Civil and Structural Engineering (with Integrated Foundation Year)

Teaching, learning and assessment

In your first year you will experience a wide range of teaching and learning environments. Concepts, principles and theories are typically explored in formal lectures, practised in tutorials, and demonstrated in laboratory classes. Practical skills are developed in laboratories. Cognitive and personal skills are developed in more open-ended problem solving and design exercises, often tackled by working in small groups supported by members of academic, technical, and library staff. Project work is used to bring various aspects of the programme together.

Typically, each module will involve 72 hours of timetabled contact except Mathematics for which you will have 96 hours of timetabled contact for each module. The expected weekly timetabled commitment will be around 21 hours.

After the foundation year the teaching and learning strategy accounts for learning outcomes that need to be achieved, progression through the levels of study, and the nature of the subject. One of the goals of Higher Education is that students develop lifelong learning skills and are increasingly able to take greater responsibility for their own learning (become independent learners) as they progress through the programme. Our strategy begins with the end in mind. We want students to become great engineers; that means great problem solvers and great team-workers with an inquisitive and curious mind. This should mean that by the end of your study with us you can move seamlessly into the world of work, academic research, or become an entrepreneur.

Our assessment methods incorporate a range of different methods designed to meet the needs of industry and accrediting bodies, as well as to prepare students for a research career.