Quantity Surveying

Heriot-Watt's top ranking reputation leads to great career prospects in the construction industry. We are ranked 1st in Scotland and 3rd in the UK for Building in The Complete University Guide 2022.

Quantity surveying provides clients of the construction industry with financial, contractual and technical advice ensuring they get value for money from the buildings they construct. The modern quantity surveyor is a construction professional who may be involved at all stages of the design and construction process, from providing business strategy and advice, working with architects and design team consultants, through to overseeing the onsite construction phase.

Our Quantity Surveying course will give you all the skills and knowledge necessary to become a successful quantity surveyor. While studying quantity surveying (QS) at Heriot-Watt you will learn the fundamental elements of building before focusing on QS practice and learning how to manage the cost, legal and economic elements.

We have a suite of built environment facilities including: a light structures lab, an Instron Universal testing machine, an immersive virtual reality system, Autodesk Revit software and Synchro 4D virtual construction software to create simulations.

In Year 1, you can participate in a walking tour of Edinburgh viewing the architecture of the Old and New Town.

In Year 2, you have the opportunity to participate in Constructionarium, which provides hands-on construction working alongside professional engineers and tradesmen to construct scaled down versions of bridges, buildings, dams and civil engineering projects from all around the world.

In Year 3, you have the opportunity to gain work experience via the Culture of External MENToring (CEMENT) scheme, which links students with professionals in practice to offer work placements, graduate employment opportunities and site visits. There are also field trip opportunities to a European city looking at the construction of some of the world’s most recognisable buildings.

In Year 4, students undertake a week long collaborative design project working with students. Our Quantity Surveying degree is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).