Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Our well-respected and broad-based courses will equip you with the technical, practical, design and managerial skills needed to develop successful careers in the built environment, which include many different roles and job functions. Our graduates secure high quality employment and command high starting salaries with many leading consultancy, contracting and client organisations.
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Our vision is to be the world’s leading integrated centre for built environment research and education. Society today, and increasingly in the future, requires an integrated built environment in which buildings and infrastructure work together to support our evolving ways of life and increasing urbanisation in a sustainable way.
This requires the multitude of construction professions to be adept at forming multi-disciplinary project teams that combine their expertise to provide sustainable solutions to the increasingly complex challenges of tomorrow. They must leverage new digital practices in order to transform our buildings and infrastructure, and continually innovate in developing new products and processes.
Our graduates will shape this future world, planning urban environments, designing buildings resilient to climate change, and managing the construction and maintenance of homes, buildings, infrastructure and transport systems. This requires an understanding and appreciation of the people and processes that contribute to the whole construction cycle you can only acquire by studying in an integrated School such as ours.
During each year of your degree, you will develop first-hand experience of working in interdisciplinary teams by collaborating on real-world industry-supported design projects with students from different courses across the School. You will benefit from access to state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, information technology and industry professionals who lead some of the UK’s largest construction organisations and projects.
Our courses
Links with industry
As a School, we have been at the forefront of integrating engineering training with workplace skills for decades, and our placement year provides an opportunity to enhance your skills and real-world experiences, while being paid to do so.
A successful placement improves employability and leads to the recognised additional award of Diploma of Industrial Studies (DIS) or Diploma of Professional Studies (DPS). For many courses, this placement will count towards the experience you need for achieving chartered status in your chosen course.
Our study abroad scheme offers invaluable insight into another culture, broadening your skills and experiences for up to one year. It results in an additional award of Diploma in International Studies (DIntS).
Whenever a new graduate comes to the site that they are working on and they say they are from º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, there is already an expectation that they have had a good grounding and that they are of a calibre that maybe other universities and institutions do not have.
Facilities
The School houses its own design studio and computer laboratory to support our specialist teaching. We also make extensive use of our open-plan laboratory which, at over 3,000 m2 in area, is one of the largest in the UK.
We are at the cutting-edge of experimental research into the built environment, which is highlighted by the fact that our labs are home to the National Facility for Infrastructure Construction.
Combined with other investments from industry, research councils and the University this means that we have recently invested more than £1 million in our laboratory equipment including state-of-the-art robotics and automation technologies for fabricating complex structures, as well as mixed-reality design suites, 3D printers, laser cutters and other fabrication tools. All of this is ably supported by our team of dedicated technicians.
Accreditation
Studying for an accredited degree programme means that your course will provide you with the basis for becoming a chartered professional in your chosen discipline. Your degree, along with a period of practical experience in the industry and a professional examination, will grant full membership of a leading professional body.
Our courses are fully accredited by, or seeking accreditation from, one or more of the following awarding bodies: the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES), and the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) comprising the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE), the Permanent Way Institution (PWI), and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT).
Career opportunities
In addition to the subject specific knowledge and technical skills you gain, our courses provide you with diverse transferable skills that include time-management, communication, teamwork, leadership, problem solving, critical thinking and analysis. These, combined with your deep subject specific expertise, ensure you are highly sought after by the leading employers in the built environment sector, and beyond.
Recent graduate destinations include AECOM, Air Charter Service, Amey, Arup, Atkins, Balfour Beatty, BAM Construction, BAM Nuttall, Barratt London, Bowmer and Kirkland, Gardiner and Theobald, Graham Construction, Interserve Construction, Jacobs, Kier, Morgan Sindall, Network Rail, Sir Robert McAlpine, Tony G and Partners, and more.
Our students
Cross-school design weeks
From your very first week at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, you will undertake innovative, real-world design projects that bring together students from other courses within our School to work on cross-disciplinary projects that mimic the complex problems and processes you will face in industry.
These projects range from concept and feasibility studies through to the design, construction and maintenance of buildings, urban spaces and infrastructure. These are devised to give you insights into the skills students on other courses acquire and how these complement your own. They also provide an introduction to and understanding of the complex, interacting technical, economic, social and environmental factors that are at play in any major construction project, as well as an appreciation of crucial practical concerns such as risk management, project management, and transport.