By adopting a practical and application-oriented approach built on a solid scientific foundation, the Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering at the HafenCity University Hamburg provides students with the technical methods and expertise that will enable them to act independently and proactively in solving problems in the professional field of planning, construction, maintenance and administration in the context of a primary degree with professional qualifications.
The focus of the course is on acquiring a broad understanding of the basics in the natural sciences and construction. The degree also aims to promote the notion of a professional qualification that takes responsibility for social and environmental factors. The programme aims to produce graduates who are able to continuously adapt to meet the changing needs of the professional world, and who have the skills to evaluate the environmental and social consequences associated with the responsible execution of their job and the ability to familiarize themselves with new spheres of activity.
Students gain a thorough grounding in the technical, operational, economic and ecological requirements and in the legal framework concerning building measures in the fields of structural and civil engineering, traffic engineering and hydroscience as well as supply and waste disposal facilities. This also includes a basic understanding of the economical, environmentally aware and sparing use of building materials – and the ability to produce meticulous structural designs that guarantee the stability, fitness for purpose and durability of buildings.
The course prepares students for employment as consultant engineers in the construction industry, as planners of support structures, traffic systems, infrastructure and plants and as quantity surveyors, design engineers and construction supervisors, working as independent professionals or in engineering firms, construction firms and the public sector.
The application of the interdisciplinary mindset leverages the close links between the technical disciplines integrated within the HafenCity University Hamburg, thus providing a host of high-quality and innovative research and teaching options. In addition to the transdisciplinary studies, a range of new course options in the fields of building materials technology, structural design, structural planning and construction management are being integrated into the architecture and civil engineering degree programmes in an interdisciplinary manner. Content overlaps in the areas of traffic engineering and environmental planning will in future link into the field of urban planning. There is a close technical relationship to geomatics in the mathematical and scientific basics as well as in the area of surveying.
Aims
The aim here is not a large interdisciplinary lecture, which would have to be restricted to a minimum in terms of a common knowledge base, but rather a combination of subject-specific courses as well as common project-associated events, in which the co-operation of the different specialist disciplines becomes clear.
For this reason, the Bachelor in Civil Engineering (B. Eng.) at the HafenCity University Hamburg provides students with the knowledge to understand interdependencies and the capabilities to deal professionally with these. At the same time, a new structure ensures a streamlined, application-oriented course of study that is as short as possible.
The existing contacts with foreign universities and construction firms present opportunities for study trips and exchange programmes as well as the completion of degree theses abroad. In addition, civil engineering students who participate in exchange programmes outside of Germany receive special financial support from the Professor Dr. Egon Peter Foundation.
The new bachelor programme in civil engineering starting in 2009 will, taking into account the changed boundary conditions at the HCU Hamburg, replace the soon-to-be-discontinued courses developed at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (UAS degree (Diplom-FH) launched in 1999, Bachelor in Civil Engineering launched in 2004). Application orientation and practical relevance remain, however, the main objective of this degree programme, as a degree with professional qualifications can only be ensured for an engineering course within the minimum education period of six theoretical semesters in this form. Engineering placements, which lie at the end of the study period of many bachelor programme curricula and are for this reason not relevant for the theory-based course of study, were dispensed with. This phase is thus placed within the direct responsibility of the relevant sectors which employ the graduates, and it is thus much more target-oriented.
More emphasis is assigned to the following elements due to the omission of the engineer internship phase:
- pre-study work experience,
- laboratory placements,
- excursions, which are integrated into the courses
- restriction of the civil engineering basic principles to the scope required for a bachelor’s degree,
- that the lecturers have close contact with the building industry,
- assistant lecturers from the building industry,
- course projects and degree theses with practically oriented topics and in close co-operation with construction firms and engineering offices.
The degree course is characterised with these requirements through a practice- and application-oriented teaching approach. The new bachelor programme fulfils the legal requirements of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in the same way that the degree programmes being phased out did. The obligation to introduce the new degree programme is given in the articles of incorporation of the HCU Hamburg.
