Core Major in the Built Environment (CM0004.1)

At its foundations, the Bachelor of the Built Environment includes a Core Major that provides students with a coherent understanding of the current industry and professional skills essential for practitioners of the built environment.

The eight-unit core will be mandatory for all students in all Built Environment specialist majors. When taken together, the 16 units of the specialist major and the degree core map clearly to all Course Learning Outcomes.

Unit Design Principles: The eight units proposed for the degree core have been designed to:

1. BE accessible. The core major units proposed have been specifically written to engage and appeal to students entering tertiary level study for the first time, and working through a bachelor's level degree.

2. BE unifying. One of the key drivers of UC Curriculum review is that it places a strong emphasis on the building of a cohort experience for all UC students. As the core units will be common units for all Bachelor of the Built Environment students, it is essential that they are at the heart of the narrative that links all specialist majors together.

3. BE cohesive. The eight units have been design to speak to one another, and to build upon one another to explicate knowledge and skills that students in all specialist majors can draw upon in their professional practice. Delivery of all units will explicitly and regularly frame the specialist major units within the narrative theme of the core units.

4. BE liberal. Each of the eight core units have been designed to develop significant and liberal contextual narratives; particularly as they relate to the fields of Internationalisation, Indigenisation and Entrepreneurship.
- Internationalisation: through foundational studies in global history and culture, world heritage conservation, and design in an international context.
- Indigenisation: through foundational studies in Indigenous perspectives in cultural heritage, Indigenous history and culture, and Indigenous design through notions of patterns of habitation and location, and significance of site.
- Entrepreneurship: through foundational and advanced studies in enterprise positioning, opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial perspectives, developing creativity, ethical and social responsibility, strategic planning, and practice management.

5. BE engaging. As these units will be compulsory for all students in the Bachelor of the Built Environment they will, by necessity, provide the broader, overarching perspective that links the specialist majors together under the banner of 'Bachelor of the Built Environment'. It is essential, therefore, that they be innovative, immersive and enjoyable experiences. Innovative assessment, flexible learning activities, and student-centred teaching will be fundamental elements of each unit.

6. BE collegial. While each unit will have a convener or co-conveners, who will take responsibility for planning and implementing the unit, and for presenting and contextualising the content of each unit into a cohesive overarching narrative within the degree, the teaching activities will draw upon staff from across the entire course - as lecturers, tutors, supervisors and consultants, as well as guest speakers from all of the stakeholder industries employing Bachelor of the Built Environment graduates. In order to present students with a cohesive learning journey in their Bachelor degree, it will be vital that all course staff 'buy in' to the core intent, are visible within the eight core units, and frame their specialist majors and units within that context.