Civil Engineering

What do you come out with? BEng or MEng; at Cardiff you can do an optional year in industry or a year abroad in Germany, Spain or France (MEng only), they also offer the option of environmental or architectural engineering. At Warwick you can combine your course with sustainability, fluid dynamics or business management, and there’s also the option of an intercalated year or a year in research. Bath offers a joint MEng in civil engineering and architecture. Queen’s University Belfast offers an MEng in environmental and civil engineering or structural engineering with architecture as well as the standard BEng and MEng. Sheffield offers a whole host of MEng options including civil engineering with business management and civil engineering with a modern language, as well as a foundation year.

Why do it? Because you played with a dump truck as a six-year-old and became hooked for life. You could find yourself building bridges, airports or structures such as the Millennium Dome. A lot of people are drawn to the environmental side of things and want to work in sustainability.

What's it about? Cardiff has threads which run through the course; these include engineering analytics and management and professional studies. The course also incorporates elements of professional responsibility, such as health and safety.

Related articles

• Architecture
• Building
• Transport and logistics
• Town and country planning
• Engineering
• Mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering
• Metallurgy and materials
• Search the news archive for more stories

The first two years at Warwick are done combined with the other engineering students, before specialising in civil matters in the third year. The first year covers the core modules of technological science, design and business, with a fourth module open for you to choose. Students can study a language in this way and even carry it on into their second year. The civil modules in the third year include structures, fluids, construction and management. The fourth year includes a group project, where you can work with other types of engineers on construction management.

The course at Bath includes structural engineering, geo-technical engineering, hydraulics, dams and coastal engineering. There is a surveying field trip in the third year, and there is also a design project where you design a big building like an airport or a hospital.

At Belfast, emphasis is placed on applying theory to practical situations through design, laboratory and field courses. The course contains some module choices but all students are required to take modules on all the key aspects of engineering practice.

At Sheffield you are given a strong background in the core disciplines of structures, water engineering and geo-technics in the first two years. Then you move on to individual research in the third year and the MEng project in the fourth year.

How long is a degree? Three years for a BEng or four years for an MEng. Add one year if you fancy spending a year in industry, research or doing an intercalated year.

What are the students like? Most are men. At Cardiff and Warwick there are 15-20 per cent women. They are students who have an interest in science and technology and are keen to see how those hard sciences can be applied in practice. Bath boasts 30 per cent women studying civil engineering.

How is it packaged? At Cardiff 65 per cent of the course is examined, 35 per cent is coursework, whereas at Warwick it’s more like 60:40 exams to coursework. Bath has a 50:50 balance and the majority of the coursework is design work.

How cool is it? It depends what you do with it and how successful you get. Having a bridge named after you would command instant respect.

What A-levels do you need? Cardiff requires A-level maths, and physics is also useful. Warwick rarely accepts candidates without A-level maths, but it does happen; they also like students with physics. For Bath you’ll need A-level maths. Belfast and Sheffield require maths at A-level as well as another science, with physics being the most useful.

What grades? AAB at Sheffield, Cardiff and Bath, AAB for the MEng and BBB for the BEng at Warwick, Belfast want to see BBC for the BEng or BBB for the MEng.

Will you be interviewed? Yes, at Cardiff, Bath and Warwick. Not usually at Belfast.

Will it keep you off the dole? This used to be a sure shot, but times have changed. Professor Bob Lark from Cardiff says: “The recession has hit construction and civil engineering quite badly – the building industry has really taken a hammering. Infrastructure has not been so bad, with the Olympics coming up, but it is very difficult to predict what will happen in the future.” From Warwick some become consultants, some become contractors, a few run off to the city and one went on to manage a youth hostel. From Bath, the vast majority end up working in civil engineering, becoming design officers or contractors.

What do students say? Richard Hornung, 22, MEng, Warwick: “The first couple of years of the course at Warwick are broad with a lot of business and management but if you work through it you get into the good stuff: the group projects, design work, pulling pieces of metal apart really slowly or designing low-carbon housing. As long as you pick modules which suit your interests it can be a really rewarding course. In future, I’m hoping to get involved in some major construction projects as I chose my modules along the structural strand. While civil engineering is a challenging degree, in the long run it’s rewarding and prepares you for a real job."

Where's best for teaching? In the National Student Survey 2009 Kingston comes in first with 4.20 for student satisfaction, closely followed by Cambridge and Bath who scored 4.14.

Where's best for research? Imperial came joint top with Cambridge in the 2008 RAE, Swansea came a close second.

Where's the cutting edge? The final year design project at Cardiff allows civil engineers to collaborate with mechanical and electrical engineers in integrated projects, such as designing a hospital. Warwick is very proud of its field courses, and you will do at least one, with optional trips to study the Isle of Wight or work in Uganda. Bath is big on façade engineering for sky rise buildings and is the only place in the country with a combined civil engineering and architecture department.

Who are the stars? At Cardiff, Professor Hywel Thomas is working on nuclear waste storage, Professor Roger Falconer is very well-known for his work on the Severn Barrage and Professor Karih Allo is your man for composite materials and high performance concrete. Professor Ian Guymer at Warwick excels in water engineering and pollutants and did a lot of work in Sheffield after the 2007 floods. Professor Wander Lewis, also from Warwick, has done research into the tension of paintings, so they can be properly restored. At Bath, Professor Tim Ibell does a lot of bridge engineering, while Professor Pete Walker works with sustainable construction materials including straw bales and mud bricks.