Get degree ideas using our A level explorer tool

Civil Engineering

Entry requirements


Sorry, no information to show

About this course


This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.

Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Other options

5 years | Sandwich | 2024

Subject

Civil engineering

**This is a Connected Degree**

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

**Overview**

Learn to design, construct, operate and maintain infrastructure that supports everything from buildings, transportation, and flood defences to providing safe drinking water and sanitation.

Study this accredited Civil Engineering degree in the city that gave the world Isambard Kingdom Brunel and step into a career that could shape the world.

**Course highlights**

- Study practical diving and underwater engineering and infrastructure, due to our coastal location, and get a recognised PADI diving qualification

- Visit constructions sites across the city, such as the new Ravelin Sports Centre or the upcoming Southsea Coastal Scheme

- Explore soil types and rock formations on visits to the Isle of Wight and take a field trip to the National Construction College

- Enter a global design competition, run by Engineers Without Borders

- Learn from industry specialists – recent guest speakers have come from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Atkins, Portsmouth Water, Mott MacDonald, Portsmouth City Council, Colas and WSP

**Accreditation**
This course is 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. The BEng meets in full the academic requirement for Incorporated Engineer (IEng) and in part the academic requirement for Chartered Engineer (CEng). The MEng meets in full the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer (CEng).

**Careers and opportunities**

All civil engineering roles are listed in the UK Government’s 'skills shortage list' and you can expect an average salary from £30,000 up to £70,000.

In fact, 95% of our BEng graduates and 90% of our MEng course graduates are in work or further study 15 months after they graduate and 100% of those MEng graduates are in highly skilled work – which means the skills you’ll learn on our course are in high demand. 80% of those graduates work as engineering professionals.

What’s more, 100% of our graduates find their work meaningful. So start making a difference, and be rewarded well for it.

Graduate destinations

Our graduates have worked for companies such as:

- Sir Robert McAlpine – a civil engineering company that’s contributed to the construction of the NHS Nightingale Hospitals and the expansion of the Royal Albert Hall

- Skanska – a recent project, Haymarket Edinburgh, provides more than 380,000 sq. ft designed to benefit the local residential and business community

- Multiplex Construction Europe – with offices in Australia, the Middle East, United Kingdom and Canada, this company has completed more than 1,000 projects globally

- Balfour Beatty – a leading international infrastructure group developing projects from the UK to the United States and Hong Kong

- Gallagher Group – a UK company delivering civil engineering contracts ranging in value from £100,000 to £15 million

What jobs can you do with a civil engineering degree?

Roles you could go into include:

- materials engineer

- geotechnical engineer

- civil engineer

- construction manager

- transport planner

- structural engineer

Our Careers and Employability service can help you find a job that puts your skills to work in the industry. You can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.

"The placement furthered my skills in problem-solving, communication, time management, teamwork and individual initiatives." - Thomas Glenn, Civil Enginering Student

Modules

Year 1

Core modules in this year include:
- Construction Management & Practice
- Engineering Analysis
- Professional Development 1
- Soils & Materials 1
- Understanding Structures - Analysis and Design
- Water & Environmental Engineering

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2

Core modules in this year include:
- Behaviour of Structures
- Design of Structural Elements
- Numerical Skills & Economics
- Professional Development 2
- Soils and Materials 2

Optional modules on this year currently include:
- Building Information Modelling
- Diving and Underwater Engineering A
- Diving and Underwater Engineering B
- Energy Resources & Infrastructure
- Fieldwork For Civil Engineers
- Heritage Property
- International Built Environment Fieldwork
- Introduction to Project Management Principles
- Modern Foreign Language

Placement year (optional):
After your second year, you can take a salaried placement year working in the industry, gaining valuable experience, and putting your studies to the test.

Previous students have taken placements at large-scale building organisations such as: Fluor, Kier, Portsmouth Water, WSP, AECOM, Mott MacDonald, Ramboll. We’ll help you secure a placement that fits your workplace ambitions. You’ll get mentoring and support to get the most out of the year.

Year 3

Core modules in this year include:
- Design of Structures
- MEng Individual Research Project
- Soils and Materials 3
- Transportation Engineering
- Water Infrastructure

Year 4

Core modules in this year include:
- Advanced Engineering Science
- Environmental Management
- Integrated Design Project
- Tools, Techniques and Processes of Project Management

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment methods

You’ll be assessed through:

- written exams
- web assessments
- essays and reports
- project presentations
- a dissertation

You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.

You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.

The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows:

- Year 1 students: 68% by written exams, 4% by practical exams and 28% by coursework
- Year 2 students: 63% by written exams, 4% by practical exams and 33% by coursework
- Year 3 students: 30% by written exams, 8% by practical exams and 62% by coursework
- Year 4 students: 13% by written exams, 43% by practical exams and 44% by coursework

The Uni


Course location:

University of Portsmouth

Department:

Faculty of Technology

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

83%
Civil engineering

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Civil engineering

Teaching and learning

69%
Staff make the subject interesting
87%
Staff are good at explaining things
78%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
72%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

82%
Library resources
88%
IT resources
87%
Course specific equipment and facilities
68%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

78%
UK students
22%
International students
85%
Male students
15%
Female students
44%
2:1 or above
14%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
D
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Civil engineering

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£25,000
med
Average annual salary
99%
med
Employed or in further education
86%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

64%
Engineering professionals
9%
Architects, town planners and surveyors
6%
Science, engineering and production technicians

Do you want to be in demand? This might be the degree for you! We are officially short of civil engineers, and so around two thirds of civil engineering graduates start jobs specifically as civil engineers, and starting salaries are well over £25k last year. Demand for civil engineers and related jobs - we're short of all of them - means that good graduates have plenty of options directly related to their degree when they graduate. This is a subject where work experience can be very helpful in getting a job and many students do work for engineering companies while they take their degrees.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Civil engineering

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£27k

£27k

£31k

£31k

£38k

£38k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Share this page

This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here