Students' views on their education and the future

Today's students are tomorrow's civil engineers. If today's pace of change continues then they will face many new challenges. How do they prepare for an uncertain future? Along with industry, the professional bodies and academia, students are important stakeholders in the provision of civil engineering degree courses. It is right that their views should be known. Research was undertaken with civil engineering students from the final and penultimate years of the University of Bolton BSc(Hons) degree course using small discussion groups and mini focus groups. The results of this small-scale research are interesting and raise questions about, firstly, the immense benefits of practical experience for students undertaking degree courses and, secondly, the direction and management of the lifelong learning of all professional engineers (particularly in support of younger engineers). The key benefit of this work is the chance for policy makers to briefly see the world of civil engineering education through the eyes of undergraduate students from a modern university in a northern working town.