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Civil Engineering

Entry requirements


GCSE/National 4/National 5

3 GCSEs including English Language and Science grade C, or grade 4 or above, and Maths grade B or grade 6 or above.

UCAS Tariff

88

from a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent).

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Civil engineering

Study your Civil Engineering BEng (Hons) at ARU and apply its technologies to some of society’s most complex problems. On this Chelmsford-based degree you’ll be hands-on, going on site and tackling practical exercises in our specialist workshops. Get your hard hat on for a week-long construction project under real site conditions and gain further experience on a placement year. After graduating from our Civil Engineering BEng degree course, you can work towards Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.

Designing and building structures like bridges, roads, airports and flood defences demands a high degree of technical skill. Our Civil Engineering BEng course will teach you to approach civil engineering projects competently, responsibly, ethically and safely.

Civil engineering changes our world – from buildings and transport to the environment and civil protection. It covers everything from creative concepts to physical construction and maintenance. Designing and building structures like bridges, roads, airports and flood defences demands a high degree of technical skill.

On our newly designed course your learning will be based around the civil engineering project and hands-on learning, giving you the chance to immediately apply the theory you learn in class to address the challenges of the project. You will learn how to carry out site investigations, select the best materials for the job, analyse and design structures and engineering systems, plan the construction process and assess and mitigate the environmental impact of the project using our specialist workshops and labs. You will learn how to carry out land surveys and use state of the art CAD systems and specialist software to design and analyse complex systems.

When studying our Civil Engineering course, you’ll learn a range of transferable skills, including how to manage projects and contracts; statistics; management techniques; and principles of IT, preparing you for industry work, advising clients, working closely with other engineers and stake holders. You’ll become a creative problem solver and a confident communicator, able to work well independently and in a team.

What is the difference between the BEng and the BSc?
Our BSc (Hons) course focuses on the contractor and production so if it is the construction site that excites you, then this is course for you. If you are interested in the design and analysis of infrastructure then the BEng(Hons) will give you the theoretical framework to work in consultancy.

Modules

Year one, core modules
Civil Engineering Project 1
Engineering Skills 1
Introduction to Civil Engineering
Engineering and Analysis Essentials.

Year two, core modules
Civil Engineering Analysis Project
Ruskin Module
Hydraulics and Geotechnics
Advanced Civil Engineering Skills
Structural Analysis.

Work placement (optional placement year).

Year three, core modules
Civil Engineering Design Project
Engineering Structures
Materials and Manufacture
Research Methods and Dissertation.

Assessment methods

Throughout the course, we’ll use a range of assessment methods to help you and your tutors measure your progress. Besides exams, you’ll demonstrate your learning though a mix of assignments, group work, presentations, drawings, lab work and projects.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Chelmsford Campus

Department:

School of Engineering and the Built Environment

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.

47%
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

53%
Staff make the subject interesting
60%
Staff are good at explaining things
52%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
63%
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

54%
Library resources
72%
IT resources
71%
Course specific equipment and facilities
29%
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?

85%
UK students
15%
International students
85%
Male students
15%
Female students
77%
2:1 or above
21%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
D
A

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.

£24,000
med
Average annual salary
93%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

75%
Engineering professionals
8%
Architects, town planners and surveyors
8%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

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.

£31k

£31k

£34k

£34k

£34k

£34k

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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