Civil Engineering BSc (Hons) 2021/22 entry

• A key feature of this course allows BSc (Hons) students who demonstrate the required academic ability to transfer to the MEng or BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering courses (with a view to ultimately achieving Chartered Engineer status). Further details can be found on the course specification document.
• Expert visiting lecture programme (subject to availability) which in the past has featured the chairman of Geotechnics Ltd, Director of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure solutions, Technical Director form Arup, Project Engineer from Cowi, and Fellows of the ICE
• Access to the University’s Simulation Centre, our interactive people training and development centre. Its bespoke programmes, combined with cutting-edge technology which is unique in the UK, helps students, companies and organisations across a range of sectors in training and development. The use of the centre’s Learning Curve interactive screen and real-life scenarios using specially trained actors, not only improve skills but helps develop new ways of working by engaging our students in role play to develop their leadership and management skills. A control room in the Simulation Centre monitors the activity of students via cameras allowing staff to provide immediate feedback
• Current collaborative links with universities in 20 countries around the world, including Ryerson University Canada, Rennes University France, National University of Colombia and California State University, giving you the chance to spend part of your studies abroad. This opportunity is subject to additional costs, availability, competitive application and meeting visa requirements. (subject to change)

Teaching is highly practical; you will draw on real-life case studies, previously provided by companies such as Arcadis, CGL, Crossrail and Galliford Try. You will use industry-standard software as is widely used by design and consulting engineers. Your course will be taught using lectures, with associated tutorials, laboratory classes, practicals and studio sessions.

In addition, for first and second year you will be assigned an academic personal tutor who will meet you typically on a weekly basis during semester 1 for bespoke timetabled sessions and within the group project modules during semester 2. Tutors will provide pastoral support, help to ease the transition from school to university and monitor your progress. During semester 1 meetings, tutors will direct you towards resources and activities on a bespoke student portal page that aims to develop your academic and professional skills using a flipped learning approach (e.g. teamwork, BIM, communication, time management, academic writing and referencing and becoming professionally qualified). For year 3, the individual project supervisor assumes the role of academic personal tutor and meets you within bespoke timetabled sessions typically every 3 weeks (additional meetings deemed necessary are organised on an individual basis).

Some course content is delivered in a flipped approach whereby you could view online content (normally recorded videos) before the relevant session so that you have the opportunity to understand the basic concepts or tasks at hand beforehand. This approach is used within academic personal tutor sessions and partially within group project modules. It is also adopted in preparation for many of the laboratory and surveying practical sessions, mainly in years 1 and 2.

At appropriate stages of the course, we try to organise guest lectures from current practitioners (subject to availability), which have previously covered topics such as railway design and tunnelling. You will have the opportunity to participate in a residential field trip within the second year of the course, which typically takes place in Shrewsbury and focuses on land surveying skills. We also aim to organise construction site visits in the UK each year, with past students visiting various sites of Coventry University buildings, the site for the National College for High Speed Rail in Birmingham and the Birmingham University sports centre. The costs for UK field trips and site visits are included in the Flying-Start scheme.

The highly practical nature of the course enables you to work with staff on real-world problems from industry, commerce and research groups, mirroring the work you may do in professional practice. This means that while you are taught the technical content of your degree, these projects should develop the professional skills required including: problem assessment and resolution; project, task and time management; risk assessment; team work and leadership; technical report writing etc.

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will could vary depending upon the module. Assessment methods include online quizzes, calculation based assignments, report writing, surveying practicals, laboratory work, group project work, design assignments, computer aided drawing, case studies, research dissertation, simulation centre performance, presentations, tests and coursework. The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes.

Semester 1 is primarily devoted to delivery and assessment of underlying theory, with assessment typically by a 90 minute test. We are assessing this content in a controlled environment so that we can ensure each individual student can demonstrate their knowledge of the theory before they need to apply that theory in semester 2.

Within semester 2 of years 1 and 2, students take 40 credit civil engineering project modules where students apply the underlying theory that they have learnt in semester 1 (plus any additional theory delivered within semester 2). This is essentially an integrative assessment approach but where all the integrated assessment is confined to single 40 credit modules. These projects will be broken into phases whereby the relevant content for a particular phase is bulk delivered over a few weeks. The assessment will be by individual coursework portfolio with interim submissions at the end of each project phase (separate coursework components submitted typically every three weeks).

Formative assessments are generally scheduled earlier in the semester (as a progress check for students) or small bodies of work such as online quizzes scheduled throughout the semester. For summative assessments during semester 1, week 11 is devoted to revision for tests that are scheduled in weeks 12 and 13. Students can have up to six tests at a given year so tests are scheduled to ensure at least one day in between (this is the main reason that the course has tests rather than exams that are centrally scheduled within a single week). For summative assessments during semester 2, coursework submissions are scheduled to minimise bunching and where possible, a specific group of students will only have one assessment within a given week (see assessment schedule in section 6).

On successful completion, you will have:

• A broad based knowledge and understanding of the scientific principles and methods, relevant for an accredited Civil Engineering Degree course. This covers a mix of skills and knowledge, including fundamental topics such as Design, Sustainability, Health and Safety and Construction issues for the educational base of an Incorporated Civil Engineer.
• The ability to utilise these principles and methods, together with their knowledge of components and materials, for systematic and effective solution of real engineering problems, validated by simulation methods or by practical construction of models at conceptual and detailed levels.
• The ability to plan a suitable physical or computational experiment or a piece of research, to conduct, record and analyse it to appropriate degree of accuracy, within given time and resource constraints.
• Proficiency with the use of modern IT and computer technologies for planning, managing and executing appropriate engineering solutions and for communicating with clients and stakeholders, and to create and deliver good quality oral and written reports.
• The ability to work effectively and constructively as part of a team which may be multi-disciplinary or multi-cultural, to learn from reflecting on own performance and managing own personal development.
• A knowledge of the business context in which civil engineering and construction operates and of their professional and ethical responsibilities in ensuring sustainable development as practicing engineers.