students admitted and 1200 engineering MSc students graduating in 2006. The
international evaluation group had some difficulty in understanding the rather complex organizational structure of engineering education at NTNU. Engineering degree programs in many international universities are offered by a “Faculty of Engineering” within which there is a “Civil Engineering Department” offering the Civil Engineering programs. At Trondheim engineering education is offered by four different faculties and the MSc in Civil Engineering is offered by three different civil engineering departments. The four faculties are the Faculty of Information Technology, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering (IME), the Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology (IVT), the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology (NT) and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management (SVT). The three civil engineering departments are the
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering (BAT), the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (VM) and the Department of Structural Engineering (K). The division of the 16 engineering programs of study at NTNU among the four different faculties and the number of new students which each program admitted in 2007 are given in Table 1. It is worthy of note that the Civil Engineering student numbers have
significantly increased in recent years and with 210 admitted students in 2007 CEE is now the largest engineering program at NTNU.
The somewhat unusual structure of the delivery of the engineering programs at NTNU may handicap the university when international rankings are being formulated and could somewhat impede international cooperation and mobility.
Table 1. Engineering Programs and Distribution of Admitted Students
The 5 year MSc engineering curriculum structure at NTNU is based on a “fade in – fade out” principle in which the work load of mathematics, basic science and generic
engineering courses that dominate the first 2 to 3 years gradually fade out to open space in the later years for the core engineering courses in the individual engineering programs.
Table 2 below shows how this structure has been applied for the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) program. There are 10 semesters each having 30 ECTS credits
corresponding to contact hours of about 26 hours a week and an implied total work load of about 48 hours per week. For the first 8 semesters there are 4 courses per semester.
The first two years are common for all civil engineering students and consist of courses like chemistry, physics, mathematics, information technology, basic mechanics and an introduction to some of the core subjects for civil engineering. Note that all courses in these first two years are mandatory.
Table 2. Program Structure– Civil and Environmental Engineering
Semester 7.5 ECTS 7.5 ECTS 7.5 ECTS 7.5 ECTS
10 Spring MSc Thesis (20 weeks)
9 Autumn Non- techn. course Specialization course
(Theory courses and project)
8 Spring Interdisciplinary Teamwork
Elective Eng Elective Eng Elective Eng
7 Autumn Perspective course Elective Eng Elective Eng Elective Eng
3 Autumn Mathematics 3 Mechanics 2 Physics Geotechnical Eng.
and Eng. Geology At the beginning of the third year the students must choose one of five different sub-fields of civil engineering. For each of these five sub-sub-fields there are a small number of mandatory courses and a relatively large number of electives. The five sub-fields and the number of students choosing each in 2007 are shown below:
• Building and Construction (50 students)
• Structural Engineering (77 students)
• Roads, Transportation, Land use and Geomatics (9 students)
• Water and the Environment (10 students)
• Property Development and Management (8 students)
The distribution of student numbers over the five different sub-fields is strikingly uneven with 82% of the 154 third year students choosing either Structural Engineering or
Building and Construction. This uneven distribution, which has existed for quite a few years, is explained as being due to a number of causes. The first is the excellent health of the construction industry in Norway and the many prominent projects which have been
built recently, a number of which have inspired the students. The difference in the number of professors with profiles attractive to students is argued to be another reason behind the large difference in the student numbers. Thirdly perhaps the students lack sufficient insight into the opportunities in the different fields of Civil Engineering as not all fields can be introduced adequately during the first two years of study.
In the last two years of the program the 5 sub-fields are further subdivided into 15 different lines of specialization offering a total of 64 different engineering subjects. The lines of specialization relate closely to the research specialties of the about 70 professors in the three civil engineering departments. The main areas of study of these professors and how they relate to the different sub-fields in the CEE program are summarized in Table 3 below. Note that the sub-field of Property Development and Management includes courses from several study programs other than CEE and hence is not included in Table 3.
