Course summary

Civil engineers play a vital role in creating a sustainable, inclusive and safe environment, tackling critical issues such as the climate emergency facing our society today. They are responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of our infrastructure – from buildings, bridges, tunnels and transport systems to energy production and distribution, coastal defences and water management. Civil engineers also have a key responsibility for the preservation of the natural environment. If you dream of an exciting career that will contribute to a better future for the generations to come, Civil Engineering is for you. This degree will provide you with a balanced education where a solid grounding on principles of engineering science is combined with their practical application in the solution of real-life problems. Our programmes place particular emphasis on close interaction with industry so that our students are up-to-date with the latest practice. This ensures we retain, year after year, graduate employability rates among the highest in the sector in the UK. Industry experts from companies such as Atkins, Arup, Kier, Mott Macdonald, WSP, AECOM, Turner & Townsend, contribute directly to our programmes in the development of our curriculum, provision and supervision of real-life design projects and delivery of crucial components of practice-oriented modules. Our programmes benefit from state-of-the-art laboratory and computing facilities, with a wide range of testing equipment for concrete, structures, soils and fluids and access to the latest software packages of relevance to industry. The first year of the degree course focuses primarily on fundamental topics, including structural and fluid mechanics, surveying and construction materials combined with elements of design at a basic level, including a design challenge exercise with Engineers Without Borders. With progress to years two and three, more advanced topics in project management and delivery, structural analysis, coastal engineering and transportation are introduced and later applied in the context of design, with increasing exposure to industrial collaborators in more realistic settings. In the third year, in addition to a realistic group design project partly led by industrialists, students will develop an individual research project with a wide range of topics to choose from – from sustainable construction methods and materials to the use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in the context of structural analysis and design. Finally, in Year 4, students will learn more advanced topics in engineering science as well as in design, management and professional practice. In particular, students will work on a very significant group design project under the direct supervision of practising engineers from industry. Here, students will have the opportunity to further consolidate the knowledge acquired during the course by working on real-life projects offered by our industrial collaborators. Our graduates find employment with some of the top employers in the sector, including civil engineering design/consultancy companies, contractors, public transport and government agencies. Course Details All our Civil Engineering programmes are accredited by the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM), which is composed of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE) and the Permanent Way Institution (PWI).