM at governmental level, and
• To launch a mandate BIM at Catalonian government.

The main goal is to develop a plan to include BIM methodology in Public Contracts. In the second case the mandate is much more specific, requesting the application of BIM technology in projects having an estimated cost over five millions euro.

Such proposed transformation of the construction sector has significant implications for higher education providers in ensuring they meet the demands required of future professionals. This is relevant for Built Environment related educational programs, but not only for them. Because of the higher level dimensions impact looking to practical BIM proliferation. This has represented a reverse approach towards achieving this integration in the construction industry. It is recognized that BIM has started to fully utilize 3D graphic data first, and then to expands the usage into an nD environment [2].

Because of the characteristics of the BIM, it becomes a challenge for the education system, which is based on small curses per semester, aiming to address individual knowledge components. As far as contents are already defined and BIM requires intense theoretic and practical efforts, with special focus on examining or enhancing the interoperability of BIM technologies across project networks. The interoperability of business practices that must complement technological interoperability has been largely ignored, indeed, in educational contexts.

In order to identify the current level on integration of BIM technologies in higher education, an analysis of the curricula for different engineering and architectural degrees is performed, in different universities.
Based on the findings, a match analysis of the BIM dimensions touched will be also performed

References:
[1] M. de la Presidencia, “Real Decreto 1515/2018, de 28 de diciembre, por el que se crea la Comisión Interministerial para la incorporación de la metodología BIM en la contratación pública,” in BOE, 2019, pp. 9463-- 9468.
[2] A. Mahalingam, R. Kashyap, and C. Mahajan, “An evaluation of the applicability of 4D CAD on construction projects,” Autom. Constr., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 148–159, 2010.

Keywords:

Digital Transformation, Higher Education, BIM.