BEng Civil Engineering
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Bachelor's degree
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
GBP 28,200 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas | for home year two, three and four: £9,250 / year one: £9,000
Key Summary
Group projects with engineering students from other disciplines mirror the dynamic of a professional engineering team and will help you develop vital skills. Civil and environmental engineers design, build and maintain the spaces and places that shape our day-to-day existence with a focus on environmental issues, such as waste management, contaminated land, and water treatment.
This accredited BEng Civil Engineering course provides the knowledge, skills and hands-on experience you need to become a work-ready civil and environmental engineer. Through laboratory sessions, field trips, individual projects and design classes, you will embed the knowledge from your lectures and tutorials and develop your practical abilities in surveying and design.
You will choose from a range of authentic, real-world engineering problems and industry-focused scenarios, to work on both individually and with student engineers from other disciplines. Group work mirrors the relationships of an engineering team and will help you to build professional skills, such as teamwork and communication. Our open-access makerspace allows you to design, create and collaborate.
Why Study this Course
Professional Skills
Group projects with engineering students from other disciplines mirror the dynamic of a professional engineering team and will help you develop vital skills.
Flexible Course
You can make your degree your own with the flexibility to choose where you want to focus your studies later in the course. If you change your mind about your programme, in most cases you may request a switch at the end of the first year.
Industry-Led Content
Our course content is informed by industrial collaboration and delivered by leading academic staff, many of whom are Chartered Engineers or have worked in industry.
Strong Design Element
Our courses have a strong design element with plenty of opportunities for hands-on practical work in our design studios, specialist laboratories, workshops, and computer suites. Those studying in the civil engineering discipline will have the chance to go on industrial field trips.
Professionally Accredited Course
Accredited by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, and the Institute of Highway Engineers on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partly meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.
Loans and Grants
Financial support information for students.
Bursaries
We wish to ensure that financial circumstances are not a barrier to your undergraduate study opportunities.
Scholarships
We wish to recruit the very best students and to help us achieve this, we offer a number of scholarships.
Part-time Undergraduate Funding
Information about funding for part-time students.
Financial Support for Asylum Seekers
Information for asylum seekers about the financial support we offer undergraduates and options for funding from outside the University.
This is a three-year full-time degree, with largely core modules in Years One and Two. Year Three has a carefully chosen balance of core and optional modules, allowing you to choose subjects to tailor to your personal interests or chosen career path. You need to earn 120 credits a year.
Year One
Year one consists of a series of lectures and practical laboratory sessions, providing you with a solid base for the next two years of your degree programme.
Core Modules for Year One
- Engineering Maths and Computation
- Fundamentals of Civil Engineering
- Applied Design and Practice
Year Two
Year two again consists of a series of lectures underpinned by practical laboratory sessions.
There is an off-site residential field course for five days in the spring semester, as part of the Field Studies of the Natural and Built Environment module.
- Engineering Analysis
- Building Modelling
- Environmental Engineering
- Hydraulics and Soil Mechanics
- Structural Analysis & Design Theory
- Sustainable Civil Engineering Design & Practice
Year Three
Year three includes a major project, with a value of a quarter of the overall year. For this, you will work individually, alongside a supervising staff member.
There are other core modules but also a choice of optional modules, building upon the foundations established in the earlier years.
Core Modules for Year Three
- Construction and Construction Management
- Environmental Policy and Regulation
- Project
- Water Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering
- Structural Design Studies
- Civil Engineering Design
Optional Modules for Year Three
- Concrete Materials and Structures
- Environmental Geotechnics
- Environmental Hydraulics
- Waste Management and Recycling
- Finite Elements for Full-scale Engineering Problems
How will I be assessed?
Your assessments will be varied to evaluate knowledge, understanding, professional skills, and key skills. Assessment in Year One is mostly through tests during the year, short reports, a professional development portfolio, presentations, and two written examinations. This range of assessments is carried into the higher years with a gradual change from tests to exams. The major individual project in Year Three is assessed by a dissertation report.
What skills will I practise and develop?
The Learning Outcomes for this Programme describe what you will be able to do as a result of your study at Cardiff University. They will help you to understand what is expected of you.
On successful completion of the Programme you will be able to:
Knowledge & Understanding
- Apply a comprehensive knowledge of mathematics, statistics, natural science and engineering principles to the solution of complex problems in architectural engineering. Much of the knowledge will be at the forefront of the particular subject of study and informed by a critical awareness of new developments and the wider context of architectural engineering.
- Formulate and analyse complex problems to reach substantiated conclusions. This will involve evaluating available data using first principles of mathematics, statistics, natural science and engineering principles, and using engineering judgment to work with information that may be uncertain or incomplete, discussing the limitations of the techniques employed.
- Evaluate the environmental and societal impact of solutions to complex architectural engineering problems (to include the entire life-cycle of a product or process) and minimise adverse impacts.
- Discuss the role of quality management systems and continuous improvement in the context of complex architectural engineering problems.
- Apply knowledge of engineering management principles, commercial contexts, project and change management, and relevant legal matters including intellectual property rights.
Intellectual Skills
- Select and apply appropriate computational and analytical techniques, recognising/discussing the limitations of the techniques employed, for the synthesis of architectural engineering problems, and to make judgements on appropriate action.
- Select and evaluate technical literature and other sources of information to address complex problems.
- Design solutions for complex architectural engineering problems that meet a combination of societal, user, business and customer needs as appropriate, with consideration of applicable health & safety, diversity, inclusion, cultural, societal, environmental and commercial matters, codes of practice and industry standards.
- Apply an integrated or systems approach to the solution of complex problems.
Professional Practical Skills
- Select and apply appropriate practical laboratory and workshop skills in architectural engineering, particularly in devising analytical or experimental approaches, to investigate complex problems.
- Select, apply and evaluate appropriate materials, equipment, engineering technologies and processes, recognising their limitations.
- Use a risk management process to identify, evaluate and mitigate risks (the effects of uncertainty) associated with a particular architectural engineering project or activity.
- Adopt a holistic and proportionate approach to the mitigation of security risks in architectural engineering.
Transferable/Key Skills
- Communicate effectively on complex engineering matters with technical and non-technical audiences, evaluating the effectiveness of the methods used.
- Identify and analyse ethical concerns and make reasoned ethical choices informed by professional codes of conduct.
- Adopt an inclusive approach to engineering practice and recognise/articulate the responsibilities, benefits and importance of supporting equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Function effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader of a team.
- Plan and record the reflective evaluation of self-learning and development as the foundation for lifelong learning/CPD.
Our graduates are mainly employed in the civil engineering industry with major consultancy and contracting firms, such as Sir Robert McAlpine, Ramboll, Arup and Mott McDonald. Typical roles include graduate civil engineer, site engineer or design engineer, and they are based throughout the UK as well as further afield.
A number of graduates have opted for further study, either at the MSc or PhD level, at Cardiff as well as institutions across the UK and beyond.
Others have chosen to work for national and multinational companies. Recent examples include companies in the financial, media and petrochemical sectors with destinations including Deloitte, PwC, Virgin and Shell.
Graduate careers
- Civil Engineer
- Design Engineer
- Project Manager