nth student 
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s supported 
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in applied 
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he field and 
the course. 
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ITC had to 
'overnment. 
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ying Engin- 
they had to 
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hich had a 
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am of 1960 
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followed in 
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brought a 
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on graduate 
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ezuela. The 
vorkforce of 
only 0.5 % 
'd in Argen- 
ca and San- 
' profession- 
In summary, the historical development of educational 
programs in geomatics is very heterogeneous from country to 
country. There are basically two problems: In countries where 
geoinformatics programs do not exist or where they are 
inadequately introduced, they need to be established for an 
eventually existing professional market. In countries, where 
geoinformation programs exist, they need to be modified 
according to pressures imposed by governments or society. 
4. NEED FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF GEOMATICS 
PROGRAMS, WHEN THEY DO NOT EXIST 
The establishment of a program is warranted, if the knowledge 
to be transmitted is specific. This is the case for geomatics as 
described in chapter 2 of this paper. 
The program must have recognition by the state, either for 
direct employment of graduates in the state agencies, or by 
establishing licensing bodies to regulate private practice. 
The program, if it is to succeed, must be based on a scientific 
foundation. On the basis of the knowledge obtained a claim for 
a position in the labour market can be made. 
5. NEED FOR RESTRUCTURING OF GEOMATICS 
PROGRAMS, WHERE THEY DO EXIST 
5.1 The need for restructuring of geomatics program must be 
governed by the labour market. 
A good example is the situation in Denmark, a country of an 
area of 43 000 km? with 4.2 million people and a workforce of 
about 900 professionals. Their percentages in employment areas 
have changed from 1967 to 1997 as shown in fig. 4. 
In Germany the current job market for a geomatics professional 
is shown in fig. 5. 
  
  
  
  
  
employment sector | 1967 | 1997 
cadastre 70 % | 20 % 
planning 8,991125:99 
mapping 15% | 30 % 
other 10% | 25% 
  
  
Fig.4: Employment Areas of Survey Professionals in Denmark 
1967 and 1997 as shown by Enemark (FIG Congress 2002) 
  
employment sector | percentage 
terrestrial surveying 40 % 
geodesy 5% 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
photogrammetry 5% 
and remote sensing 
GIS 30 % 
land management 20 % 
  
Fig. 5: Current German Job Market for Surveyors according to 
Witte and Heck (FIG Congress 2002) 
In Germany, like in Denmark, the intake of graduates into state 
organizations (the cadastre) has diminished over the years, but a 
total of a professional workforce of about 8000 for Germany 
(for a country of 80 million inhabitants) has been maintained. 
Graduates increasingly went into value added GIS business. A 
ratio of 1 geomatics professional per 10 000 inhabitants seems 
to be a desirable figure expressing the demand. 
3.2 Influences on Professional Recruitment by Govern- 
mental Measures 
In à number of European countries higher education is free of 
charge, and a right to the citizen. This is the case in the Nether- 
lands, Sweden, and in Germany. There is no pressure on the 
student to choose a particular field of study. He often does not 
129 
choose a geomatics career because it sofar offers a low profile 
with less career opportunities. Due to a fuzzy content of the 
educational program and due to poor communication the num- 
ber of student intakes has diminished from 40 per year to 10 per 
year at the TU Delft. The same trend is visible in Switzerland, 
Austria, and the southern part of Germany. 
In Sweden, where the number of study places available is fixed 
by the government, the ratio of applicants is an indication of the 
desirability of a study field. Engineering science and geomatics 
only reaches a ratio of 1.4 applicants per study place, while eco- 
nomics reaches 2.6, medicine 3.8, law 4.5, and behavioural 
sciences 5.0. In Northern Sweden (KTH Stockholm) a ratio of 
only 1.0 was reached for geomatics, while the University of 
Lund in the South achieved a ratio of 2.0, mainly due to the fact 
that it has made the curriculum more attractive by adding real 
estate economics as a field of study. This enable the University 
of Lund to maintain a study number of 30 per year, which is a 
reasonable limit for a University offering such a program. If this 
number per year is any less there may be governmental pressure 
to close the curriculum down, as was the case in South Africa, 
where from four Universities previously only the University of 
Capetown has survived with their Geoinformatics course. 
Another peculiarity is the University funding system introduced 
by the UK government to the British Universities. Political 
arguments started from the fact that 30 years ago only 10 96 of 
the respective age group entered university. Now it is about 40 
%, and the government wishes to raise this level to 50 %. One 
essential element to prevent mushrooming of mediocre Univer- 
sities is the research assessment. According to the research 
assessments funds are distributed to the Universities resulting in 
the fact that the best Universities can afford a student to staff 
ratio of 5:1, and the Universities at the bottom end only of 22:1. 
This in part counteracts the relatively high fee structure at 
British Universities. 
Another interesting development is in Russia. Since the central 
role of government with its planned economy has ceased to 
exist MIIGAIK and other specialized schools have to drastically 
restructure their curricula to a common, much broader field of 
geomatics. 
In the countries of the European Union another restructuring 
necessity arose by the EU “Bologna Agreement of 1999”, 
which prescribed the transferability of degrees for the countries 
of the Union. To introduce mobility a 3 degree structure B.Sc. 
(3 years), M.Sc. (2 years), and Ph.D. (3 years) was suggested as 
opposed to the German tradition of a 2 degree structure Dipl.- 
Ing. (4 to 5 years), and Dr.-Ing. (3 to 6 years). Due to the fact 
that in Germany higher education is under jurisdiction of the 
States, and that since the 1968 student revolution the Technical 
Academies wished to become Universities with a lot of state 
government support the Bologna declaration has caused a lot of 
confusion and resent in Germany. The outcome is still open. 
5.3 Technological Influences 
The last, but not the least reason for modifying geomatics curri- 
cula is the observation of the following technological trends. 
Surveying has been subjected to automation. The field surveyor 
with a lot of technical skills and the ability to judge has been re- 
placed by an operator controlled by hardware/software systems. 
The technical changes have not simply been a refinement of old 
techniques, but GPS and GIS operate on different principles. 
The subdivision of geomatics tasks in acquisition, processing, 
and presentation is no longer valid, as all tasks may be executed 
in a single integrated system. 
Land management and regional and local planning has changed 
from a technical emphasis to social and environmental sustain-