What is Civil Engineering ? Some Guidelines

Civil engineering is a strategically important profession for both developed and developing countries. With creativity and technical skills, civil engineers plan, design construct, maintain and operate infrastructure facilities essential to modern life, ranging from bridges and highways to water and wastewater treatment facilities and buildings. Civil engineering is a broad field that spans a number of branches including subjects such as Structural Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering. As countries develop, and their population’s increase, and as environmental concerns mount, civil engineering skills will be increasingly needed throughout the world. Meeting the challenges of providing housing and buildings, infrastructure to control pollution, transportation links, drinking water and energy needs, urban redevelopment and community planning are few examples of the problems civil engineers solve. Civil engineering offers wide career choices, ranging from design, construction, research, planning, teaching, to management. The branch of structural engineering is concerned with the structural design and analysis of buildings, bridges, and other structures. This involves calculating the stresses and forces that act upon or arise within a structure, and designing the structure to successfully resist those forces and stresses. Resistance to wind and seismic loadings, especially performance near resonant frequencies, which affect the overall stability of a structure are major design concerns. Other factors such as durability and cost are also considered. In addition to design of new buildings, structural engineers may design a seismic retrofit for an existing structure to mitigate undesirable performance during earthquakes. Most civil and structural engineers today deal with power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, the natural environment, sewer, flood control, transportation and traffic. Civil and structural engineering aims to improve and maintain the built and natural environment with best use of resources to enhance the quality of life for present and future generations. Those entering the civil engineering field are increasingly required to continue their education long after bachelor’s graduation and are required to increase their knowledge base to remain competitive. Thus this new MSc course at the University of Bradford is designed to provide advanced civil and structural engineering education to meet the aspirations of students needs. The course is designed in a way to address a balanced curriculum between advanced technical and design skills, and research skills. Optional modules are also included to offer students more choices and meet their interests and needs in civil and structural engineering. We will seek accreditation of this MSc course by the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) and ultimately the course will offer those possessing an appropriate degree the Further Learning requirements for chartership if accreditation is granted. 

The School of Engineering, Design & Technology places emphasis on both teaching and research, believing them to be mutually dependent. We have particular research strengths in Water Engineering; Acoustics; Structural Engineering; Geotechnics; Sustainability; and Computer Modelling and Design. We conduct this research jointly with many companies including Yorkshire Water, Thames Water, Bersche-rolt, Transport Research Laboratory, AngloFelt Industries, Lime Technology, Castle Cement, Ibstock Bricks and many others