taught at military schools. When North American Universities
at the time of land grants opened their doors to engineering, this
type of education was called “Civil Engineering”, from which
later Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical
Engineering, and finally Surveying Engineering separated.
In Central Europe the University concept changed around 1960,
when the engineering Institutes of Technology (TH) were
integrated into Universities merging them with the natural and
social sciences.
At the University of Hanover (the former trade school) a first
surveying course was given in 1831 by a collaborator of C.F.
Gauss within civil engineering. At the University of New
Brunswick Brydon Jack taught railway engineering in the
1860’s with 80 % surveying content. In Hannover, the first
institution to do so in Germany, a four to five year surveying
engineering curriculum was introduced in 1930.
The separation of surveying engineering from military or civil
engineering occurred at different times in different countries, in
fact in some countries it still has not yet taken place. The reason
for the separation is an existing national labour market for the
field, which has been introduced by local economic situations,
by law or simply by the initiative of professional groups or indi-
viduals. The aim of the education in surveying and mapping thus
became to provide a basic workforce for a professional field.
In France, Britain, Russia, Spain, Italy, and the United States
and even the Latin American countries surveying and mapping
had military roots and motivations. Technical instruction in the
required fields was done in-house in form of professional devel-
opment. The Ecole Nationale des Etudes Géographique at IGN
France is a relatively late starter following this career oriented
schooling by a national mapping agency, which was formerly a
military institution.
The following European countries have initiated surveying
degree programs before the beginning of World War II:
Germany
The Netherlands
Austria
Switzerland
Poland
Cechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia)
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Norway
e Hungary
The reason, why these countries found a sufficiently large
labour market for surveyors was the task of an updated real
estate cadastre introduced by law as a multipurpose cadastre
and the new demands to restructure agricultural production by
means of reallotment programs. In Germany alone there are
now eight Universities with a five year academic surveying
engineering orientation, supported by 15 technical academies to
supply an annual workforce of 250 graduates at Universities
and 800 graduates at the academies.
In the former Soviet Union mapping was declared as one of the
priorities by Lenin, and in a planned socialist economy it be-
came possible to create a specialized labour market for at least
four or five specializations in the surveying and mapping field
(aerial photography, photogrammetry, engineering surveys,
cartography, land administration). MIIGAIK in Moscow be-
came the largest educational institution in surveying and
mapping in the world, with an annual student body of over
4000.
After China became socialist in 1949 the MIIGAIK model was
introduced in Wuhan creating the Wuhan Technical University
128
of Surveying and Mapping WTUSM in 1956 with student
numbers surpassing those of the MIIGAIK. The Russian and the
Chinese schools educated specialized professions for a
government regulated activity.
In the United States of America the military agencies supported
the establishment of a *Mapping and Charting Laboratory" at
Ohio State University in 1953. Out of it grew a graduate pro-
gram with the emphasis to take B.Sc. graduates in applied
science (engineering, geography, mathematics, and physics)
and to transform them within two to three years into a survey-
ing and mapping career oriented individual. This was possible
as most graduate students were already working in the field and
were sponsored by their employers to take part in the course.
The philosophy of Ohio State University was very much like
that of the ITC of The Netherlands with the advantage that OSU
had a recognized University program at the start and ITC had to
obtain gradual University recognition by the Dutch government.
The approach in Canada in 1959/60 was different. Civil Engin-
eers, foresters and physicists had found employment in the sur-
veying and mapping profession helping the development needs
of the vast country. Prior to the creation of a Surveying Engin-
eering program at the University of New Brunswick they had to
go abroad for graduate specializations in geodesy and photo-
grammetry. There was a need for national professional tasks
shown in fig. 2. Along with Laval University, which had a
French speaking program for the preparation of Quebec Land
Surveyors the University of New Brunswick program of 1960
became the model to set up further geomatics courses in the
country (e.g. in Calgary). Such as model was also followed in
South Africa (four Universities) and Australia (three Univer-
sities).
Technical cooperation with developing countries brought a
cross-fertilization of ideas for education in surveying and
mapping. The University of New Brunswick alone educated
about 100 students from Nigeria sent on scholarship programs
by the Canadian International Development Agency. For this
reason many developing countries subsequently started their
own surveying engineering or geomatics University programs
such as Nigeria, Kenya or Malaysia supported by foreign aid.
The German Technical Cooperation Agency GTZ supported
establishment of survey or geoinformatics degree programs in
Zimbabwe and in India (Anna University, Chennai). In Europe
finally Spain and Britain introduced new career oriented educat-
ion programs in surveying and mapping, while in Italy photo-
grammetry still remains a special subject of Civil Engineering.
On the other hand there are 90 000 persons licensed for sur-
veying with high school graduation as minimal qualification.
Even in the USA, where prerequisites to be a surveyor are also
very low, there are now 14 accredited surveying and mapping
programs. While in Europe, Canada, Australia, South Africa,
and Nigeria the course content covers the entire geomatics field,
the coverage of certain aspects of the discipline differs from
University to University as shown in fig. 3.
In Latin America emphasis in geomatics, or at least certain
aspects of it like remote sensing has been placed on graduate
programs at the diploma, the MSc., and even the Ph.D. level
with examples of the Universities of Curitiba and Recife in
Brazil and the Universities of Catamarca, Santiago del Estero in
Argentina, and the Universidad del Zulia in Venezuela. The
problem there is, that Argentina for example has a workforce of
4500 professionals in surveying and mapping, but only 0.5 %
receive post-graduate education. The emphasis shared in Argen-
tina by the Universities in Buenos Aires, Catamarca and San-
tiago del Estero must be on continuous education of profession-
als in short courses to widen their scope of activities.
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