About the Department
The School of Engineering was founded on 26 July 1887 with a 'specialised' Civil Engineering Department being established in 1905. In 1906 our BE(Civil) degree first gained international recognition when it was accepted by the prestigious Institution of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom. Initially examinations were set and marked in the United kingdom, a practice which continued until 1940. In 1951 the first PhD in Civil Engineering was awarded and in 1953 both PhD and ME qualifications were listed in the prospectus for the first time.
Today, some 100 postgraduate students are enrolled, including 55 PhDs, together with 500 undergraduates. Our degree programme has changed greatly over the years as we strive to continually meet the needs of today's students and the civil engineering profession. See Our History, a PDF file (182 KBytes) for more details.
Our research activities have gained us an international reputation attracting many overseas visitors who bring worldwide expertise to the Department and our students. We have a total of 70 full time staff including 38 academic staff. We have well-equipped laboratories with a total area of 3400m2.
Expert technical assistance is provided for both laboratory classes and experimental research. We have our own 480m2 computing facility with both Alpha and PC computers.
Physical location
We are located at 67 Creyke Road, Christchurch, New Zealand. The Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Department houses academic staff on Level 4 of the Civil/Mechanical building. Support and technical staff can be found in laboratories and offices from Level 1 to Level 4 and postgratduate students have office space and a tea room on Level 3.
Find us on a campus map.
A more detailed map showing labs and rooms on the ground floor of the engineering block.
All of our contact information can be found on our Contacts page.