Civil Engineering addresses key challenges associated with infrastructure. There is a global shortage of qualified civil engineers, especially at the graduate/junior engineer career stage. This shortage is expected to increase significantly when the current economic crisis ends. This MSc will help redress this imbalance, providing graduates with an advanced knowledge and skills base, with particular strengths in aspects of water engineering. Problems associated with water resources, access, distribution and quality have been identified as being amongst the most important global issues for the coming fifty years by a variety of bodies including the United Nations, World Bank and ICE. These problems reflect growing populations, raised expectations and the impact of climate change. Water quality issues and water scarcity are increasingly becoming a major issue due to increasing population, economic growth and climate change. Recent figures indicate that 1.1 billion people, worldwide, do not have access to clean drinking water, while 2.6 billion do not have adequate sanitation (WHO/UNICEF 2005). Currently we are mid-way through the UN’s 'Water for Life' International Decade, with a Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to adequate water infrastructure by 2015. Although significant progress has been achieved, continued improvement towards the target, and maintaining new and existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure requires a much greater pool of qualified engineers than is currently available. Even in developed countries, water resources are under significant pressure as a result of demand for increasing volumes of clean water, with a growing usage of unsustainable sources. Episodes when there is too much water also present an increasing challenge. Major flood events, such as the 2010 floods in Pakistan, directly affect millions. Water-related risks, including fluvial, pluvial and coastal flooding, drought, and groundwater changes are being given an increasingly high priority by local, regional and national governments. Current budgetary pressures mean that solutions have to be appropriate, efficient and innovative. The Worshipful Company of Water Conservators bursary is available for students on this course. Special note for the academic year 2014/15 only: £8,000 will be available in the Water bursary fund for awarding to one or more successful students. There shall also be an equipment allowance of £2,000 to fund student project work and to allow travel to relevant international conference events to disseminate this work. Read about the Water Engineering Team. What do our Students think about this Course? View Student Profiles. The Women in Engineering Scholarship is available for students on this course. Aims This course is designed for both recent graduates and more experienced engineers who wish to update and enhance their knowledge and understanding. Our MSc is unique in providing specialist knowledge on the critical sub-topics of desalination systems, building water services engineering, industrial waste water management, and water in health care. The programme will demonstrate the links between theory and practice by including input from our industrial partners and through site visits. Generic modules in financial and project management will underpin specialist modules focusing on Water Engineering topics. Students’ skills in gathering and understanding complex information from a variety of sources (including engineering, scientific and socio-economic information) will be developed in an advanced research methods module. Issues relating to risk and health and safety will be introduced in the research methods module and built on in the more specialist modules.

This course allow practitioners in relevant technical and engineering based subject areas to both broaden their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of water engineering (which they may not be quite familiar with), and also to specialise further in this discipline. It also allows practising water engineers to build upon both the basic and advanced theory that underpins their discipline. It is anticipated that since this course is geared for UK and overseas water engineering practitioners, it will enhance all participants’ career prospects. In terms of the UK, participants would be attracted to the type of work carried out by specialist water and environmental consultants, government agencies, drainage boards of local authorities, and large scale civil engineering firms working in this field. In terms of the overseas participants, it would enhance their skills base to work with international construction companies with specialist divisions in the water and environmental field, large local civil engineering firms, and also with their own domestic water utility set-ups. At Brunel we provide many opportunities and experiences within your degree programme and beyond – work-based learning, professional support services, volunteering, mentoring, sports, arts, clubs, societies, and much, much more – and we encourage you to make the most of them, so that you can make the most of yourself. » More about Employability