University: The University of Western Australia

Degree: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Science, Environmental Engineering and Agricultural Technology

School Subjects: English, Chemistry, Physics, Music, Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist ATAR (Year 11 only)

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As most students, when I graduated high school I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to study at uni. Maths and science seemed to come more naturally to me in high school, but I was also interested in continuing music as a career. I decided to give engineering a go since I was too nervous to commit to music full-time, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how interesting and meaningful I’ve found this degree to be!

What is Environmental Engineering?

Environmental Engineering at UWA is a broad degree that teaches you how to solve engineering problems to benefit and work with the environment, as there is a big focus on water quality and movement in ocean and river systems. I have found this degree to be a good mix between earth science/water and classic engineering problem-solving. By this, I mean it has the fun parts of engineering, like combining maths and science to develop innovative solutions, whilst also learning about geography, geology, and hydrology.

My course would take 4 years full-time (4 units per semester); however, I decided to extend my degree to 5 years and do a semester part-time to cut down on workload. This also allowed me to focus on other things besides my degree. This has been really good to make sure I don’t get burnt out because the engineering course can be quite intense!

What is studying Environmental Engineering actually like?

I found the 1st year of engineering to be a challenge because it was very broad with foundational physics, chemistry, and maths units, making it feel like high school again. Luckily, in your 2nd year, you begin to learn more about your engineering specialisation, so for me, environmental, which I found to be more engaging and interesting than how generalised the 1st year units were.

I really enjoy the large range of units in the environmental engineering course. For example:

• Hydrology – about how water moves and collects. This unit involved fieldwork days where we measured water salinity and flow in the Helena River and got to analyse real collected data.
• Modelling in Environmental Engineering – learning how to code ocean current models off the coast of WA to see how oil spills or plastic would move.
• Earth Systems Engineering – learning about rock types, the water cycle, and mining processes and their effect on the environment.

A point to note is that there is no doubt engineering is a difficult course. However, like in school, doing badly in 1 test is not the end of the world. With UWA engineering, it is quite common to have to repeat at least 1 unit in your degree due to the heavy workload. To avoid this, I would highly recommend staying on top of weekly tasks for classes. Although this is advice taught to you when you’re in school, this is truer than ever for uni, as content is taught at a much quicker pace. Lecturers/tutors will not wait for you to catch up and will just move onto the next piece of content in the next week. Setting weekly goals and tasks to complete will save you from stress and a piling workload, especially when it comes to exam period.

Some things to know:

• Engineering is a content and practice question-heavy degree; expect to spend a lot of time on practice questions and figuring out concepts.
• It is a group project-heavy degree. This means a lot of collaboration and self-scheduled group meetings outside of class-time will be demanded, and often you won’t always be in a group of your choice, unfortunately!
• Contact hours vary depending on the unit. In my experience, my course’s contact hours decreased from 1st to 2nd year. Expect to be at uni anywhere from 3-5 days a week.
• It is totally okay if you don’t meet all the prerequisites for engineering! They offer bridging chemistry, physics, and maths units, and many students such as myself have done them. I personally found the bridging Maths Specialist unit a lot easier than Maths Specialist ATAR.

I am yet to start units for my second degree, Agricultural Technology; however, I chose a double degree to keep my options open to study something to supplement my engineering degree. Luckily, there is a lot of flexibility in how you want to structure the units in your degree. I would recommend creating a rough plan and checking with the university student office to confirm it so that you don’t accidentally add a year onto your degree without knowing.

So, if you are looking for an engineering degree that is employable, creative, and meaningful, I think Environmental Engineering could be a good fit for you. Hope this short blog post gives you some insight into my degree, and I wish you all the best in your course search!