A Body of Knowledge, or BoK, for any discipline is a basic study to establish a benchmark of concepts, principles and practices that any given discipline deems necessary for competent practice. Ostensibly, this BoK, once established, would be the blueprint for curricula that would be developed for undergraduate study in that given field.

My first eye-opener was that land surveying doesn’t already have an established BoK. Not being an academician myself, I don’t know exactly what is being taught to undergraduate land surveying students or why. However, having spoken to thousands of land surveyors all across the country, many of whom are graduates from various surveying programs, my perception is that surveying education is all over the map--no pun intended. From this perspective, I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that surveying does not have a recognized or standard BoK.