Teaching land law to land surveying students: design, challenges and successes

Session

Geomatics Higher Education

Full Paper Review

No

Authors

Jennifer Whittal, University of Cape Town, South Africa,jennifer.whittal@uct.ac.za

Abstract

Professional Land Surveyors in South Africa are required not only to obtain knowledge and skills in technical aspects of land surveying, but also in development and land law. The Geomatics degree at the University of Cape Town has a strong tradition of cadastral law practice, research, and commentary spanning the last 80 years. This tradition continues as a primary theme of teaching in the undergraduate programme, in research endeavour, and in professional leadership. The teaching of property law to non-lawyers is challenging but fulfilling. A varied approach straddling a number of courses taught within the programme and by other departments is adopted.

Through this suite of courses, and within each course, a highly varied approach to teaching and learning is adopted. This contribution is a reflective critique of teaching and learning experiences in courses taken by students in the Surveying stream who are most likely to register as Professional Land Surveyors after graduation, completion of a period of articles training, and successful completion of law and practice examinations. The challenges of meeting professional competencies in land law are addressed through course design, and the integration of more interactive and diverse learning tools are discussed.

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