School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment

We help students achieve their potential

Our School is a vibrant community that welcomes bright individuals and creative thinkers. As a student, you’ll be guided to academic and professional success by our practical, accredited courses and high-calibre academic staff.

The School also has an impressive research portfolio, strong partnerships with industry leaders and first-rate facilities.

All of our programmes both at undergraduate and postgraduate level have exceptional employability rates.

We also have a large group of post graduate research students undertaking research projects across a wide range of subjects that are closely aligned to the research expertise of our academic staff.

In addition to our home programmes, we currently validate and manage a number of programmes with international partners based in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Qatar and Singapore. Working with these partners has enabled us internationalise our home programmes and we run a number of visits to these countries each year for students that wish to participate.

Together, these elements cement our reputation as an internationally recognised Civil Engineering and Built Environment School.

The future is what you make it

Our specialities and research

Built Environment

The Built Environment department undertakes research into numerous areas, including:

• Property
• Quantity surveying
• Building services engineering
• Architectural technology
• Architectural engineering
• Building surveying
• Facilities management
• Construction management

We host the Annual International Conference on Asphalt, Pavement Engineering and Infrastructure, the Efficiency Improvement in Water and Wastewater Treatment Conference, the International Conference on Sensing Technology and the Annual BEAN (Built Environment and Natural Environment) Research Student Conference.

Through the Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory and the Low Carbon Lancashire Innovation Project, we work with local organisations to create innovative low carbon goods, processes and services to bring about economic and environmental benefits to businesses and the wider community.

Thanks to our international collaborations, several of our programmes allow students to either take placements overseas or study abroad. Our curriculum also benefits from our excellent relationships with local, national and international employers. These links support teaching, provide placement and work-shadowing opportunities and enable our students to gain industry knowledge through site visits and guest speaker sessions. Our programmes also carry full professional body accreditation, which, alongside our industry collaborations and overseas partners, boost our graduates’ employability.

Civil Engineering

Research is conducted in a range of topics relating to civil engineering, including:

• Pavement design and pavement engineering
• Wastewater treatment, water resources, water conservation, tank failure mitigation
• Structural behaviour of buildings
• Materials technology design and performance
• Mitigation against catastrophic tanks failure
• Sensors and their role within civil engineering design and analysis
• Safety and life cycle analysis of highway infrastructure

The research we conduct has wide-reaching impact and the results are felt across the world, from improving aquatic life in Libya to investigating the use of waste slate aggregates in concrete within Wales. To ensure we continue to produce leading research within our specialist areas, we collaborate with a variety of companies, including Colas, United Utilities, Balfour Beatty and Hydro International. Students are encouraged to get involved with this research and all undergraduate and postgraduate students will undertake their own research projects.

Read about our research