A young male university student in a hard hat and high-visibility vest holding structural drawings while observing a concrete and steel bridge under construction over a river, with cranes and surveying equipment nearby, representing the infrastructure design focus of Civil Engineering degrees

DEGREE GUIDE

Civil Engineering

What do Civil Engineering degrees involve?

Civil Engineering degrees teach you how to plan, design, and deliver infrastructure that society relies on, from roads, rail and bridges to water supply, flood defences, and sustainable buildings. You will explore key areas such as structural and geotechnical engineering, materials and construction methods, transport engineering, water and environmental engineering, surveying, and project management. These courses help you develop strong problem-solving, mathematical, and analytical skills while learning to use industry tools like CAD/BIM, modelling and surveying equipment. You’ll also gain hands-on experience through labs, surveying camps, site visits, and real-world design projects that emphasise safety, sustainability, and whole-life performance. Many programmes offer group projects with industry input and the option of a placement year. With this mix of theory and practical experience, you’ll graduate ready for roles in consultancy, contracting, local and national infrastructure delivery, and specialist areas such as structural, geotechnical, transport, or water engineering.

Example
Modules

Structural Mechanics: Study how forces affect materials and structures, learning to calculate stresses, strains and deformations in beams, columns and frameworks.

Construction Materials: Explore properties of concrete, steel, timber and composites, and how they’re tested, selected and applied in different types of infrastructure.

Engineering Drawing and CAD: Develop skills in technical drawing and computer-aided design (CAD) used to communicate civil engineering concepts clearly and accurately.

Common Degree Names

💼 Placement years are very common in construction, infrastructure, or environmental engineering sectors.
🌍 Study abroad is offered at several institutions through global engineering exchanges or international projects.

BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
MEng Civil Engineering
BEng (Hons) Civil and Structural Engineering
BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering
BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering

Civil Engineering is typically a BEng degree, with BSc offered at some universities. MEng is a four-year integrated Master’s degree that combines undergraduate and Master’s level study in one course.

A laptop displaying a colour-coded BIM stress analysis model of a bridge alongside a structural mechanics textbook, concrete test cylinder, soil samples, steel reinforcement bar, field notebook with calculations and road foundation drawings, illustrating the structural design and materials testing skills developed in Civil Engineering degrees

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Civil Engineering is about designing and building the infrastructure that shapes our world – bridges, buildings, roads, and water systems. The degree is mathematically demanding, so universities look for strong quantitative skills.

You'll need:

Maths – essential for all Civil Engineering courses
Physics – essential or strongly preferred

Subjects that would strengthen your application:

Further Maths (or IB AA HL) – encouraged by some courses if it is available at your school
Design & Technology, Computer Science or Geography – useful for CAD, materials, or surveying

✨ Maths and Physics together keeps the widest range of engineering courses open for you. Further Maths can strengthen your application but isn't essential.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Engineering or Construction (being phased out), usually alongside A-level Maths
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside A-levels that meet the subject requirements above
T-Levels in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction, or Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing with strong maths skills, A-Level Maths may be needed at more competitive universities
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with Maths and ideally Physics at Higher Level among your IB subjects (minimum two, ideally three), alongside your Career-Related Study; an Engineering pathway would be directly relevant

Entry expectations, especially around Maths, Physics and Further Maths, vary by university, so always check the specific subjects and entry criteria on each university’s website.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses ask for:

GCSE English Language, Maths and Science at grade 4/C or above, or equivalents such as National 5s or MYP

📘 A strong Maths background is important, as Civil Engineering involves mechanics, structures, and data analysis.

💬 Interviews

Formal interviews aren't usually part of the application process. However, some universities may invite you for a short conversation, either online or in person, to learn more about your interest in the subject.

📝 Admissions Tests

Most courses don't require a test, but if you're applying to Imperial, you'll need to sit the ESAT (Engineering and Science Admissions Test). It covers Maths and Physics to assess your readiness for the course.

