Philosophy of the Department
The philosophy of the department is not only to produce graduate Civil Engineer but also to produce knowledgeable and motivated Civil Engineers who like their foreign counterparts are capable of practicing the profession. To achieve this objective, emphasis is laid on marrying theory with practice.
Civil Engineering profession is very relevant to rural development as it provides manpower required for the rural and urban road development, water supply and other structures necessary for such development. Post-mortem of National development plans of the country shows that failure to attain a technological take-off lies squarely on lack of adequate and competent Civil Engineers. Even the present dictum of RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND INDUSTRIALIZATION may fail unless the pivotal role of the Civil Engineer is given its due pre-eminence. It was therefore pertinent that a department of Civil Engineering was established during the 1991/92 academic session as one of the Departments of the Faculty of Engineering of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The developments in Civil Engineering over the years have been immense and hence to produce adequate Civil Engineers in our environmental setting is an arduous task bearing in mind that Civil Engineering is one of those professions which is better learnt by doing.
Objectives of the Department
The objective of the Civil Engineering Department is not only to produce Civil Engineering graduates, but also to produce knowledgeable and motivated Civil Engineers who are capable of practicing the profession with little or no supervision. The graduates must therefore be resourceful creating knowledgeable and able to design the engineering projects and supervise their construction. To achieve this objective, emphasis is laid on marrying theory with practice right from the start to finish. This idea is emphasized by breaking the programme into lectures, tutorials and practical/laboratories. Students offer courses in Physics and Mathematics. These courses provide a solid foundation in the engineering sciences such that it is possible for the Engineer to tackle any Engineering problem within his area of specialization with a high level of proficiency.
Another compulsory area is surveying for engineers. The remaining five area namely: Construction Engineering, Structural Engineering, Foundation Engineering, Water Resources Engineering and Highways and Transportation Engineering are formulated into core courses and optional courses. The core courses are designed to acquaint the prospective engineer with the diversified nature of the profession. The first three-year of the standard five-year programme are devoted entirely to providing the student with necessary tools, basic applied sciences and technical background, while the last year is completely devoted to polishing the student in a specific area of Civil Engineering practices. These optional areas form the basis for graduate programme of the department. Like all other departments of the Engineering Faculty, during which the student acquires the necessary practical knowledge in general civil engineering practice before embarking on specialization courses. All departmental courses include work/project on real engineering problems relevant to our local environment. The other pre-requisite is that students must obtain more than (75) seventy-five percent attendance at lecture/laboratory