The course in brief
The Second-Cycle Degree Course in Civil Engineering specifically aims to train professionals specialised in the field of design, construction, maintenance and management of civil structures and infrastructures serving the city and the territory. To this end, it provides in-depth training in the core disciplines and established traditions of civil engineering.
Graduates in the L-7 class are fully qualified for the course; graduates from other first-cycle degrees must have achieved predetermined numbers of credits in 4 groups of subject areas (see course regulations for details).
During the two-year course, two distinct and complementary learning objectives are pursued in addition to those intrinsic to the class: to consolidate in the student a sufficiently articulate and in-depth knowledge and vision of the fields characterising civil engineering thanks to a solid generalist education; to focus specialisation in a specific field of the student's choice. The course promotes the ability to combine technical-scientific knowledge with economic-management aspects, stimulating in students an engineering-based approach to problem solving. It also helps students develop so-called transversal skills, in particular the ability to make choices independently but also to relate and collaborate within a work group.
Given the interdisciplinary training and the breadth of topics covered by the civil engineer, the course is based on a first year with training activities involving all the main characterising disciplines, while in the second year the student is directed towards one of the four specific fields of civil engineering: construction, hydraulics, infrastructure, structural engineering; or they can identify an individual programme of study to be structured by choosing courses within the four curricula. They then have a wide choice of courses within which to deepen their preparation. In addition, 6 ECTS credits are foreseen for laboratory activities or internships in studios and companies, in order to foster contact with the world of work. The dissertation, for which 15 ECTS credits are allocated, must represent an individual synthesis of the cultural content of the course, from which emerges the capacity for in-depth study and autonomy achieved.
The course over the last three years has an average enrolment of just under 80 students, with negligible drop-outs. The average duration of studies is just over three years; 91.5% of graduates are satisfied with their course (2017 figure). According to Alma Laurea data, the rate of graduates employed within one-year was above 85% until the early years of the economic crisis, when it fell to 64% in 2013, before rising again in 2016 to 80% against a national average of 71.4%.
The main employment opportunities for second-cycle degree graduates are in the first instance the same as for first-cycle degree graduates, but at a higher level of competence, specialisation and autonomy, which allows them to deal with design issues of considerable commitment and complexity (such as the design of works in seismic areas) that are not available to first-cycle degree graduates.
The natural employment opportunities are as self-employed professionals; in professional firms and engineering companies specialising in the construction, structural, geotechnical, hydraulic and infrastructure sectors; in companies involved in the construction and maintenance of civil works, plants and infrastructures, control works and systems and soil protection; in professional studios and design companies for works, plants and infrastructures; in public bodies with responsibility for design, planning, management and control of urban and territorial systems; in companies, bodies, consortia and agencies for the management and control of technological networks, urban systems, soil defence; the technical offices of public and private bodies (municipal, provincial, etc.).).
The professional fields are those of advanced structural and infrastructural design, with innovative or complex features both with respect to modelling and calculation methodologies and to the materials used; of the management and optimisation of complex infrastructural systems (technological networks, transport networks, hydraulic infrastructures) serving the territory or the city; of building design, including eco-compatible building design; of specialised professional consultancy.