Undergraduate Study (body)

First year students are split into 12 different groups. Each group has its own timetable. This allows for small group teaching in labs and other classes.

The timetable is printed as a list of events. It is NOT in chronological order.
Students are obliged to purchase an academic year diary so that they can transcribe their timetable into the diary. Week 1 of term is the first week when you register at university. Number your academic year diary from weeks 1-33 continuously and then transcribe the events from your timetable into the appropriate day, week and time. Make a note of rooms, especially one-off room changes.

Changes to the timetable are placed on the noticeboard outside room 301. Students must look at the noticeboard frequently so that they see any changes. These are also normally sent by email.

Talk to your Personal Tutor , Fionnuala Donovan (General Office), or Mr. Colin Kerr (Room 440A), if you have serious difficulties with the timetable, but persevere: it is not as complicated as it looks.

The MEng programme in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering comprises four courses in which the first two years of study are common, apart from the essential language study for the Year Abroad (Europe) courses. Each of the four courses is characterised by the choice of options which students make in the third and fourth years.

For the Year Abroad courses, it is the fourth (and final) year that constitutes the study-abroad element. Each student, in concert with the Year Abroad Coordinator, must make a study plan from the courses available at the host institution. The plan must include a substantial project, and the studies must be assessed by an appropriate mixture of written and oral examinations and coursework. All courses of study abroad must have the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

The objective of the undergraduate course in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College is:

Accordingly, the educational objectives of the undergraduate course may be summarised in the following manner:

Registration for entry to the MEng course in Civil Engineering, or Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a Year Abroad is normally achieved through the UCAS application procedure. However, it may be possible for a student to transfer onto the year abroad course up to the end of the second year of study, with the approval of the Year Abroad Coordinator, Academic Year Coordinator and DUGS, provided that the student satisfies any language and/or academic requirements.

Language Study
If you are registered for a Year Abroad (in Europe) course, your programme of studies for the first two years will be identical to that of all MEng students in the department, except in respect of language studies. Instead of being offered a choice between a humanities subject or language studies, you must select the language course appropriate for your placement; furthermore, your language course tutor will determine the level of your course from your current proficiency.

Review of Registration
If all goes well with your studies, you will be able to spend the fourth year of your MEng course at one of our sister institutions in continental Europe or Australia. There, you will be required to take the same written and oral examinations, and perform the same coursework, as final year students of the host institution; and you will find the academic content and level of the studies to be comparable to that at Imperial College. Many, perhaps most, of the academic staff work part-time in the university, and the amount of academic and personal tutoring is normally very small. Successful continental students are therefore mature, self-reliant, resourceful and are able to learn independently.

Only academically able students survive in, and benefit from, this educational environment. Therefore only academically able students are considered suitable for admission to the host institution by its academic officers. Your registration for the course will be reviewed at the end of the second and third years. To meet the academic requirement, you must reach the level of at least 60% in the Part II and Part III Examinations, and preferably in the Part I Examination as well. Furthermore, your language tutor will be required to provide a written testimonial of your ability to follow the final year course in a foreign language (Europe) . You are also expected to attend an intensive language course either immediately before, or during the entire year of studies at your host institution.

With these requirements, we have been able to ensure that practically all the students we have sent abroad have obtained final grades equal to or higher than those they were expected to obtain after their first three years of study. If you do not meet the above requirements, your registration will be transferred to the corresponding MEng programme which operates entirely at Imperial College.

Admission to Host Institution
At the end of the Spring Term in the third year, you will need to make a formal application to be admitted to one of the approved host institutions. Currently these are:

You will be given the appropriate admission form to complete and you will be required to produce an up-to-date examination transcript of your MEng studies (available from the Registry, by email to the Assistant Registrar (Student Records). Your Personal Tutor will be required to provide confidential testimonials in support of your application, including Language Studies, where pertinent. As always, the academic officers of the host institution will wish to fill the available places with the best students; they will therefore reserve the right to reject any application in the competition for places.

Final Year Course of Studies
Upon admission to the host institution, you will compile a study plan. This will comprise a free choice of the subjects offered at the senior level of the relevant civil engineering diploma course, and will imply a workload similar to, but not greater than, that of the corresponding Fourth Year course at Imperial.

In compiling the study plan, you should choose subjects that allow you to develop an in-depth specialist study of one or two civil engineering disciplines and to relate your study to professional practice. You will receive help from the host tutors in making your choice of subjects, particularly insofar as prerequisite studies and mathematical level are concerned, but your study plan is subject to the approval of the Year Abroad Co-ordinator and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Imperial College.

An end-of-studies project is an essential feature of the MEng course, as it is of most continental engineering diplomas. Your project may be organized as an intensive study - for example, over three months at the end of the year - or it may be conducted throughout the year, in concert with your other studies. Provided that it has clear educational objectives and academic supervision, it may be performed in collaboration with industry or in a research institute. In whatever setting, it should represent a substantial piece of work, amounting to some 200 hours of effective effort and affirming your ability to use engineering knowledge and to exercise sound judgement.

