Career prospects | civil engineering

Employment opportunities

Senior Civil Engineer
Roles

Design, dimensioning, verification, maintenance and decommissioning of complex works or infrastructures, also including innovative aspects, in the fields of structural, hydraulic, construction, transport and transport infrastructure.
Construction management and site management.
Drafting of reports, technical reports; updating and self-training on legislation and technical-scientific developments in the sector.
Skills

Design, dimensioning and verification of water transport and distribution networks, sewerage networks, drainage and irrigation works. Design, dimensioning and verification of reservoir, diversion, catchment, hydroelectric and irrigation works.
Design of retaining structures, retaining walls, foundations, tunnels.
Stress analysis in framed structures, including instability; dimensioning and verification of structural elements in reinforced concrete, prestressed reinforced concrete and steel. Seismic design of reinforced concrete, steel, masonry and timber constructions. Design of infrastructures and networks for passenger and freight transport in urban and suburban areas; airport and railway infrastructures; dimensioning, management and maintenance of pavements. Execution of architectural surveys on existing buildings; design of new buildings both in the formal compositional sense and in the technological and technical-constructive aspects with particular reference to eco-friendly materials, green building and environmental sustainability.
Employment opportunities

- construction and maintenance companies for civil works, civil works and civil infrastructure facilities, control and soil protection works and systems; - professional studios and design companies for civil, road and hydraulic works, structures and infrastructures; - public offices for design, planning, management and control of urban and territorial systems; - companies, bodies, consortia and agencies for the management, control and monitoring of the territory and for soil protection; - freelance professionals and consultants; - technical offices of public and private (municipal, provincial) bodies.

Communication skills

Second-cycle degree graduates will be able to coordinate or participate in working groups in an interdisciplinary context as well. They will be able to work and communicate effectively with technical and non-technical figures in both national and international contexts.
For the development of these skills, the teaching approach includes group activities related to tutorial sessions and project work. Pupils will be stimulated to communicate, motivate and enhance, both within the group and in interaction with professors/instructors, their project choices or evaluations of merit, either through group discussion or in written form, through the drafting of a project report. The preparation of examination papers, both written and graphical, as well as the presentation and discussion of the papers, will help to stimulate the student's skills in this respect. Particular attention will be paid to the organic drafting of reports accompanying the project drawings, which will be able to summarise both the technical aspects and communicate and justify the choices in a language understandable to the non-specialist. The preparation of the dissertation may also provide a further opportunity to develop communication skills, particularly if it is carried out in whole or in part at external institutions or foreign universities.
The communication skills acquired will be assessed through regular project reviews, written and oral examinations, and review of project reports. The dissertation, both in its writing and in its presentation to the committee, also constitutes a moment of verification of communication skills. To foster communication in English, both in the preparation of the dissertation and in the available teaching materials, texts or documentation in the foreign language will also be used.
With reference to enrolments (2018/2019), new enrolments are up slightly for the second-cycle degree in civil engineering, by about 50% in the same period.
Second-cycle degree enrolments decreased by 1.4% over the three-year period considered, while regular enrolments increased by approximately 14.5%. The total number of students enrolled remained unchanged over the three-year period under consideration, while the national average for the same period shows a decrease (-10%). The data are broadly in line with the average for the same degree course across all Italian universities.
- Students enrolled within the normal duration of the course who acquired at least 40 ECTS credits in the academic year: indicator unchanged over the four-year period at 30.1%, with a sharp drop to 20.2% in 2016.
- The change in the indicator is 10.8% lower than the national average over the three-year period. In the degree course geographical area, the values are higher than the national average by about 10 % points.
- Percentage of graduates within the normal duration of the course) The degree course value increased by an average of 5.4%, while the same indicator at national level did not change significantly. In the degree course geographical area, the indicator decreased by 1.4%.
- Percentage enrolled in the first year (second-cycle degree) graduating from another university) The indicator increased from 6.1% to 9.3%, and nationally from 21.9% to 28.0%. In the geographical area the indicator increased by 14.8%
- Ratio of regular students to professors/instructors (permanent professors, permanent researchers, type A and type B researchers) The indicator decreased slightly from 3.8 to 3.6, while at the national level it went from 6.7 to 5.5. The indicator in the geographical area has similar values and trends to the national one.
- Percentage of tenured professors who belong to basic and characterising academic disciplines (SSDs) per degree course, of which they are reference professors) The degree course indicator has shown a steady growth in the period 2016-18 from 84.6 to 100%, while at national level the trend is actually unchanged at around 90.6%. In the geographical area, the indicator increased from 84% to 88% over the three-year period.
- Professor Research Quality Indicator Values for Second-Cycle Degrees) The indicator remained stable at 1.2, still above the national value of 1.0. In the geographical area, the indicator maintained the value 1.1.