Study visits

Civil and structural engineering

Field trips, site visits, live projects, projects and competitions give you the opportunity to experience the real construction environment. They enable you to put theory into practice and gain invaluable knowledge. Below are examples of just a few of the recent trips students have been on.

Annual residential field course

Each year, first year civil engineering students attend a week-long residential field trip, along with students from BSc (Hons) Construction Management and BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology.

The trip allows students to put theory in practice, working in small project groups on exercises to develop their professional skills and to broaden their related experiences.

The students set out a series of simulated construction works, producing a topographic plan of the area, learning how to measure buildings, land and levels.

In addition to cultivating engineering surveying skills, the exercises emphasise teamwork and the development of management skills while also placing participants under a certain amount of project-pressure to complete the exercises in the allocated time. But it's not all work – table football and good food are all high on the agenda too!

The field trip is always a very positive experience and receives great feedback from students:

"The field trip was the highlight of my first year. It gave an excellent insight into the real-life scenarios faced within the field of surveying, as we were exposed to terrain and conditions which would not have been possible during normal practical sessions."

Alexander Lodge, BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering

See images of the trip in the Civil Engineering gallery.

Balfour Beatty get hands-on with NTU students

Civil Engineering students from NTU went on a site visit to a major development on the A46 managed by Balfour Beatty. This gave them the invaluable opportunity to see theory being put into practice.

They were able to inspect a pedestrian/cycle underpass that was under construction using essentially box culvert precast segments, have a look at the setting-out and construction of the main A46 alignment (drainage, formation level, base courses, blacktop and landscaping) as well as inspect one of the over-bridges (from above and below) – all with the opportunity to ask questions of various section engineers, site engineers, foremen and site managers. Balfour Beatty also provided a comprehensive presentation of the background, history and conduct of the project.

Take a look at photos of students on the site visit.

Building bridges with Interserve

First year students braved the autumn weather to take part in an activity day at the Clifton Campus.

The day was split into two sections; the first a team building session with ADDVenture which included everything from students trying to get themselves into alphabetical order whilst balancing on a beam four foot off the ground, to walking on a set of unruly "Social Skis”.

For the second part of the day Construction company Interserve supervised the students in groups of 12 in the second session as they followed plans to construct footbridges. With just a few hours to complete the task, the students raced against the clock to organise their teams and assemble a safe and stable structure.

Find out more about the bridge building day.

Anyone for cricket?

Second year Civil Engineering students had the opportunity to visit the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.

They were given a tour and examined recent construction developments. They found out about recent ground developments and the design and engineering of the new wing roof and stand.

"The visit to Trent Bridge Cricket Ground was a great opportunity for students to see what design means to clients and professions in an exciting and interesting area.”

Gavin Tunstall, Senior Lecturer

Uganda trip for Civil Engineers

BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering 2010 graduate Chris Chappell recently joined two final year Civil Engineering students, Leigh Weston and Pritesh Pitamber, on a trip to Uganda as part of Project Le Monde.

It was a great experience where they learnt about how a construction project is run in a developing country, got to see Sub Saharan Africa, meet local people and were immersed in the local culture.

They were involved in building two classrooms and an unplanned rainwater harvesting unit to collect rainwater from the roof to be used by the school.

Competitive engineering

Students are also encouraged to take part in international competitions, such as the Bouygues Construction challenge. Several NTU Civil Engineering students have recently taken part. They were split into multi-national teams and, using the experience they’ve learnt on their courses, given 24-hours to complete an onsite project. Our students were in the second and third prize-winning teams!

"Overall the competition was a really good experience. It taught me a lot about communicating with people and working to a tight deadline. Everyone was very easy to get on with and I enjoyed meeting new people and eating some excellent food!"

Sean McIntyre, BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering