Civil engineer

The term civil engineer refers to an individual who practices civil engineering. Originally the term "civil" engineer worked on public works projects and was contrasted with the military engineer, who worked on armaments and defenses. Over time, civil engineering has spun off a variety of fields e.g. architectural engineering, structural engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and what is still called civil engineering.

An interesting definition could be, "The profession of Civil Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of the power of Nature for the use and convenience of Human Kind."

Belgian civil engineers

In Belgium, civil engineer (abbreviated ir.) is a legally protected title applicable to graduates of the five-year engineering course of an university or the Royal Military Academy. Their speciality can be all fields of engineering: civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, chemical. The formation of the civil engineer has a strong mathematical and scientifical base and is more theoretical in approach than the practical oriented industrial engineer (ing.) educated in a four-year program at a polytechnic. Traditionally, students were required to pass an entrance exam on mathematics to start civil engineering studies. This exam was abolished in 2004 for the Flemish Community, but is still organised in the French Community.

Scandinavian civil engineers

In Scandinavian countries, some Master of Science degrees are called civil engineer (civilingenjör (Swedish), sivilingeniør (Norwegian)), civilingeniør (Danish). That is if they have their graduation, or "diploma", from an institute of technology. The word has its origin from one of the English meaning of 'civil engineer' [1] (compare [2]);

an engineer whose training or occupation is in the design and construction especially of public works (as roads or harbors).

Although the English language meaning is very narrow, during the middle of 19th century (before [3] 1874), its Swedish interpretation also becamed "a person graduated from institute of technology", and now the profession represents all fields within engineering professions, like civil engineering, computer science, electronics engineering, etc. However, it might also mean only the civil engineering topic.

Although a 'college engineer' (högskoleingenjör, diplomingenjör/mellaningenjör (Swedish), ingeniør (Norwegian), diplomingeniør (Danish)) represents a Bachelor of Science in Scandinavia, to become a 'civil engineer', one has to almost re-start the education from zero and it will take a half up to one year extra compared to B.Sc./M.Sc. studies. This is because the higher educational system is not fully adopted to the international standard graduation system, since, at least in Sweden, it is treated as a professional degree. The title of civil engineer has a slightly higher social status than a masters degree in other subjects.

A Scandinavian "civilingenjör" will in international contexts commonly call itself "Master of Science in engineering" and will occasionally wear an engineering class ring possibly inspired by the Canadian iron ring.

Belgian civil engineers

Scandinavian civil engineers

See also