🔍 Work Experience

Not required, but any exposure to construction, engineering, or infrastructure projects can help. This might include site visits, work experience with an engineering firm, building or making things yourself, or even noticing how roads, bridges, and buildings are constructed in your local area. You don't need formal placements; what matters is showing curiosity about how things are built and why.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What draws you to civil engineering specifically? Whether it's bridges, tunnels, flood defences, sustainable buildings, or transport networks, being specific shows you've thought about what this field actually involves. Civil engineering shapes how people live, work, and travel - if you've noticed infrastructure in your local area, visited construction sites, or thought about how cities handle challenges like flooding or traffic, reflect on what you observed and what questions it raised. Showing awareness of current issues like climate resilience and sustainable materials tells admissions tutors you're thinking seriously about the field's future

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Year in Engineering or Science

Many universities offer an engineering foundation year if you don't have the required Maths and Physics grades. This adds an extra year but leads directly into the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Engineering or Science)

Accepted by many universities. Make sure your course includes strong maths and physics content, and aim for Distinctions in your graded units — engineering courses typically expect high results.

💼 Level 3 Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships such as Civil Engineering Technician or Construction Design and Build Technician carry UCAS tariff points from 2026 and can support a university application, particularly when combined with a foundation year.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Civil Engineering degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Machines, Structures & How Things Are Engineered: Civil Engineering centres on how large physical things stay up and work safely. You'll study how bridges resist loads, how foundations behave in different soils, how water moves through pipes and rivers, and how roads are designed to last.

The Environment & Sustainability: Climate resilience and sustainable infrastructure run through the modern Civil Engineering degree. You'll look at flood defences, low-carbon construction materials, and how roads, buildings, and drainage systems are designed to cope with a changing climate.

Students who thrive in a Civil Engineering degree are often motivated by

Precision and Thoroughness

You feel satisfied when work is done accurately and completely. Whether it's getting calculations exactly right, spotting errors others miss, or making sure every detail is correct, the pursuit of precision gives you a sense of accomplishment. Sloppy or "good enough" work frustrates you, and you take pride in getting things right first time.

Intellectual Challenge

You're energised by pushing your mind to its limits, tackling difficult questions, and wrestling with problems that don't have easy answers. You're drawn to work that requires deep concentration and rigorous thinking. The harder the problem, the more satisfying it feels to work through it, and you'd rather be stretched than comfortable. Easy work bores you rather than relaxing you.

Sustainability and Environmental Care

You're energised by work that makes things better for the planet: developing green technology, reducing waste, protecting ecosystems, restoring habitats, or helping people and organisations shift to more sustainable ways of living. You feel most engaged when your effort is doing something measurable about environmental problems, not just thinking or caring about them. Seeing a real-world result, whether that's cleaner energy, less waste, or an ecosystem that recovers, is what carries you through the harder parts of the work.

Practical Problem-Solving

You're energised by finding fixes to real-life issues, whether they're mechanical, technological, or social. You're motivated by problems you can see, touch, or experience directly, and you get satisfaction from solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. You'd rather build a prototype than write a report about one.

Analysing and Investigating

You're energised by making sense of information, looking for evidence, spotting patterns, and piecing together how things connect. Whether it's pulling apart data, questioning assumptions, or tracing a problem back to its source, you find energy in the process of understanding what's really going on. You'd rather dig into the details than accept things at face value.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

What makes Civil Engineering click for the students who love it?

The bridges, flood defences and railways everyone relies on all had to be designed and built by someone, and they want to be that someone. Civil Engineering runs on the rigour of structural analysis and geotechnics, the design of things that have to stand up for decades, and the problem-solving of getting them built. Lives depend on the numbers being right, which focuses the mind. What sets Civil apart is the environmental side: many want their work to push back against climate change and leave a place better than they found it.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy working out how to build things that are strong, safe, and practical — not just impressive on paper but actually deliverable?
Do you like the idea of being involved in real, physical projects, like bridges, roads, buildings, that you can point to and say, "I helped make that happen"?
Do you find yourself naturally thinking about how to organise something complicated — breaking a big task into stages and making sure everything fits together?
Do you enjoy working with maths and science as tools for solving real-world problems, not just as abstract subjects?

Careers a Civil Engineering degree could lead you to

Civil Engineering

What do Civil Engineering degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers a Civil Engineering degree could lead you to

Example
Modules