If you enrolled before the 2025/2026 academic year, consult the list of Programmes and Regulations available on your School website.
The programme
What does a Civil Engineer do?
Civil Engineering deals with the planning, design, construction, management and maintenance of structures and infrastuctures. These include facilities that play a fundamental role in everyday life of people, such as bridges, tunnels, dams, buildings for energy production, systems of water collection, distribution and disposal, and transportation systems (roads, railways, harbours, airports).
In nowadays industrial society, buildings, waterworks and infrastructures are among the most important durable goods, both for their intrinsic value and for the role they play in the economic and social development of any country.
The accomplishment of these works requires increasingly higher security and functionality levels to be fulfilled. It also involves the usage of natural resources and energy consumption, which significantly affect economy and environment, and the effects of which are protracted over time, spanning several generations. Accordingly, Civil Engineers are committed to operating in such a way that any growth process follows appropriate sustainability standards.
Education in Civil Engineering is based on sound foundations of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science. These theoretical foundations are applied in all the fields Civil Engineers are involved in, such as structural mechanics and design, geotechnics, fluid mechanics, hydraulic engineering, infrastructure and transportation system design, surveying and monitoring. Civil Engineers must have a sound mathematical and physical basis and possess the fundamentals of those natural sciences (e.g. chemistry and geology) that are strictly connected with Civil Engineering.
Additionally, they must master the mathematical models typical of Civil Engineering, that are applied in solid and fluid mechanics (statics and dynamics), and in land surveying and monitoring.
These models can be refined and specialized to analyze and design steel and reinforced concrete buildings, earthworks, hydraulic engineering works, and transportation infrastructures.
A number of complementary, but not less important topics (including computer science, material technology, economy, heat transfer, construction facilities) complete the education of undergraduate students.
The 1st year of the BSc is devoted to basic subjects. The fundamentals of the core subjects characterizing Civil Engineers are mostly taught during the 2nd year of the BSc. Eventually, applied subjects are gathered in the 3rd year.
Graduates are awarded the qualification of “Dottore in Ingegneria Civile”. They can operate as self-employed professionals, or as employees in public administration or private companies dealing with problems of civil, building and environmental engineering involving soils, structures, transports, hydraulics, civil protection and surveying. They can act as designers or managers.
To operate as self-employees in Italy, graduates must pass a professional examination and be on the Professional Register of Civil Engineers. Passing the first level professional examination certifies candidates as “junior engineers”; accordingly, the size and complexity of the projects they can carry out is limited by law.
Further Studies
Provided that their final grade is above a given threshold, graduates in Civil Engineering can enroll in one of the following two-year Master of Sciences (MSc) Degree Programmes offered at Politecnico: Civil Engineering, Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation, Management of Built Environment. Upon evaluation of their curriculum, graduates in Civil Engineering can also enroll to other MSc programmes, or specializing masters offered by Politecnico and other Universities.
Coordinator of the Civil Engineering degree programme: prof. Liberato Ferrara;
Secretary of the Civil Engineering degreeprogramme: prof. Gianandrea Messa;
Students' representatives: rappresentantistudenti-ccscivile@polimi.it
For information and contacts: School of Civil, Environmentaland Land Management Engineering