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Key areas you’ll study include the planning and financing of projects, required contract law and of course health and safety knowledge – both for yourself and others.

Building without proper planning can be a dangerous business when it comes to working at heights, excavating and shifting materials. You’ll learn how to manage it and make it safe.

You’ll also learn about sustainable design. Plus, you’ll look at the contractual side of things, and how to ensure sub-contractors work to the required standards.

Among the modules you’ll study on the course are: Building Technology and Materials: Advanced Technology, Planning and Production; Legal and Regulatory Framework; Contract Law in Construction; Tendering, Estimating and Cost Control; Sustainable Building Technology; and Project Management Studies.

Think of a triangle with three points – time, cost and quality. Time planning and logistics, cost control and management, and quality control are vital skills for a construction manager, and they’re skills employers will be looking for when you graduate.

Our Docklands site offers outstanding laboratories and workshops where we’ll support you in your studies.

You’ll learn through a mixture of lectures, tutorials, workshops and practical classes.

You’ll have access to sophisticated software, including the BIM (Building Information Modelling) digital system. This has a huge database of information about components –where they can be found, how much they cost and what the best maintenance regime for them is.

Each term we’re visited by around 20 local industry professionals – known as the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) – to update us on changing requirements for graduates. They also supervise final-year projects, when they’ll be looking out for likely candidates to recruit for jobs.

Every year, our Civil Engineering and Construction Management students visit the Constructionarium site in Norfolk. There you’ll work as a team with a sponsoring contractor, such as Atkins, and professional consulting engineers to build scaled-down versions of famous bridges or buildings.

We organise weekly site visits to one of the hundreds of projects underway in and around east London. A recent trip involved checking how the Olympic Stadium was being reconfigured to meet the new demands of a football stadium and a major events venue.

We also have a programme of guest speakers. One of our regulars is Mark Shearon, a former UEL student who's now a senior Health and Safety Executive inspector.

Guided independent study

We are investing in key areas beyond your studies including our career services, library and well-being, to be available both face-to-face on campus and online with many of these available 24/7. We have new, modern library facilities on both campuses offering inspirational environments for study and research. Libraries contain resources in print and digital formats, a range of study spaces and dedicated librarian who can assist with your learning.

Academic support

Students are supported with any academic or subject related queries by an Academic Advisor, module leaders, former and current UEL students.
If you need a bit of extra help with certain skills such as academic writing, maths or IT, our Skillzone and English for Academic Purposes we offer workshops, drop-in sessions and one-to-one appointments to help our students achieve their potential. You can receive advice and guidance on all aspects of the IT systems provided by the university from our IT Service Desks located on all three campuses. Our Student Support hubs in Docklands and Stratford feature centralised helpdesks to cater for your every need. UEL provides also support and advice for disabled students and those with specific learning difficulties (SPDs).

Workload

Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.

The approximate percentages for this course are:
Year 1: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 2: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.
Year 3: scheduled teaching – 300 hours; guided independent study – 900 hours.

The size of classes can vary depending on the nature of the course, module and activity. This can range from large groups in a lecture theatre setting, to smaller groups taking part in seminars and collaborative work. You will receive your personalised timetable at the beginning of the academic year dependent on your course.

Who will teach on this course

Bryan Pearce

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

Thanks to our excellent links with industry, graduates from this course have gone on to work on projects all over the world.

Some have been involved with UK construction projects such as the Shard and the Olympic Athletes’ Village in Stratford. Others have travelled internationally to areas of dynamic regeneration such as Dubai or Qatar.

Many of our overseas students go back to work in countries such as Nigeria and Malaysia

Your most likely job on graduation will be an assistant site manager, working in a role where you have responsibility for a broad range of activities. If you perform impressively on site, and deal well with people, you could soon find yourself taking responsibility for really large projects.

A typical project will take 18 months or two years, during which time you’ll be working very closely with a wide variety of people performing different jobs.

Say you’re working on a rail project, or on the London Underground. Work often needs to be scheduled for weekends and Bank Holidays.

You might spend six months planning for one Bank Holiday weekend, booking in equipment, materials and labour. Imagine the satisfaction you’ll feel when everything you have planned for comes together.

It’s a hugely challenging but hugely rewarding area of employment.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.