Civil Engineering Master’s Programs: A Comprehensive Review of Types and Requirements

Abstract

Over the past 22 years, Professor Jeffrey S. Russell has established himself as a leader in education, research, and service to the civil engineering profession through championing diversity, leadership, innovation, and enhanced education for future civil engineers. He is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He received a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and MS and PhD degrees from Purdue University, and is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin. Dr. Russell is co-founder of the Construction Engineering and Management program at UW-Madison, one of only 7 programs accredited by ABET, Inc. He has advised over 100 graduate students including 26 Ph.D. students, and served as principal or co-principal investigator for more than $14 million of publicly and privately funded research. In addition, Dr. Russell has:-Published more than 200 technical papers in the areas of contractor failure, prequalification, surety bonds, constructability, automation, maintainability, warranties, and quality control/quality assurance.-Authored and published two booksConstructor Prequalification (1996) and Surety Bonds for Construction Contracts (2000).

Civil Engineering Master’s Programs: Requirements and Outcomes

“…The 80 institutions benchmarked in this study represented a total of 4802 master's degrees awarded in civil and civil/environmental in 2018 (79% of the Civ/CivEnv master's degrees in 2018). In comparison to the Russell et al 2011 dataset [49], the programs explored in this study tended to be significantly larger. Among the 80 institutions, the demographics of the master's degree recipients were: 30% female, 31% Caucasian, 7% Asian American, 6% Hispanic, 2% African-American, 50% foreign nationals.…”

“…Other programs counted up to 2 credits from the 1-credit seminars toward the MS graduation requirements. ^ these are likely total credits including thesis hours [49] rather than non-thesis course credits…”

“…Table 6. Specializations available within the civil engineering master's degrees Specialization 2020 N among 80 MS 2011 [49] N among MS+MEng 2020 % of 80 MS 2011 [49] % In general, within an institution there were very distinct course requirements for each specialization, with no common required courses or categories of courses required. Even graduate seminars often seemed to be separated by specialization.…”

“…Most listed recommended scores or average scores. Due to changes in the scoring system, the 2020 GRE score data cannot be compared to the 2011 data in [49].…”

“…Civil engineering master's degree programs were benchmarked in 2011 using department head's survey responses representing 232 master's programs in 121 departments [49]. The survey characterized the degree names, entry requirements (GRE exam required and minimum score), types (research, project, coursework only), models of delivery, and areas of specialization (e.g., 72% environmental, 66% structures, 60% water resources, 59% geotechnical, 52% transportation, 43% general civil, and many others).…”