The Department of Civil Engineering commenced its journey in 1997 with undergraduate programs with a vision for creating quality civil engineers with only about 10 students. Eventually having grown in capacity, the Department now enrolls 270 students in undergraduate and 60 students in the graduate program in a bi-semester academic year – Fall and Spring.

The Department has outstanding and exceptionally rich faculty members; 13 out of 30 faculty members hold Masters and PhDs from well-reputed foreign universities in Australia, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. The current teacher–student ratio of the department is 1:24. The specialization of the faculty members includes areas of Geotechnical, Transportation, Environmental, Structural, and Water Resource Engineering.

About 1687 students have so far graduated till the Spring 2022 semester from the department. The graduates of the department are working in different government and private organizations in Bangladesh. Many graduates are also working abroad. Some graduates are pursuing Masters and Doctoral studies in Bangladesh and well reputed universities abroad notably in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Accomplished and capable graduates of the department are also serving in reputed Government and industrial sectors in the country demonstrating excellence.

Through a continuous development process, the Department highlighted the necessity to furnish all laboratories with modern equipment to conduct undergraduate classes as well as to perform undergraduate and graduate research works. The laboratory facilities serve the purposes of practical illustration and experiments for research in different engineering disciplines. The Department received several national and international research grants for doing research on various civil engineering issues, such as advanced seismic analysis, earthquake retrofitting of structures, structural assessment, surface water pollution, wastewater treatment with natural applications, recycling, and sustainable development of concrete construction works in Bangladesh, etc. The research results of the faculty members are regularly published in different national and international indexed journals and conference proceedings.

In addition to the academic and research activities, the faculty members of the Department are actively engaged in consultancy services related to civil engineering concerns and are also directly participating in the testing of materials using the laboratories of the Department. UAP has settled in its permanent City Campus located in the heart of the city with great accessibility while adding capacity and efficiency to its administration manifold. In the new environment at its own campus, UAP has vowed to take a leadership role to educate the students through Outcome Based Education method and to ensure a student-centered learning environment.

Besides the academic activities, the Department organizes several co-curricular activities that encourage student’s talents. The events are organized through different clubs, sports programs, and study tours. The department of CE has several clubs for co-curricular activities such as Structure Club, Transportation Club, Geotechnical Club, Math Club, and Environment & Disaster Management Club while there are opportunities for extracurricular activities through Photography Club, Sports Club, and Cultural Club. Each of these clubs is independent and fully functional through a working body consisting of a faculty advisor and student members. The activities of the clubs include event-specific quizzes, presentations, projects, social awareness programs, and poster exhibitions. Through student engagement with the American Concrete Institute (ACI) UAP CE student chapter, the Department of CE at UAP got ACI Outstanding University Awards 2016, 2017, and 2018 in a row demonstrating the quality and enthusiastic student participation of the Department.

The Department’s efforts have been recognized outside the borders of the university when it became the first Civil Engineering program to be accredited by the Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education (BAETE) in 2007. The IEB accreditation provides the Department with a national as well as a global acknowledgment of the quality and standards of its program. In 2008, the University Grants Commission (UGC) granted approval to the Department of CE to commence its Masters’ program, thus making it the first CE program among the private universities to obtain such approval. This milestone indicates the commitment of the department to continuous development.

The Department and its faculty members utilized the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) protocols to introduce and implement an outcome-based education system. Moderation of exams and scrutiny of exam papers in each semester facilitate the quality assurance of the Department’s program. The culture of quality has begun to be institutionalized at the Department and is a milestone that has uplifted the Department to a unique level.

In January 2018, the UGC-nominated external peer review team (EPRT) reviewed the curriculum, and academic rigor of the BSc program, inspected physical facilities in the labs, and rated it ‘Very Good’ to implement outcome-based education (OBE) in teaching-learning. Concurrently, the Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education (BAETE) visited the Department in 2018. After thorough scrutiny, the Department was able to retain its status as an IEB-accredited program. The BSc in Civil Engineering program was accredited for the second time with the grade ‘good’ for the next three years, ending in 2021. Finally, the Department pursued OBE-based accreditation with BAETE and satisfied the benchmark standards to be accredited once again in 2022.

The Department recognizes talented and top-ranking students by providing opportunities to be recruited as Department teaching assistants, and subsequently become faculty members at UAP or high-ranking elsewhere in teaching, research, or in industry at home and abroad.

On behalf of the Department of Civil Engineering, I express my gratitude for paying a visit to our website. Please feel free to contact our Departmental office if you have any further inquiries.