A lot of emphasis is placed on teamwork and presentation skills at top-rated Kingston University. The school is the only university outfit in the country to register a maximum overall score in its recent teaching quality inspection for the built environment subject area. Dr Sarah Sayce, head of the surveying school, says that assessors were particularly impressed with the ringing endorsement the department received from both students and employers. But we also had extremely supportive students, who said they have a good experience and feel well looked after. Scoring nearly 90 out of a maximum of 100 points, Kingston University led the charge of the new universities in the teaching stakes, with seven out of the top 10 departments in the table from the former polytechnic sector.
New universities make up most of the teaching departments in the built environment discipline.
The University of Reading is the highest ranked built environment department from the established university sector, with just over 86 points in the teaching table. Reading also commands arguably the best research reputation in the subject in the country. Only the University of Salford's department matched Reading's success in the last Research Assessment Exercise, when both were awarded ratings of international renown. Reflecting the strong vocational bent of its surveying and property management courses, Kingston's surveying school boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates among built environment graduates in the country. One out of 71 Kingston graduates were reported as unemployed six months after leaving university according to a survey carried out for the Higher Education Statistics Agency.