To satisfy the Board of Examiners in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and to complete the requirements for the degrees of :

Civil Engineering with a Year Abroad, and
Civil and Environmental Engineering with a Year Abroad
you are required to present yourself at Imperial on a date in early September (to be specified by the Year Abroad Coordinator) for interview.

Dr. C.J. Onof, Year Abroad Coordinator
Professor H.S. Wheater, Chairman of the Board of Examiners in Civil & Env. Engg.
Dr. M.H. de Freitas, Department Examinations Officer
Professor D. Butler, Director of Undergraduate Studies
A member of staff from our Languages Programme

You will be expected to make a short presentation on your end-of-studies project, which you must bring with you, followed by a question and answer session.

Failure to attend at this session may result in a delay of up to one year in the approval of your degree.

An Imperial College booklet, Learning to Learn, will be given to Freshers as part of their Engineering Knowledge course in first term. It covers learning for yourself, skills development, assessment/evaluation and support structures

Each lecturer will have their own individual style and may draw on different teaching methods in a single class, but timetables categorise classes as a Lecture, Tutorial, Laboratory practical and Field trip. Each is summarised below with a brief note of the other teaching methods that might be "hidden" behind these generic labels. At university, it is the student who has the responsibility to learn: lecturers teach on the assumption that students will work at learning the topic.

Lectures
- taught by the academic staff to an entire class in 50 minute slots
- introduces new information. Students usually take notes or "actively listen"/interact.
- can involve preliminary reading, written handouts or web-based notes
- coursework is often assigned/discussed in lectures
- may be interactive sessions e.g. "studio" in Creative Design or "workshop" in Engineering Knowledge.

Tutorials
- may be supervised by academics, research staff* or postgraduates*
*to assist in giving tutorials, research staff and postgraduates must have completed the Department's Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants
- small groups working on worksheets or discussion of problems in 50 minute slots
- to revise material already covered in lectures
- may be assessed (hand in worksheets for marking)
- students are expected to make use of tutorials to review their own progress through tutorials and identify difficulties. Examinations are set under the assumption that students have attended and participated in tutorials.

Lab classes
- may be taught by academic staff or post-graduate/research demonstrators (Graduate Teaching Assistants)
- small groups, often involves teamwork amongst student sub-groups
- often assessed by lab reports or computer assignments
- usually intended to demonstrate/apply theories covered in lectures
- work on practical/communication/teamwork skills and lets students get a "feel" for a topic
- usually timetabled in slots of 2 or 3 hours

Field trips
These are a compulsory and integral part of the undergraduate course. Putting theory into practice. They are also meant to engender team-building and working, establishing leadership, and awareness of safety.

Field trips are normally a good way for students to get to know their peers on a more personal level, outside of the normal routine of lectures and tutorials. Staff are on site in a supervisory and advisory capacity, and students are expected to behave in an adult and responsible manner.

Other methods
Despite the timetable labels, the teaching methods used might include:
- talks with whiteboard notes, overhead transparencies, slides, posters or video.
- student-led classes where students present their own research and lead a discussion
- role-play classes: where students take on the role of engineers/clients/lawyers etc in order to see many different points of view and explore for themselves the real-life issues that can arise.
- problem based learning: students may be allocated a problem which they research during the time allocated for "lectures". This often involves small teams and collaboration. Academics might function as consultants instead of giving traditional classroom talks.
- case studies: students will investigate a true-life case. Lectures might involve student presentations or be allocated to library research or consultations with lecturers. Or a lecturer might present a case-study as an illustrated lecture.
- workshops: these may involve hands-on design or writing exercises, with discussion and feedback given during the class. The emphasis on practical work may be more evident but blended with theory and conceptual ideas.
- projects: students are allocated a project and a supervisor. Projects may involve team work or individual work.

Throughout the MEng degree course, you will observe that care is taken to integrate knowledge of theoretical fundamentals with the skills and judgement acquired from controlled practical experience. For some subjects, the appropriate educational experience may be had from laboratory work, or even from computer simulation; but for others, the only really effective vehicle for integrating theory and practice is the field course.

During the first year, there are two field courses - in Geotechnics and Surveying - and, in the second year, the Geology field course takes place. To be awarded the MEng degree, you must have attended all field courses and performed to the satisfaction of the field course leaders. No exceptions are made. Unsatisfactory performance or behaviour will result in your being required to repeat the field course in the next academic year.

Field courses, especially residential ones, are invariably enjoyed by students. They provide opportunities for team-building, group-working and the consolidation of friendships, in addition to the pleasure of working outdoors. However, when groups of undergraduates have the opportunity to fraternise outside the College, and when there is also a ready supply of alcohol, there is a risk that the immature or injudicious will behave in a manner likely to reflect badly upon the name of Imperial College. All damage arising from such incidents will be paid for by the students involved; and they may also be required to take the field course again during the next academic year.

