About us

Welcome to UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Welcome to UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has been pursuing excellence and innovation in education and research since its foundation in 1949. We’re internationally ranked as the top school of our kind in Australia and one of the world’s top 20.

Our school offers over 14 undergraduate degrees, with one-third of our undergraduate students enrolled in double degrees. We’re committed to advancing a more prosperous, safe and just society. Our courses emphasise sustainability and consideration of engineering impacts, with an integrated and inter-connected view of the world. Our centres and discipline groups provide focal points for researchers to contribute to global efforts in innovative Civil, Environmental and Geospatial Engineering research.

Each year, we work with over 100 industry and government organisations on specific industry and community-related projects. The number and diversity of our academic staff and the breadth of our engagement with industry through our activities, allows us to bring tremendous expertise to our teaching.

Welcome from the Head of School

Welcome to UNSW Civil & Environmental Engineering, internationally ranked as the number one School of its kind in Australia, and one of the world’s top fifteen (AWRU & QS Rankings).

Our School has a tremendous pool of talent, and the sky is truly the limit in what we can achieve in teaching, research, community engagement and in making a significant and positive impact for Australia and the world.

We maintain a strong breadth and depth of knowledge in all core areas of civil and environmental engineering as well as surveying and geospatial engineering.

The quality and diversity of our academic staff, and our intensive engagement with industry, allows us to bring an unmatched level of expertise to our research and teaching. Our researchers continue to be awarded millions of dollars each year in industry and government funding.

UNSW Civil & Environmental Engineering has always been ambitious and visionary - at the forefront of innovative ’blue sky’ and applied research across the many facets of our very broad engineering field.

As well as our critical-mass research contribution to the global knowledge economy, we are very mindful of the important social impact we have as teachers and guides of the next generation of innovative, creative and ethical professionals.

We aim to have a positive use for the whole community, beyond any campuses, as we transfer and share our deep knowledge and expertise with our students, industry, government and society.

- Professor Nasser Khalili. Head, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW

Our history

From its humble yet visionary beginnings, our school has grown into one of the largest hubs of Civil and Environmental Engineering education and research in Australasia. We were the first school in the country to offer a postgraduate program with the Master of Technology degree in 1958, the first to design a BE Environmental Engineering degree in 1991 and the first to provide a BE Civil Engineering with Architecture in 2007.

Our high-achieving alumni now serve as leaders and innovators within industry, business and academia, and our research contribution is nationally and internationally recognised.

Rankings & reputation

The UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is internationally ranked as number one in Australia ( ARWU Rankings, QS World University Rankings, and US News Best Global Universities) and ranked in the world's top twenty! (ARWU & QS).

We are at the forefront of fundamental and applied research across Civil and Environmental Engineering with strengths in Infrastructure (CIES), Water (WRC&WRL), Transport (rCITI), Geospatial Engineering,Construction Innovationand Smart Infrastructure (RIIS). Our academic staff are recognised world leaders in their fields, supported by over 40 full-time researchers.

Our research centres and hubs work with more than 100 industry and government organisations each year and are regularly awarded ARC and other grants to pursue investigations into issues of national importance.

UNSW

Our research

We provide research training and a first-class research environment for over 120 higher degree research students enrolled in PhD or Masters by Research programs.

Our Research Management Committee (RMC) manages and supports research activities, including research undertaken by both the staff and the school’s postgraduate research students. The RMC is committed to improving the quality of all aspects of the postgraduate research degrees within the school.

The UNSW Learning Centre also offers a wide range of academic skills support. The school has a dedicated Postgraduate Research Coordinator to assist students with most administrative matters during their candidature.

Our people

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Civil & environmental engineering careers

Careers in civil & environmental engineering & surveying are diverse and in-demand across Australia.

School annual reports and newsletters

The Annual Report is a summary of the activities and achievements of our staff and students at the UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

News & events

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Contact us

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