History of Civil Engineering

To get to the beginning of the study Civil Engineering at the University of Twente, we have to go back in time to the late eighties. At that time, in 1985, a civil engineering track was added to the studies Public Administration (Bestuurskunde) and Business Administration (Bedrijfskunde).

Over time, it became apparent that a gap in the market had been found: the University of Delft delivered only die-hard civil engineers, the University of Eindhoven did not have this study, and the University of Twente ‘only’ trained Public and Business Administration students with some civil engineering knowledge. There was no university yet that trained engineers with knowledge of both the civil engineering solutions as well as the processes that lead to these solutions. This lead to the development of the study Civil Engineering & Management at the University of Twente in 1992. The University of Twente provided the right environment for this development with its special profile of both technical and social sciences.

At that moment, the University of Twente did not have enough expertise in the area of civil engineering. The field had to be built up from the ground. To do this, a department for Civil Engineering & Management was founded. At first, this department was part of the existing faculty of Business Administration, because of the close ties with this faculty. In 1994, Civil Engineering & Management established its own faculty, consisting of two tracks:

  • Civil System Technology & Management
  • Construction Technology & Management

In 1999, the Bologna Accord was signed by the Netherlands. As a result, the duration of the study was extended from four to five years and the study was split up into a Bachelor and a Master phase. The name of the study changed to Civil Engineering for the Bachelor phase, for the Master it remained Civil Engineering & Management. From this moment on, the faculty contained three departments:

  • Mobility, traffic and environment
  • Construction and infrastructure
  • Water management

The Bachelor phase takes three years, after which one can deepen their knowledge by following a Masters in one of the three disciplines:

  • Water Engineering & Management
  • Transport Engineering & Management
  • Construction Management & Engineering

Besides these different Master tracks, there is also the opportunity to follow a broadening Master track about design, modelling and business administration.

For some years, the Master is divided into two studies:

  • Civil Engineering and Management (CEM)
  • Construction Management and Engineering (CME), a 4TU study

These are seperate studies, but contain many free electives and thus opportunities to overlap.

Since 2017, the Bachelor phase transitioned to English. The purpose of this change was to attract more international students. As a result, the different modules in the Bachelor have gradually become more internationally orientated in the years afer.