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Published: 15 July 2025

Five reasons to study civil engineering at Surrey

What makes our civil engineering degrees different and what’s the secret behind our graduates’ success? Here we reveal five reasons why you should choose the University of Surrey for your civil engineering degree.

1. Unique Surrey/ICE scholarship scheme

Supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), our scholarship scheme is the only one of its kind in the UK. Under the scheme, you’ll be matched with a leading civil engineering company, and benefit from £1,950 a year (for 2025 entry) and 16-month salaried work throughout your course.

2. Great employment prospects

Our degrees open up a huge range of career opportunities with major engineering consultancies and contractors. We have superb graduate employability with 100 per cent of our undergraduates going on to employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2024, HESA).

Our recent graduates work for companies such as:

  • AtkinsRéalis
  • GDG Partnership
  • BAM Nuttall
  • Mott MacDonald
  • Octavius
  • Tony Gee
  • Waterman
  • WSP

Our courses are fully accredited which means you'll be well on the way towards chartered status after studying at Surrey. (Our MEng courses fully meet the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer while our BEng courses require further study.)

Read about Surrey alumna Irosha Gunatunga's career at BAM Nuttall Ltd.

3. Fantastic work placement opportunities

Surrey won Best University Careers/Employability Service in the UK in 2022. On our renowned Professional Training placement programme you can gain a year’s valuable work experience with a company such as:

  • AtkinsRéalis
  • Bachy Soletanche
  • Balfour Beatty
  • Costain
  • Hewson.

4. Surrey civil engineers build a better world

You won’t just study the core topics you need to become a successful civil engineer at Surrey. We're home to internationally-leading research which is changing people's lives around the world, and this work informs our teaching. For example:

5. Award-winning maths support

Maths skills are crucial to studying civil engineering at degree level, and at Surrey we help to bridge the gap between school and University. Before you even arrive at the University you’ll be given learning resources and a diagnostic quiz that will help you identify any topic areas you need to work on.

As a first year student you can attend maths ‘bootcamps’ alongside your modules where you’ll apply mathematical concepts to solve real-world problems, as well as making use of our Maths and Statistics Advice (MASA) service.

Our maths support programme also supports Foundation Year students and recently won a prestigious award.

Learn more about our undergraduate courses in civil and environmental engineering.

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