Surveying Field Course
Dr. W. Y. Ochieng
For first year Civil and Environmental Engineering undergraduates, the Spring Term is extended by one week to twelve weeks so as to include compulsory attendance at the Surveying Field Course. The Registrar automatically notifies Local Education authorities (LEA) of this variation of term dates so that students who are eligible for a maintenance award will continue to receive the usual subsistance allowance during attendance at the Field Course. The field course is normally held at the College Field Station at Silwood Park, near Ascot, over a period of six days. The precise dates of the course will be notified to you during the Autumn Term. The field course is compulsory, hence you should not make arrangements for the Easter Vacation until you have taken account of your need to attend. The course is residential: all students will be provided with ccommodation at Silwood Park and they must remain at the Field Station until the course is completed. Transport by coach between South Kensington and Silwood Park will be provided free; but the cost of accommodation and subsistence, which students are expected to bear, is under £200 (this must be paid). The course concerns the setting out of a new road. Students work in small teams on traversing, levelling, a simple GPS survey, detail surveying by radiation techniques, plan compilation, environmental appraisal, alignment design, setting out and determination of quantity of earthworks. The submissions from the course contribute to the coursework assessment for CE112 Surveying. Dates for any particular year are given in the syllabus for CE112.

Geotechnics Field Course
Dr. M.R. Coop
This is a one-day field course for first year students, held at Folkestone during the Spring Term, as indicated in the Year 1 timetable. The field course relates directly to the ideas explored in CE106 Geotechnics. There is no charge to students and transport is provided, as are hard hats, which must be worn for reasons of safety.

Geology Field Course
Mr. M.C. Callow
For second year Civil Engineering undergraduates also, the Spring Term is extended by one week to twelve weeks to establish the Geology field course as an integral and essential part of the second year course CE203 Geotechnics. The field course will be held over seven days during the Easter Vacation, normally in the Mendip Hills of Somerset or the Yorkshire Dales. The class will be divided into four or five groups, each of which will be assigned to a possibly different location and on dates determined by the availability of hotel or hostel accommodation. Instructions about appropriate clothing and safety measures will be given, together with available dates, during the Autumn Term. The cost of travelling and accommodation, which the student is expected to bear, is of the order of £250. Following the field course, students are expected to spend the equivalent of two to three days preparing the field report and compiling their mapping work. Together with their individual field notebooks, these three items are used as the basis for the coursework assessment for CE203 Geotechnics.

Term Reports

One of your responsibilities is to submit two Term Reports each academic year, which we require for the following purposes:

The Autumn Term Report is due in the first week of the Spring Term
The Spring Term Report is due in the first week of the Summer Term

You should copy the file to your own account and fill it in as the term progresses. You are very strongly encouraged to fill the forms using a Word processor rather than by hand.

You are required to meet with your Personal Tutor and discuss the completed form before you and your tutor both sign a hard copy before submitting it to Anna Hikel in the same way you submit coursework. Please submit only hard copy of the report - do not submit them electronically.

Autumn Term Reports	Spring Term Reports
Year 1 : Year 2 : Year 3 : Year 4	Year 1 : Year 2 : Year 3 : Year 4

To be awarded the degree for which you have been registered, you are required by regulations:

(a) to have completed to the satisfaction of the College authorities the course of study prescribed for that degree, and
(b) to have been examined in all parts of the courses prescribed for that degree and to have shown a competent knowledge in the examinations as a whole.

To comply with (a) you must attend formal classes to the satisfaction of the Head of Department and demonstrate satisfactory academic progress. From time to time, for good reasons, it may be necessary for you to miss a class; but your habitual absence from any particular lecture, tutorial or laboratory class will not be considered satisfactory. For the Geology and Surveying field courses, your attendance is mandatory; if, because of illness or other good reason, you are unable to attend, you will be assigned to the field course for the next academic year.

In addition to satisfactory attendance, you must be able to demonstrate satisfactory progress throughout each year in your academic development. To "coast" through the year with little input of work will not be considered satisfactory, whether or not you would have been able to pass the end of session examinations. For an engineer in training, such behaviour is unprofessional and potentially embarrassing for you when your prospective employer asks for references from your Personal Tutors.

The examination system provides for continuous assessment by means of coursework and for a further assessment, usually at the end of the academic year, through written examinations. Your performance in coursework will therefore enable your tutors to monitor to some extent your academic progress.

In addition, you will be set progress tests, in the first week of the spring term, in certain subjects.

The aims of these tests are to give you and your teachers a measure of your success in coping with the course, to give you practice in revising for and sitting written papers and to give early warning in individual cases where a student's habits of work are not proving suitable for the ends in view.

If the results of these tests suggest that you are falling behind in your studies, you will be given a warning and will be tested again later in the term. If your performance in the second series of tests is still unsatisfactory, investigations will be set in train which could lead to your being required to terminate your studies and to withdraw from the College.

Our Medical Doctors are trying to reduce the time given over to examining students and issuing medical certificates. They are happy to issue certificates when an illness threatens any activity leading directly to assessment for a degree. For illness of less than one week's duration, and with only minor consequences, certificates are not necessary; nonetheless, if you have been ill you should inform both your Personal Tutor and the Undergraduate Office.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDY