We offer a three-year course, with the option of adding a year-long placement working in industry. Your degree is accredited by the Joint Board of Moderators, which is made up of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE) and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) have approved an application from the Permanent Way Institution (PWI).

Our unique teaching approach aims to promote Learning by Doing through guiding you to use observational, prototyping and physical simulation methods in design, in addition to teaching you the theories, engineering principles and standards. You will be encouraged to be creative, innovative and to use advanced digital tools to shape your imaginations and translate them to specifications for structures and systems that you design. For example, in your final year modules, you will not only designing structures from foundation to roof, but you will also use a suite of software and 3D manufacturing suites including 3D printers, plasma and laser cutting machines, robotic arm and clay printer as tools to bring your design into scaled realty.

As well as completing numerous practical projects, you’ll benefit from visits by top professionals who’ll offer you advice – and, often, work opportunities.

Our Docklands campus is ideally situated for studying iconic projects in the capital such as the Tate Modern Phase 2 Extension, the Canary Wharf Crossrail Station and the reconfiguration of the Olympic Stadium.

This course will give you a solid grounding in the design, construction and management of civil engineering works.

This course will prepare you for a range of technical and professional work within the civil engineering sector. We’ve structured it after careful and regular consultation with industry experts.

At the core of your degree, throughout which you’ll combine academic and practical learning, is the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of key infrastructure such as buildings, roads, bridges and canals.

We’ll also give you a firm grounding in structural engineering – the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads.

Other areas you’ll study include geotechnical engineering, the behaviour and stability of materials such as soil and rock, and the study of water engineering. This involves understanding how clean water reaches your house, how dirty water leaves your house, and how surface water in general moves in channels or rivers - essential knowledge when designing flood protection works.

“Civil engineering offers such a breadth of knowledge and skills,” says Course Leader Dr Arya Assadi Langroudi. “Regardless of whether you specialise in structures, water engineering, geotechnics, highways, project management or construction, you’ll need to be imaginative, inquisitive, confident, versatile and articulate.”

“Here at UEL, we take pride in supporting and guiding our students to develop these skills alongside learning these technical subjects.”

We offer dual delivery which combines traditional on-campus face-to-face teaching and online teaching simultaneously, allowing you to interact as if you were there in person. You can move smoothly between online and on campus teaching subject to your individual timetable (and health requirements). Students can interact and collaborate in person and online in any of these live-streamed sessions. Live-streamed sessions will also be recorded, so you can login when you want, playback and watch from the comfort of your home and whilst on the go. Lab, rehearsal and practical on campus sessions are scheduled in blocks with online options.

Our course offers you a mixture of academic and practical work (in the field, on-campus and off-campus), and also access to a broad range of laboratories. Collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects are a key part of the course – just as they are in the profession.

Each term, we are visited by members of our Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). The board comprises of around 15 industry professionals who update us on the ever changing requirements for graduates and monitor the contents of the course.

Current members of the IAB include Atkins, Waterman Group, Hardman Structural Engineers, Morrish Consulting Engineers, Siemens, Careys and the London Borough of Newham.

Every year, our civil engineering and construction management students are given the option to attend the Constructionarium Course based in Norfolk. There you’ll work as a team with a sponsoring contractor and design engineer, building scaled-down versions of famous bridges or buildings.

In your final year you’ll complete an Integrated Design Project. One recent topic was how to build a theme park – deciding where to site it by comparing ground conditions and environmental impact in three possible locations, how and where to put in transport links, and whether a bridge would be needed to cope with the extra traffic.

You'll present your work to teams from Atkins and the IAB and answer their questions. It’s challenging stuff, but it’s also the chance for you to demonstrate your academic and professional excellence to future employers.

Guided independent study

We are investing in key areas beyond your studies including our career services, library and well-being, to be available both face-to-face on campus and online with many of these available 24/7. We have new, modern library facilities on both campuses offering inspirational environments for study and research. Libraries contain resources in print and digital formats, a range of study spaces and dedicated librarian who can assist with your learning.

Academic support

Students are supported with any academic or subject related queries by an Academic Advisor, module leaders, former and current UEL students.
If you need a bit of extra help with certain skills such as academic writing, maths or IT, our Skillzone and English for Academic Purposes we offer workshops, drop-in sessions and one-to-one appointments to help our students achieve their potential. You can receive advice and guidance on all aspects of the IT systems provided by the university from our IT Service Desks located on all three campuses.
Our Student Support hubs in Docklands and Stratford feature centralised helpdesks to cater for your every need. UEL provides also support and advice for disabled students and those with specific learning difficulties (SPDs).

Workload

Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.
The approximate percentages for this course are:
Year 1: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 2: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 3: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.

The size of classes can vary depending on the nature of the course, module and activity. This can range from large groups in a lecture theatre setting, to smaller groups taking part in seminars and collaborative work. You will receive your personalised timetable at the beginning of the academic year dependent on your course.

Who will teach on this course

Arya Langroudi
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

With a degree in civil engineering from the University of East London, you’ll be well placed to land a great job. The high quality of our teaching on the course is widely recognised, and the constant input from industry professionals ensures your studies will be highly relevant to employers once you graduate.

You might decide to specialise as a hydraulic engineer, a structural engineer or a geotechnical engineer. Your decision may be prompted by how your career develops in your first job. You start on the process known as Initial Professional Development (IPD), which usually takes between three and five years.

Recent graduates have gone on to work for Balfour Beatty, Transport for London, the Canary Wharf Group, Careys and Atkins. Others have chosen to work in other professional areas, such as finance, education, marketing and housing.

With a BEng degree and a period of IPD, you’ll be able to apply to become an Incorporated Engineer. If you want to pursue Chartered Engineer status, then you would need to continue your studies to master’s level as well as completing your IPD.

If you decide to continue studying, you’ll have the option of taking a one-year postgraduate MSc course. If your studies are going well after two years of the BEng degree, you can pursue the same goal by switching to a four-year MEng degree course with us. The advantage of this is that you would receive funding for the full four years instead of having to make a separate funding application for a master's course