Each course in the CEE program carries 7.5 ECTS credits and hence is supposed to involve a work load of about 12 hours per week. However surveys by the Network Learning Lab at NTNU indicate that there is a very large variation between different courses in the number of hours worked by the students each week, with the most demanding third of the courses requiring about twice as much work as the least
demanding third of the courses. Further it seems that very few students spend a total of 48 hours per week on their 4 courses.
The quality and the level of general education of the NTNU Civil Engineering students that the international evaluation group met, was outstanding. This is probably a result of the now very rigorous standards used in the selection process for new students, the high standard of the education in the CEE program and the valuable experience these students have obtained in the organization of student activities (festivals, international engineering excursions, and participation in student councils) which supplement the official NTNU educational program. The international group was also impressed by the quality of the MSc theses made available for their perusal.
In addition to the about 850 Norwegian engineering MSc students currently in the Civil Engineering program, there are also about 60 international (non-EU) students in four specialized International MSc programs (e.g. Hydropower Development) and a total of about 110 Ph.D. students. It is a major concern that surprisingly few of the very capable Norwegian students completing their MSc degrees this year are interested in staying on to commence doctoral studies, the first step towards an academic career. Perhaps part of the reason for this is the non-competitive salary structure for Norwegian engineering
professors when compared with engineers in Norwegian industry. Given that we would expect future professors to come from perhaps the top 10% of the graduating class, it seems surprising that the average salary of a 50 year old engineering professor in Norway is considerably less than that of the lowest quartile of 50 year old engineers working in the private sector. See Figure 1.
Table 3. Distribution of Professorial Staff in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor Associate Professor Assistant Professor Adjunct Professor
Building and Construction
Geotechnics 3 - - 0.3
Building & Material Technology 3 - 1
-Project Management & Construction 2 3 1 0.6
Marine Civil Engineering 3 1 - 0.4
Structural Engineering
Concrete Structures and Technology 6 - - 1
Steel, Light Metals and Timber 2 2 -
-Numerical Modelling 5 2 - 0.2
Impact, Energy Absorbance,
Dynamics & Fatigue 4 1 - 0.4
Biomechanics & Nanomechanics 3 - -
-Roads, Transportation, Land Use and Geomatics
Road Planning 2 - -
-Pavement Design & Road Tech. 1 1 -
-Traffic Safety and Regulation 1 - 1
-Transport Planning 1 1 - 0.2
Geomatics 3 - 1
-Water and the Environment
Hydraulics and Hydrology 2 1 -
-Hydro Power 1 1 1 0.4
Water and Wastewater Treatment 3 1 - 0.2
Waste Eng. & Industrial Ecology 2 - - 0.4
Totals 47 14 5 4.1
Percent 71% 21% 8%
-Figure 1: Comparison of inflation adjusted salaries for 50 year old engineering professors in comparison to 50 year old engineer in private practice.
In summary the international evaluation group believes that the Civil and Environmental Engineering program at NTNU faces the following challenges:
• There is a strikingly uneven distribution of students in the various fields of study.
Together with the high level of specialization in the CEE program this results in a severe and unhealthy lack of engineers in certain important fields of Civil
Engineering – with the most critical shortages being in Roads & Transportation and Water & Environment.
• Recruiting new Civil Engineering professorial staff of the highest level seems to be more difficult at NTNU than it was in the past. This is attributed to a non-competitive salary structure as compared to industry and high teaching loads.
Further, as NTNU is the only major technical university in Norway, certain aspects of “inbreeding” are difficult to avoid.
• It now seems more difficult to attract the brightest and the best Norwegian MSc graduates to embark on a PhD program resulting in an ever larger percentage of PhD students in the CEE program being non-Norwegian. The reduction in Norwegian PhD graduates in Civil Engineering is seen as a major threat to both research and top level engineering in Norway.
• Because government funds allocated for engineering education are seriously inadequate, the equipment, space and technical support required to provide laboratory based engineering education in fundamental areas is very difficult to keep up to date.