From teaching the first surveying degree program in New South Wales in 1957, the UNSW School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems (UNSW SSIS) has experienced great variations in its commencing undergraduate enrolments, from a peak in 1974 of 146 to around 10 a year since 2009.
The first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite was launched in 1978, leading a revolution in the way position is measured. UNSW SSIS began GPS research in 1984, which has now expanded to cover navigation and earth observation technologies and applications. The school is also home to the new Australian Centre for Space Engineering.
In 1994, the school changed its name to Geomatic Engineering as a measure of technological change in the discipline. The name was never fully accepted within the NSW surveying profession, however, and there was second name change in 2001 to Surveying and Spatial Information Systems.
Despite this, and the establishment of the new BE (Surv) and BE (GIS) undergraduate degrees and substantial outreach and marketing activities, the school’s undergraduate enrolments remain perilously low. It is also despite the fact that spatial information is a highly paid, rapidly expanding discipline, used in more than 140 industries globally, in everything from emergency services to Google and Facebook.
While there is no single ‘cure’ for the decline in undergraduate enrolments and graduates for a fast-growing industry, it’s clear that a key factor is that the general public doesn’t understand the work of the modern surveyor or its importance, let alone the work of the transforming geospatial disciplines.
And the current school name may not be helping. ‘People think they know what surveying is – a man with a tripod. Then there is the problem of ‘Spatial Information Systems’, because very few people understand what that is,’ said Head of School, Professor Chris Rizos.
As a result, UNSW SSIS is considering a new name.
‘We’re really looking to the professions to assist us with choosing a name that best represents our teaching and research activities, is easy for 17-year-old science and maths students (and their parents) to understand, and promotes the discipline as key to the future of essential, location-based technology,’ he said.
‘We have set up an online survey at www.ssis.unsw.edu.au/namesurvey, which will be open for three months from March to the end of June, to capture your opinions and comments.’
