At Birmingham our staff and students are working on a diverse range of projects: in fluid mechanics we investigate topics ranging from the flooding of rivers to assessing the hydrodynamic efficiency of an oar blade in rowing; current geotechnical engineering projects range from developing ‘intelligent’ tunnels to cleaning up contaminated land; and in structural engineering our students are designing a variety of load-bearing structures as well as investigating and implementing the sustainable construction technologies of tomorrow.
Ten reasons to choose Civil Engineering at Birmingham
- Environment. We have a supportive environment that ensures a smooth transition to University. Teaching in small groups challenges you through personal interaction with your lecturers and makes sure you don’t get left behind. A student buddy scheme and an alumni mentoring programme are further examples of initiatives we offer to support your professional development.
- Strong links with industry. Did you know that John Nolan (recent former President of the Institution of Structural Engineers and Director of Nolan Associates) is now a Royal Academy of Engineering Professor at Birmingham, where he teaches our first year students? And that Peter Braithwaite, the Director of Sustainability for the Olympic Park (London 2012), has just joined the staff?
- Scholarships. We offer a variety of University and Industry funded scholarships. You could get up to £2500 in your first year plus paid worked experience. We have a long tradition of successfully pairing the right student with the right industrial sponsor through our industrial partnership programme RESPECT.
- Design is core to all our teaching. From first year to fourth year you will be in charge of producing imaginative concepts, detailed designs, budgets and programmes; acquiring the skills to succeed as a professional engineer. Third year students get hands-on project management experience by taking responsibility for first year site visits, design challenges and surveying camp. It is fun and challenging and our students can illustrate real management experience at job interviews.
- Build something big. Did you realise that you could spend a week during your degree on site with your friends, building a scale version of an iconic structure? It is muddy and exhilarating and our undergraduates rate it as one of the best experiences possible during a civil engineering degree:
- 20-weeks of paid industrial experience without doing a sandwich year and still graduate in 4 years with an accredited MEng with Industrial Experience. Sounds impossible? This idea was pioneered by Birmingham and offers the perfect combination of practical experience with a 4-year degree and outstanding employability prospects (all 2012 graduates from this programme secured excellent jobs before they had even graduated).
- Integrated teaching and research laboratories. Hands on opportunities to learn next to our world-leading researchers, whose work feeds into your degree. We have some of the largest teaching laboratories in the UK and we capitalise on this with a comprehensive undergraduate laboratory programme to complement lectures.
- Accredited degrees that have outstanding industry relevance, guided by our own Industrial Board of Professional Engineers. This close relationship with industry produces sought-after graduates with all the core skills essential for success as a professional engineer.
- World leading academics teach our students at all stages in their degree. Innovative thinking, such as that in our recent publication “ Designing Resilient Cities” , where radical ideas are proposed in anticipation of future societal needs, challenges our students to envisage the future of civil engineering.
- The best of both worlds. The best of both worlds. Our programmes have many advantages, which range from an inclusive, supportive atmosphere with excellent communication within and across the year groups to bespoke small-group tutoring throughout the first year and multiple opportunities for everyone to interact with industry: if you want to experience a breakfast meeting with a team of working design engineers, work alongside consultants and contractors on site for a week, benefit from interaction with alumni mentors, site visits, industry sponsorship and work placements integrated into your degree, while experiencing all the benefits of a big campus university in a bustling city, study Civil Engineering at Birmingham.