Teaching Legal Research and Studies for Built Environment Students in Malaysian Universities

Legal studies and law related subject are unattractive to technical, engineering and design-based students. The research aims to explore the best way to approach legal studies for built environment students by examining the perceptions towards legal subjects, studying the method used in universities and finally, obtaining the best approach to tackle the least popular subject. Questionnaires were distributed to built environment students from Malaysian universities. The data collected were then processed using SPSS Software to better analyse the outcome. It is discovered that the students acknowledged the importance of legal subjects in preparing them for the industry. However, due to the unfamiliar nature and style of studies from what these students are accustomed to, deterred the students from taking great interest in the subjects. Improvement in the content of the syllabus and teaching approach are important in effort to make it less ‘black letter’ and less traditional, into something more animated and built-environment-friendly.