Open days: Civil Engineering

We get feedback from students that the study is not difficult, if you follow recommendations, e.g. go to classes and do your assignments. This means you spend 40 hours a week on your studies. Civil Engineering is a technical study involving considerable teaching of the subjects mathematics B and physics. How difficult you will find the study is therefore largely dependent on how good you were in these subjects at HAVO, VWO or MBO. In addition, it is important that it interests you so you remain motivated during your studies.

Civil Engineering is available at many applied universities in the Netherlands. The course subjects on offer at the different applied universities are broadly the same. Civil Engineering at Saxion stands out thanks to its broad scope of specialisations. You cover a wide range of subjects in the first years of the programme including hydraulic engineering, traffic and roads, water management and constructions. In the third and fourth years you will have more opportunity to specialise in areas that interest you in a minor, an internship and a graduation assignment.

What we often hear from students is that they really appreciate the personal attention and ease of contact in our programme. We have a relatively small group of 40 to 50 students each year and every student is assigned a lecturer who personally supervises them throughout the programme. Students are welcome to visit the lecturers' room at any time if they have questions.

The number of women in Civil Engineering varies considerably from country to country. Did you know that in Portugal, 70% of civil engineering workers are women? Here in the Netherlands, the ratio is different and there are more men working in civil engineering: 25% are women. The number of female programme applicants varies from year to year. We are very eager to see an increase in the number of female students in the programme.

Civil engineering deals with all public infrastructure, such as tunnels, rivers, highways, bridges, aqueducts, locks, and dams. Nowadays, civil engineers are busy with major climate issues, such as rising sea levels, more extreme rainfall (floods), but also drought and sustainable design. Civil engineers are therefore working constantly to keep the Netherlands up and running. Civil engineers are also often involved in international projects, as many civil engineering problems are located abroad (e.g. floods, water shortages, metro tunnels in large cities). After all, the Netherlands is one of the best in the field of civil engineering.

Architecture and Construction Engineering focuses more on building structures and everything that comes with it, such as window frames, insulation materials and air currents. Civil engineers are less involved in how buildings are designed. However, civil engineers are often involved in the construction of large buildings, due to their technical and arithmetic specialisms. The Architecture and Construction Engineering programme is more concerned with design and has considerably less mathematics and physics than the Civil Engineering programme. For example, in Civil Engineering you learn the force theory of fluids (fluid mechanics). Architecture and Construction Engineering is more focused on drawing and 3D modelling in BIM.