Land Surveyors without Borders - Double Degrees for
Neighbours at a
Common
Market
Klas Ernald Borges (Sweden) and
Esben Munk Sørensen (Denmark)
Key words: Education
SUMMARY
The university programmes are
basically nationally based, developed from the historical needs of specific
need of a society. The Bologna process is challenging the
educational market mainly at post-graduate level. The exchange of students is
still limited to a reduced number of curious and ambitious persons, many with a
high interest for cultural exchange – the ‘exotic dimension’. Individual
careers based on double exams will always attract the excellent students, but
still tiny elite of persons. The EU objective of international mobility at the
labour market is restricted to those with a low cost assessment of the
individual mobility at the international market. Most of us identify ourselves
to our national labour market as life time dedication. Our personal and
professional life might be enriched by international experience, but still
directed towards our national perspective of labour market. The corporate world
has long ago abandoned the national perspective. The survival of companies is basically
based on an international market. Marketing demands a solid understanding of
the national characteristics of the cultural and economic behaviour of every
individual society, country and people. Good and detailed market surveys are
critical. The universities provide professionals with a national perspective,
based on the characteristics of the national labour market. Traditions of land
law profiles in surveying programmes demand nationally based programmes. Lund University (Sweden) and Aalborg University Centre (Denmark) has embarked upon a double degree
concept. The ‘exotic’ dimension is not prevailing – such students might choose
other exchange programs. We try to approach the educational market to the
business market. We want to provide the business market with professionals that
are prepared for the existing common market of land developments. Companies
understand the potential of neighbouring markets, while the public authorities
still act with a strong national perspective. We want to provide the market
with professionals without any doubts in working without borders. The double
degree Sweden-Denmark identifies the core subjects for the land surveyors
without limits of the border.
Background
A joint
degree agreement was signed in December 2005 for MSc in Land Surveying and
Management for students at Aalborg University (AAU) and Lund University (LTH – Faculty of Engineering). The
agreement was preceded by collaboration between the two universities on
pedagogical development and exchange of specialised courses.
The
objective with double degree programme is to provide an opportunity for the
Swedish and Danish students to broaden their MSc degree to formal and practical
qualification to the two labour markets. It is also assumed that the two
universities could complement each other in marketing and enrolment of new
students, as well as developing complementing course curricula. The students
will study courses at the “host” university in order to qualify at the labour
market in both countries. This will demand more focus on basic courses in the
other legal and cadastral system of the other country.
The first
students will start in autumn 2007, and graduating as double MSc in 2009. We
still don’t know the forthcoming enrolment. It is likely to be a small group of
2-4 students at each university. It might become more popular, depending on the
academic profiles and job opportunities.
The Nordic countries and the Öresund region
The Nordic
countries have a relatively small population, of about 25 million people,
headed by Sweden with 9 millions and Denmark, Norway and Finland with 5-6 million each. The area of Sweden (450,000 km2) is divided
into 3.2 million properties, while Denmark has 43,000 km2
(excluding the Faroe Islands and Greenland). The average of population per
parcel is similar in the two countries.
The number
of land surveyors is about 2,500 in Sweden and ??? in Denmark. The governmental cadastral
authority is the main gatekeeper of the cadastral system in Sweden, while Denmark has a private system of chartered
surveyors. This means that about ???% of the Danish land surveyors in the cadastral
area are private entrepreneurs, or employed in private companies, while the
cadastral authority is the dominant employer within the cadastral area.
There are
other areas for Swedish and Danish land surveyors, e g, as officials at local
government offices (municipalities), companies in charge of infrastructure,
land development and construction companies, as well as in facility management
and real estate economists.
The Øresund
region is constituted by Copenhagen and other urban areas on the island
Själland, with a population of about 2 million people; and Skåne with the main
cities by the west coast, totalling a population of about 1 million people.
The link
between the two areas was enforced by the completion of the Øresund Bridge in the year 2000. The integration
has increased since then, and the commuting people have become more common. The
bridge (constituted by a bridge, artificial island and a tunnel) is 16 km, at
the Southern part of the main cities Copenhagen and Malmö. Commuting by train takes
35 minutes from one city centre to the other city centre. There has been a
considerable increase in Danish people moving to Malmö. An estimate indicate
about 4,700 Danish people will move to Skåne in 2006, most of them to Malmö and
surrounding urban centres. There is also a considerable increase of Swedish
people to be employed in the Copenhagen region. The Øresund region is
becoming a more unified metropolitan centre.
There are
some differences in salaries and housings costs between the two countries,
being Sweden the less costly and with a lower salary level.
This difference is also evident in the context of the public land surveyors in Sweden and private surveyors in Denmark. In a macro economic perspective,
such differences have to become more equalized, as the threshold cost of
commuting becomes lower.
The
language barrier is also a reality. However, the difference is similar to the
case Spanish-Portuguese, and with a stated interest, it does not create a major
obstacle for those with an ambition.
Property
developers and construction companies have long ago been involved in commercial
activities in both countries in the Øresund region. There is an evident need of
professionals with working knowledge in the two different national systems. The
twinning idea of the land surveying educational system is viewed as a way to
contribute in the integration process, and to facilitate for these individuals,
as well as for companies and public authorities to continue and increase the
integration.
A Swedish Perspective of the
agreement on Double Degree
The MSc programme at Lund University
MSc
programmes in Land Surveying and Management in the Nordic countries have an
emphasis on legal, economic and engineering issues. The legal and economic
areas are to some extent specific in each country. A rough description
indicates that about 50 % of the course curriculum is within engineering, while
the other half is divided between real estate law and economics.
The MSc
programme in Land Surveying and Management at Lund University started in 1992, at the Faculty of
Engineering - LTH. Previously, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm had the only MSc programme in land
surveying, with an enrolment of 100 students yearly. It started in 1932,
initially and during the first 30 years exclusively for the demand at the
National Land Survey of Sweden, with offices in all regions of Sweden. The enrolment increased
successively during the 1960-1990’s from about 20 to about 100 students, but
the key specialisations (excluding some diverging specialisations and the
drop-out during the study period) produced only an average of 40-50 graduated
land surveyors every year.
The
expansion of universities and university colleges in the 1980-1990’s from the
5-6 main university cities to 20-30 regional cities had an impact on the
enrolment area. The previous national geographical base for enrolment of new
students was by and large reduced to a regional base. After completing the MSc
degree, many students remained in the region, i.e., the KTH land surveyors
stayed in the Stockholm region, while Southern, Western and Northern Sweden faced a decreasing interest for the
graduated KTH surveyors. The well-known Lund University assumed the responsibility to start
a new MSc engineering programme in land surveying and management in 1992 (at
LTH). A BSc programme in surveying was also started in 1996 in Trollhättan, 100
km North of Gothenburg, in Western Sweden. The two programmes started with a yearly enrolment of 30 students, but
have increase to 60 and 45 students respectively today. Structural changes at
KTH have decreased the enrolment to 30-40 land surveying students, being part
of the MSc programme of Civil Engineering and Urban Management. The demand at
the labour market is increasing, with an estimation of about 200 MSc land
surveyors every year. The actual graduation does not even reach half of this
demand.
The Land
surveying and management programme at Lund University was the 7th engineering
programme at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH). It started in 1961 with the
classical engineering programmes in Physical, Electronical, Mechanical, Civil
and Chemical Engineering. The expansion to more areas started in the 1980’s
(Computer Science), but the proliferation to more programmes was accentuated in
the late 1990’s, partly as a marketing policy towards the youngsters, but also
due to the demand at the labour market. Today, there are 14 MSc engineering
programmes.
The MSc
programme in land surveying and management had no core scientific base at the
Faculty of engineering in 1992, but at least some common interests with the
programme of civil engineering, e g, in construction management, traffic and
urban planning, environmental issues, etc. It developed in good collaboration
with professionals in the region, as lecturers and associate professors. The
programme was further developed in 2000 by appointment of a professor. Some
senior lecturers and PhD students have been employed since then. A special
scientific area is well developed by the GIS-centre, which provides a good
educational competence.
The
curriculum of the programme developed according to the prevailing and
increasing resources. In 2001, the curriculum was changed to a more project
focussed structure, with a scientific
theme (in bold letters) for each of the first six semesters, as shown in Figure
1. The surveying programme at Aalborg University was used as model, even though it
was not possible to change the examination exclusively to the project work, as
used in the Aalborg model. The thematic focus during
the first three years creates a basis for the entire area in land surveying and
management. It could easily be turned to a BSc programme, but it has not been
required as being part of an integral MSc programme.
|
10th
semester
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Thesis
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9th
semester
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Additional specialised courses from 2007 (Bologna model)
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8th
semester
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Real Estate Law & Planning
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Real Estate Economics
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Geomatics
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7th
semester
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6th
semester
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Real Estate Planning
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5th
semester
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Real Estate Economics
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4th
semester
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Cadastral Development
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Math and Programming
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3rd
semester
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Geomatics
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Math. Statistics
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2nd
semester
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Land and Environment
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Mathematics
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1st
semester
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Basis: Mathematics and Real Estate Law
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Figure 1: MSc
curriculum at Lund University
The
compulsory first three years cover all areas that a land surveyor could face in
his/her professional career. It is limited to a general understanding, but
broad enough to make the students aware on the different areas of knowledge
that could be required in professional practise. A typical Swedish land
surveyor is involved in surveying, but also working with the legal cadastral
process, economic assessments of property values, and the urban planning
process. A few students have a deep interest in geomatics, and we offer them an
early specialisation in GIS, geodesy, statistics and databases from the third
year of studies. However, the ‘mainstream’ students continue with the typical
courses on real estate economics and spatial planning & cadastral
procedures during the 3rd year of studies.
The first
three years are the common base, with the typical Nordic emphasis on legal,
economic and technical areas. The economic focus is more accentuated in Sweden than Denmark, due to the historical development
of the professional practise of chartered surveyors. In our marketing towards
youngsters, we highlight the three axes – law, economy and technology. It is
proven to be attractive for the youngsters in their choice of university
programme.
Specialisations
in the 4th and 5th year are available in real estate law
and urban planning, real estate economy and management, and geomatics (mainly
GIS). The Bologna process has implied a change in the Swedish
system from 2007, by conforminmg the MSc structure to a five years study
programme, i.e.., 300 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). The current
students were admitted to the MSc programme of 240 ECTS (i.e. 4.5 years), but
there will be an additional option for them graduate as a 300 ECTS land
surveyor. The basic BSc level (180 ECTS) is only considered as a partial phase
of the MSc engineering programme. The specialisation covers the remaining 120
ECTS at advanced level, above the BSc level, including the thesis work of 30
ECTS.
The
different specialisations in the 4th year are well prepared for the
MSc advanced level, as defined in the Bologna process. The educational structure
offers a general basis at the BSc basic level, and the specialisation during
the 4th and 5th years. It is logic for the students to
create their professional profile through the specialisation. The formal
requirement in the new Bologna system for a Swedish MSc in engineering will be
courses at advanced (MSc level) totalling at least 45 ECTS, and optional
courses in specialised or general engineering subjects, as well as the thesis
work.
The
agreement of double exam offers an additional specialisation, in order to open
the Danish labour market to the Swedish students. The labour market demands a
good knowledge in basic characteristics of the Danish legal and cadastral systems.
The differences between the two markets have to be part of the educational
profile of the students. It means that some areas that a Swedish ‘BSc-level’
student still lacks of the Danish profile, and vice verse. We have identified
these shortages, and we use approximately one of the two years (60 of 120 ECTS)
to introduce the Swedish student into the Danish characteristics (and vice
verse). We can shortly define the areas as real estate law for both kind of
students, and more emphasis on geomatics for Swedish students in Denmark, while Danish students have to
study real estate economics.
This means
that we are able to use the academic capacity at each university to complement
the profile for the students. As the academic and professional profile is somewhat
different in the two countries, we use about one of the two MSc years for this.
We consider that we need a year to equalize the knowledge to the national
characteristics of the other country. The remaining year consists of
specialised courses at the host university (Denmark for Swedish students), and the
thesis work. In this way we satisfy the formal requirement that 1.5 years of
courses (90 ECTS) have to be studied at the host university, in order to get a
degree from that university. The master thesis could be done in any of the two
countries, or comparing some aspects between the two countries. It has to be
examined at both universities.
The model
is somewhat similar to exchange programmes for Swedish or Danish students
studying elsewhere in Europe or other part of the world, e.g. the European TIME network for double
engineering degree. The normal exchange students stay one or two semesters at
the host university, transferring the courses to the MSc degree at the home
university. In many cases there is a considerable part of exotic, cultural and
language training, and less as a specialisation in a specific professional
area. It is still highly attractive for the students, as a part of their
personal development as ‘world citizens’.
There are
some other double degree engineering programmes with a similar approach. The
main idea is to qualify the students to an international market, enabling them
to work in another national context as the home country. However, many of these
students find their career in an internationally based environment, e g,
transnational companies and international organisations.
The reasons of a double
neighbouring degree
There are
various reasons to develop a double degree programme for Swedish and Danish
land surveyors.
The student
perspective could embrace both adventure and professional diversification. The
youngsters are today interested in working abroad. A survey of attitudes of
Swedish youngsters indicates that about two thirds would like to work a couple
of years abroad, and half of them (i.e. one third of the youngsters) would like
to emigrate, leaving Sweden forever. Even though such attitudes
might change as they become adult and start to face more realities in life, it
still illustrates the strong internationalisation in the mind of young people.
There is no general dissatisfaction on the standard of life in Sweden, but the curiosity to discover and
live in other cultures is strong.
A double
degree in Sweden and Denmark does not offer an exotic dimension,
but the idea of broadening the professional profile is likely to be attractive.
Some Swedish students might be more interested in the Danish labour market,
while others might be interested at a general level of an extended academic
profile. A courageous student shows his ambitions to face new challenges. It
qualifies him/her in the competition at the labour market.
A Danish perspective on
the Agreement on Double Degree
Background
Through the
last part modern history – a little more than 100 years – there has only been
one institution able to graduate surveyors on academic level. In modern terms
it means to Master Level.
Up to 1974
the education programme for chartered surveyors was paces on the Agricultural University in the Capital Copenhagen. There
was a long period where about 30 surveyors ware graduated yearly from this
university. It was enough to create and maintain a national profession of
chartered surveyors organized in private companies. This profession exists on
the basis of a close partnership between a governmental organisation for
maintaining and developing the National Agency for Cadastre. In the historic part of the capital Copenhagen the Cadastral Administration up to
now has been based on municipal administration.
In 1974 the
education of chartered surveyors moved to a new University in Aalborg. It was located in an economically
weak region as a part of a regional developing programme. On the basis of an
overall concept of problem based learning the university has developed a strong
position in graduating Bachelors, Masters and PhD. As a full range university
it is based on three faculties within social science, humanistic science and
the last and biggest faculty for nature and engineering science. The university
in Aalborg has today 14000 students and more
than 1200 scientific faculty employees and total 2000 employees.
There is
graduated about 30 chartered surveyors from Aalborg University yearly. The course curriculum is
presented in figure 2.
|
10th
semester
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Thesis
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9th
semester
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Practical project (at AAU, at a company or
abroad)
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8th
semester
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Land Management
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Spatial Information Management
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Measurement Science
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7th
semester
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6th
semester
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Control Surveys
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5th
semester
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Land Surveying & Cadastral Management
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4th
semester
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Large scale mapping
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3rd
semester
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Spatial planning and land use management
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2nd
semester
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Environmental Management and Geodata
|
|
1st
semester
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Basis: Mathematics and geographical
information
|
Figure 2:
MSc curriculum at Aalborg University
The University in Aalborg in periphery region
Aalborg University is located in Northern Jutland, which is a quite long distance
from the capital Copenhagen. 400 km a 5 hours drive is quite a long
distance from the capital. The region was industrially in 1974 based on
agriculture plus related industries and traditionally industries like
shipyards, cement production, and iron industries.
Today the
economy is still more based on globally working companies with production based
knowledge for and from the information technology related industry. The university has played a role in this
industrial development and changing process transforming the region to be
competitive on the global market within a long range of industrial areas.
Students at
Aalborg University are mostly recruited from the
regions in Jutland and mostly from the Region of
Northern Jutland. Of course students are recruited from other parts of the
country, but the main stream of students in general is born and grown up in the
region of northern Jutland.
It is also
the situation at the university programme for Chartered Surveyors. Compared to
other educational programmes at the university, the School for Surveying and
Planning has a small number of students totally – about 150 on Chartered
Surveyors programme. But the pattern is the same like the rest of the
university. There is only and relatively few students coming from the capital
area and the regions around Copenhagen.
Remembering
the fact that there is only one institution in Denmark the long term effect is becoming
more and more visible. In the region of Northern Jutland many well educated chartered
surveyors are getting their first job in the region. They get very often their
first job in municipalities, in the county counties of Jutland and in the regional private
industry outside the surveying community. The effect is that a big number of
chartered surveying graduates develop the carrier in the regions of Jutland, establish their families and stay
there for a long period of their life.
Of course
some ore many chartered surveyors have left he region where they have been
graduated. They have left in periods where the have been a low number of
available jobs and carriers in the regions of Jutland and to really attractive and well
paid job in the surveying industry and governmental bodies in the capital.
The last 30
years have developed to a situation today with an overrepresentation of
chartered surveyors in the peripheral parts Denmark, which is Northern Jutland and the neighbour regions. On the
other side there is a under representation of surveyors in he capital region
and regions around Copenhagen.
The Labour Market for
Surveyors in Denmark
This
unequal access to new and well graduated surveyors has created a problem for
public bodies and the surveying industry and companies. It is still more
complicated and difficult to attract young graduated chartered surveyors in the
Capital Region around Copenhagen. This situation has developed
rapidly through the last 15-20 years.
In the last three years the building industry have had a high activity in
property development and raising buildings for housing and industry. This have
lead to a necessary high activity within the cadastral part of the surveying
industry, where subdivisions of new parcels and registration of condominiums have
raised to level not seen since the middle of the 60´ties. Especially in the
growth regions around the capital of Denmark there have been a dramatically
increase in the number of subdivisions and property making in general.
Totally
this have lead to an actually high demand for cadastral surveyors everywhere in
Denmark and in the growth region around the capital it is nearly impossible to
engage young both graduates and experienced surveyors in the private sector. In
the different municipalities and governmental bodies the situation is similar
and it is nearly impossible to engage a chartered surveyor.
The lesson
learned is that more chartered surveyors is needed and there the partnership
with the Swedish Lund University is interesting to supply the Danish labour
market with chartered surveyors graduated from Sweden, but prepared to work in
Denmark and able to be legally accepted as Chartered Surveyors in Denmark.
To be
legally accepted as a chartered surveyor in Denmark with license to do cadastral work
needs a Danish graduation as Chartered Surveyor from Aalborg University and three years approved practical
experience in doing professional cadastral surveying and management.
The partnership about the
Double Degree
Lund University in Sweden is located only 1 hour drive from Copenhagen and the trafficable infrastructure
between Lund and the capital of Denmark is optimal. From LTH is graduated
about 30-40 chartered surveyors every year and it is assumed that some of these
will be interested in working “on the Danish side” after graduation.
The
agreement discussed above between Aalborg University and Lund University creates the opportunity for this
development. If a Swedish surveying student is following specific courses to a
specified level and 90 ECTS she/he can receive a degree as a Danish Chartered
Surveyour and after this the labour market is open to work for a Danish license
to practise as a chartered surveyour.
It is
expected that this opportunity will be of used by at least some students and
this will lead to careers for professional chartered surveyors.
Integration of a Research
Centre/Copenhagen in Aalborg University
The Danish
Government decided at October the 5th, 2006 to integrate the Danish Building
Research Institute into Aalborg University. The Institute is located in the
Capital Copenhagen and it is decided to develop this campus with a cadastral
surveying 5 year education programme including both bachelor and master level.
This
decision is taken as a part of an overall Governmental policy in Denmark to integrate Governmental Research
Institutes – without educational programmes – into universities with
educational programmes. The policy is to develop research fellows to be active
in training students too, so the universities also can benefit from results and
methods in done governmental research in their educational programmes.
A chartered surveyor for
two nations in the same growth region.
The
agreement on Double Degree and the decision to start up a cadastral surveying
programme in Copenhagen is opening will lead to quite new
possibilities for cross national cooperation between Aalborg University and Lund University.
It is the
vision and the policy that the location of the new educational programme in Copenhagen
has to effect in more students at the cadastral surveying programme. So there
will also be a bigger number of Danish students which might be interested in
following parts of the Swedish Surveying Programme in Lund and receive the Double Degree.
On the
other side of the boarder it is expected that more Swedish students will follow
90 ECTS in Denmark and receive the Double Degree,
because the can travel from Lund to Denmark only by using local trains. They
only need to travel less than 40 minutes to travel to Aalborg University in Copenhagen.
The detailed programming on further cooperation in the light of this agreement
on Double Degree is starting at this Congress in Munich. Steps will be taken to work on
marketing, staff exchange and developing web-sites for informing the students
about these new opportunities.
The vision
is to develop an educational programme for a “cross-national”chartered
surveyors dedicated to work on both sides of the national boarders in the
growth region around Øresund.
References:
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Klas Ernald Borges is
Senior Lecturer in Real Estate Science at Lund University. He is
also Director of Studies of the MSc engineering programme in Land Surveying and
Management. He was awarded Ph.D. in Real Estate Planning in 1996 with a thesis
on land development processes in Portugal. He has
extended experience of development projects, as consultant in the area of land
development, cadastre and urban planning. His long-term working experience
covers Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal and Denmark, and
short-term consultancies in several developing and Eastern European countries.
He has published more than 30 papers and research reports, 7 consultancy
reports. He has also published other articles and papers for a general public.
He is member of the board of the Swedish Association of Chartered Surveyors.
CONTACT
Senior
Lecturer
Dr. Klas
Ernald Borges
Lund University, Real Estate Science
P.O. Box 118, hs 7
SE-221 00
Lund
Sweden
Phone +46
46 222 01 54
Fax +46
46 222 30 95
Email:
klas.ernald.borges@lantm.lth.se