Department for the Built Environment
The School of Engineering and the Built Environment is a major provider of professionally relevant courses for the property and construction industries and we are dedicated to the teaching of future professionals.
Our core activity is educating professionals for a technical, ethical, economic, political and social world where the built and natural environment forms the context for human activity.
Our courses
Foundation courses
Our Foundation Years offer you an additional year of study to ensure progression to your chosen degree.
Undergraduate courses
Find out about our range of undergraduate courses for Construction and the Built Environment.
Postgraduate courses
Take a look at the Construction and the Built Environment postgraduate courses and research degrees available.
Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK and is a great area for students to be in if you want to be in the built environment because there's redevelopment going on all around you and there's also a strong possibility that you could be working on these projects in the future. I've had a really good experience at BCU so far. We get to go on quite a lot of site visits. One of the biggest ones we've been on so far was the housing development by Taylor Wimpey, and we also had for our first assignment Taylor Wimpey's, managing director of the West Midlands, assessed one of our presentations. Support from lecturers is really, really good that always there, they're always there to reply to your emails no matter what the query is. They've all had real life experience, academic and industry wise, that we can learn from. One of the things that I'm most passionate about the built environment is the possibility of working on the creation of the built environment that we live in. I wanted a change of career. I wanted to do something that's a bit more impactful and something that can help the community. So I think the built environment was a perfect way to go about the student experience has been amazing, to be honest. The lecturers and the students actually have been very welcoming. There's definitely something for every person to get involved in. The Careers+ and Employability team and the support that I got from them with regards to updating my CV, get my professional network set up on LinkedIn, which has been excellent. So I was lucky enough to secure a placement with Atkins. After my placement year, I was actually offered the graduate role, which was fantastic because it meant that I've got something secured and now go back into industry and into a company that I really enjoyed working with.
It's only four years for me to change my career and really step into a brand new industry. And I'm really thankful for BCU for supporting me through this journey. There's always been something about buildings that has interest in me, kind of curious and how they're put together and what kind of technology goes into that. Coming to university, I knew that I wanted to go to Engineering or Architecture and seeing those courses in depth, I kind of knew to myself that it wasn't correct for me. So then I came across Architectural Technology and I found out it just answered both of those questions I had then, which was wanted to go to. So BCU offers a wide range of facilities. It provides a lot of equipment such as VR headsets, laptops that students can borrow whenever they need to, and industry level software such as AutoCAD and Revit to really useful to us as being used as currency in our industry and will continue to be used throughout the years to come. Being able to go outside of the classroom and use industry level equipment really helps us as students get a vision of what it's like in practice. I've really enjoyed my time studying at BCU and I can't wait to what the future holds.
About Us
The School of the Built Environment provides all its students access to world class facilities and software packages. Our staff will use their industry knowledge and experience to help ensure that you are equipped to participate fully and possessed with the equipment needed to support your studies.
More from the School of the Built Environment
Open Days
The best way to explore what's on offer is to come and see us in person at one of our Open Days.
Open DaysFacilities
Take a look around the facilities available to you at the School of the Built Environment.
FacilitiesInnovation Fest
Innovation Fest is designed to foster entrepreneurship and support the development of our first-year students as future world-changers. The festival contributes to the knowledge economy, increasing students’ employability by providing genuine portfolio material.
Innovation Fest at BCUJoin our next Open Day on Saturday 19 October