The Faculty of Engineering

West Indian Journal of Engineering

Volume 45 Number 2 Jan 2023

 

The Department of Civil Engineering, UWI St. Augustine: A Historical Note of 1972-2001

by Gyan Shrivastava

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Abstract: This paper is a continuation of a history of the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of the West Indies (UWI) at St. Augustine. It thus extends an account of its formative decade 1961-1971 previously published (in 2013) in The West Indian Journal of Engineering. The three subsequent decades covered herein encompass milestones, and transformations: (a) beginning of graduate level research, (b) commencement of anMSc programme in Construction Engineering and Management, (c) change of name from Civil to ‘Civil and Environmental’ for embracing the heightened awareness of environmental concerns, (d) relocation into a purpose-built building with a floor space of approximately 5,000 m2, (e) construction of new environmental engineering, engineering geology, highway engineering, soil mechanics and structural engineering laboratories, (f) expansion and modernisation of the fluid mechanics laboratory, and (g) introduction of the semester system with its credit-based curriculum and assessment. Besides, there was a fivefold increase in student enrolment, followed by a sharp decline, and an increase in academic staff strength from six to twenty. This period also witnessed a gradual loss of regional diversity of its undergraduate students from a high of approximately 50 % in 1972 to less than 10% in 2001. On the other hand, there was a notable, and opposite, change in gender (female/male) ratio among the students – from less than 10%/90% in 1972 to approximately 50%/50% in 2001. Finally, the accreditation of the department’s degree programmes by the Engineering Council in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as the triennial visit of overseas external examiners, inherited from its inception, were maintained..

Keywords: Civil Engineering; Coastal Engineering; Environmental Engineering; Education; History; University; West Indies

https://doi.org/10.47412/UYSC7563