Civil engineers design and maintain the massive infrastructure which today's society depends upon: roads, buildings, bridges, dams, tunnels, levees, sewer systems, and water treatment plants. Guiding the future of our infrastructure, Civil Engineers currently direct the spending of more than one tenth of Canada's gross national product, more than any other professional group. Because Civil Engineers' primary client is society, we often must deal with the human impact of engineering, including social, moral, and legal issues. The Civil Engineer, regardless of whether they are a generalist or a specialist, draws heavily upon the work of the physical and social sciences, other professions and other branches of engineering. Moreover, as engineers have become involved in many interdisciplinary activities over the last decade, the job demarcation between boundaries of engineering has become much less restrictive. People with the strong quantitative problem solving skills provided by a Civil engineering degree are sought after in fields ranging from urban planning to banking to business administration.
The Master of Engineering is a course-based degree option, which may be completed on a part-time or full-time basis. Those students who are registered full-time will normally complete the degree in three to four terms. This is a self-funded degree option, therefore, students will not be provided with funding or be assigned a supervisor. Students within the MEng program may also apply to the Master of Engineering - Nuclear Engineering program, which was created in partnership between the University of Waterloo, McMaster University, and the University of Western Ontario. Please visit the Faculty of Engineering Graduate Studies web site to learn more about engineering graduate studies at the University of Waterloo.