Mar 29, 2024  
2020-2021 Graduate Catalog 
    
2020-2021 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Civil Engineering Major, PhD


Concentrations (Required)

Climate Impacts Engineering
Construction Engineering
Energy Science and Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Geotechnical/Materials Engineering
Public Works Engineering
Structural Engineering
Transportation Engineering
Water Resources Engineering

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus

Admissions Standards/Procedures

  • All applicants to the degree programs must submit scores from the General Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Credit Hours Required

72 graduate credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree (excludes credit hours for the Master’s thesis)

Required Courses

  • CE 600  (24 credit hours)
  • 18 credit hours of graduate courses in Civil Engineering (CE) or Environmental Engineering (ENVE), exclusive of thesis or dissertation credit.
  • A minimum of 18 graduate credit hours Civil Engineering (CE), Environmental Engineering (ENVE), or related scientific and engineering fields such as Chemistry (CHEM), Mathematics (MATH), Microbiology (MICR), Physics (PHYS), and other engineering fields, subject to approval by the student’s faculty committee.
    • A minimum of 6 graduate credit hours of Mathematics (MATH) will be required beyond the civil engineering undergraduate requirements.
  • At least 6 credit hours of the above coursework must be at the 600-level.

Additional Course Requirements

  • Concentration Specific Courses. Students select from among those listed and others as chosen in consultation with the major professor and guidance committee.
  • At the discretion of the student’s dissertation committee and depending on the student’s background, more than 36 credit hours of courses may be required.
  • A maximum of 24 credit hours from the master’s degree may be used to satisfy the course requirements for the PhD.

Non-Course Requirements

  • One foreign language if the student’s faculty committee feels that a reading knowledge of a foreign language is crucial to the student’s research efforts.
  • Upon completion of at least one-half of all course work, each student must pass a comprehensive examination.
  • After completion of the dissertation, prior to graduation, each student must pass a dissertation defense examination administered by a faculty committee.