Bouncing back to move forward: Resilience of students in the built environment

Resilience is linked to student mental health and wellbeing, as well as academic engagement and achievement. This positions resilience as a key skill for students. Development of resilience is also considered as a critical competency related to work readiness for students of the built environment, given that workers of the construction industry are known to experience high levels of stress, burnout, and work-life conflict.  While resilience-based research has been undertaken in university settings, this has excluded students undertaking studies in the built environment. To address this gap, research is underway to: (1) measure the resilience of students undertaking studies in property, construction and project management; (2) explore the relationship between resilience and measures of wellbeing; (3) develop and validate a measure of student resilience; (4) review the definition of resilience with an educational context; and (5) identify curriculum based strategies which support development of student resilience. This paper describes the key stages of the research program and reports on findings to date. Data was collected from undergraduate and postgraduate students based in Melbourne, Australia.  The next stages of the research program will incorporate data from universities from other countries to allow for comparative analysis and a capacity to consider how cultural and program structures may impact on student resilience.