A week in the life of an MSc Civil Engineering student
From lectures with acclaimed experts to laboratory-based practicals, discover what a typical week looks like as an MSc Civil Engineering student at Surrey.

How you'll learn
Our well-established and fully accredited Civil Engineering MSc will equip you with exceptional analytical and technical skills across a range of industry-related disciplines.
Fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, our MSc puts emphasis on sustainability and resilience-based infrastructure design and assessment.
You’ll learn through a combination of:
- Group work
- Laboratory-based practical's
- Lectures
- Online learning
- Seminars
- Tutorials.
Outside of these, you’ll be expected to carry out independent study and learning, including working on your course work, essays and reading.
We’ve also introduced hybrid learning, a mix of online and face-to-face sessions, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A typical week
You'll receive approximately 31 contact hours each week.
Monday
- 10am - 12 noon: Applied Chemistry and Microbiology – Lab Workshop
- 1pm - 3pm: Spatial Structures – Lecture
- 3pm - 6pm: Water Treatment – Lecture
Tuesday
- 10am -12 noon: Structural Mechanics and Finite Elements – Lecture
- 1pm - 3pm: Spatial Structures – Lecture
- 3pm - 6pm: Waste Water Treatment and Sewerage – Lecture
Wednesday
- 9am - 12 noon – Steel Building Design – Lecture
Please note, Wednesday afternoons are left free for sporting and other University society activities.
Thursday
- 9am - 12 noon: Pre-Stressed Steel Bridge Design – Lecture
- 1pm - 3pm: Advanced Soil Mechanics – Lecture
- 3pm - 6pm: Infrastructure Investment and Financing – Lecture
Friday
- 9am - 12 noon: Construction Management, Administration and Law – Lecture
- 3pm - 6pm: Energy Geotechnics – Lecture
Find out more about postgraduate study in our Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Disclaimer: The timetable and modules listed are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication and may be subject to teaching availability, student demand and/or class size caps. Given the changing nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, our hybrid learning model is under continuous review. See the latest information on all changes.