Civil and Structural Engineering with a Foundation Year

A discipline focused on improving the way we live and with sustainability at its core, you'll study structures, water, geotechnics and environmental issues. Courses on offer in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering include civil and structural, architectural and urban engineering.

Give yourself the best possible grounding in the principles behind civil and structural engineering, leaving your options open for a range of careers in the industry.

If you don't have the usual scientific or mathematical background for an engineering degree, a foundation year is for you. After successfully completing the foundation year, you'll progress onto the first year of your chosen degree in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering.

Research-active academics and teachers with extensive industrial experience give you a broad-base understanding in this civil and structural engineering degree – making it perfect if you're not sure which area of civil engineering you want to go into.

The course integrates a strong focus on civil engineering analysis and design with the latest research on sustainable development – equipping you to tackle challenges in the built environment and design innovative solutions that minimise impact on the environment.

Years one and two will see you concentrate on the core disciplines of structural engineering, water infrastructure engineering, fluid mechanics, and geotechnical mechanics, from both an analysis and design perspective.

The second half of the course follows more specialised and advanced structural engineering areas such as bridge engineering, multi-storey building design, sustainability, geotechnics and your independent research project.

During your third year, you'll spend a full semester doing the integrated design project. You’ll unleash your creativity on a grand scale: devising plans for an entire urban regeneration project based on a real site in Sheffield. You'll investigate new design methods and construction materials while developing detailed designs such as elegant bridges, sustainable and environmentally sensitive multi-storey buildings, or state-of-the-art sports venues.

The course challenges you to solve increasingly complex problems – building on your core knowledge with specialist modules in the final year so that you'll graduate as a skilled, competent and well-rounded engineer.

Why study this course?

• Semester-long integrated design project - explore both concept and detailed design for a range of real-world built-environment problems.

• World-leading researchers - our department has one of the only blast and impact research groups in the UK, delivering unique research-led specialist modules and research projects.

• Industry-led teaching - learn how to reduce the impact of construction on the environment with our Reuse of Existing structures module.

• Specialist teaching facilities - 'Learning by doing' is the reason The Diamond was built. Dedicated to engineering, this is where you’ll apply the theory you learn in lectures – consolidating your understanding alongside students from other disciplines, and beyond the bounds of the curriculum.

• Professional skills development - supported by a team of staff with industry experience, our programmes empower and support you to take responsibility for your own development and develop skills and attributes that prepare you for a future as a professional civil or structural engineer.