NMITE’s Construction Management degree joins its accelerated course offering Providing students with an accelerated route into the workforce with less debt
Now that NMITE’s BSc (Hons) Construction Management degree has been configured in an accelerated offering, the New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering can confidently claim to be the UK’s only fully accelerated higher education institution. Joining the existing Integrated Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Autonomous Robotics accelerated programmes (three years for an MEng and two years for a BEng), the Construction Management BSc (Hons) degree now offers students the opportunity to become a work-ready, modern construction professional in just two years.
This strategic move, which comes into effect for September 2026 entry has been created in part in response to employers who prioritise capability and work-readiness and have previously expressed interest in offering jobs to NMITE students after just two years of study. Since accepting its first students in 2021 and now having successfully launched two cohorts of graduates into the workforce, NMITE confirms that it has always been the plan for all NMITE degrees to be accelerated and that it has used what it has learnt since launching the NMITE flagship product, the MEng in Integrated Engineering, to inform this decision.
“By ensuring all our degree programmes are accelerated, we are “meeting the moment” for UK students, addressing concerns that higher education in the UK takes too long and costs too much while reinforcing NMITE’s ethos of widening access to higher education” explains James Newby, President & Chief Executive. “NMITE has built its reputation on being able to do things fast, reacting to national requirements. Our new Autonomous Robotics aka ‘drones’ degree is a good, recent example of how NMITE addresses our sovereign capability. From the autumn, we will be able to create more graduates using our existing resources, having a positive impact on these students and their future life chances, including our construction students who will have a route to professional status in just two years.”
The degree is focused around hands-on learning, industry experience, and a commitment to sustainability. One employer who agrees that NMITE is helping to solve the skills shortage in engineering is Balfour Beatty, the leading infrastructure group, which has already recruited four NMITE graduates. Tom Newton, Engineering & Design Director said “As Balfour Beatty we have worked with NMITE over the last 3 years to accelerate graduates into the industry. NMITE's unique accelerated degree produces work ready graduates in 2 years rather than 3. This not only means they are ready to build critical infrastructure early, but that they have the right behaviours, mindset and skills to work in a project team.”
Newby appreciates that NMITE’s new status is not easy for other universities to follow. “There are plenty of constraints for existing universities to becoming fully accelerated” explains Newby “It’s extremely hard to do this as retrofit. But having been built from scratch with this in our DNA, we have the right buildings, the right industrial relations structure and working practices, the right pedagogy and the right delivery method of blocks, modules and sprints. We have been able to prove that speed of learning accelerates learning gain and are excited to be leading the way in championing the power of accelerated degrees here in the UK.”
NMITE is proud to acknowledge that it attracts a different type of academic. “We try to treat teaching as a highly respected vocation, which is not always easy in the case of research-heavy institutions. Our academics focus on teaching and the practice of teaching which is much more successful when you are dealing with a number of studio groups each with four to five students, in a much more immersive teaching experience which keeps students on task.”
NMITE, which works on a 46 week, 9 – 5 system, (rather than adding an extra term in the summer) explains that each module includes a full week of reflection but stresses that the degree is focused on work preparedness and skills rather than reflection for the sake of it. “An accelerated degree is not driven by efficiency; indeed, it is much costlier in terms of staff time, but NMITE is an institution proudly built around its pedagogy.”
