Built Environment

Oxford Brookes’ Built Environment graduates earn an average of £26k (Unistats, 2017). With our extensive industry links, recent graduates have gone on to work for industry leading brands including Kier Group, Savills and Deloitte. The School of the Built Environment is one of the largest and most diverse of its kind in both the UK and Europe, and is widely recognised as a leading educator.

Accreditation

Our Undergraduate Construction, Planning, Real Estate and Urban Design courses are accredited by various bodies, institutes and boards throughout industry and professions

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Royal Town Planning Insttitute (RTPI)
Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

Industrial placements

Two of our undergraduate courses, Construction Project Management BSc and Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management BSc have a compulsory industrial placement year as part of the course.

The benefits of this placement year include:

  • Early exposure to the industry
  • Practical experience
  • Course subjects are put into context
  • Paid employment during the placement year
  • Potential sponsorship of final year
  • An opportunity to gain more understanding of future career pathways
  • Adds value to the final year of study
  • Experienced graduates are in demand.
Drawing up architectural plans

Through our industrial placement programmes we have developed very good links with industry. Many local, national and international companies return each year to employ our students.

  • Abacus Cost Management
  • Bouygues UK
  • Berkeley Homes
  • Buckingham Group Contracting Limited (BGCL)
  • Chorus Group Ltd
  • Cooper Construction Ltd
  • Countryside Properties Plc
  • Davis Langdon
  • GP Atkin Construction
  • Faithful+Gould
  • Grosvenor Britain & Ireland
  • ISG Pearce Ltd
  • Jenner (Contractors) Ltd
  • Killby & Gayford Ltd
  • Knight Frank LLP
  • Laing O'Rourke
  • Leadbitter Group
  • MacDonald Egan Developments
  • Mansell Construction Services Ltd
  • Morgan Ashurst
  • PAYE Historic Facades
  • Savills
  • Symm and Company Ltd
  • Taylor Wimpey Bristol

Facilities

Technology Lab

Equipped for structural and building physics testing, the lab features modern facilities for testing which complement the existing advanced computer modelling and analysis capabilities available.

  • structural testing of building components and systems
  • air-tightness testing of products and assemblies
  • thermal testing using specialist measuring devices
  • product design and development
  • performance assessment
  • building regulations compliance including Part L (conservation of fuel and power)
techlab-1200
Urban Design Lab

Urban Design Lab

Our brand new Urban Labs allow you to make connections between theory and practice in an applied environment which simulates professional practice.

Mentoring

The Mentoring Scheme is a joint venture with our alumni association – OBREMS (Oxford Brookes Real Estate Management Society) and is designed to support students as they move from the academic environment into the world of work and start their career. Each student is matched with a dedicated mentor, with whom they work closely over a twelve month period. The Mentoring Scheme has been running since 2013 and is proving to be very successful with both mentors and students telling us that they have thoroughly enjoyed the 'mentoring experience' and have benefited in many ways. The students find that having a mentor who is also a graduate from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University to be hugely beneficial and a great ice-breaker. We are continuing to work with our alumni organisation, OBREMS to develop the scheme and ensure a steady supply of mentors for future years. Find out more about getting involved:

Modern architecture

Research

Key areas of expertise and scholarship in the school form the following research groups.

These comprise substantial research arms of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD), which was founded in 2004, and forms the largest academic research institute in the UK dedicated to research on sustainable development in the built environment. This gives us the ability to quickly assemble transdisciplinary research teams to tackle the major challenges affecting the built environment - such as climate change, resilience, energy efficiency, resource scarcity, infrastructure, investment, and productivity.