Please note: This course starts in Year 1. If you are looking to start in Year 2, please choose our BSc (Hons) Environmental Management and Sustainability - Year 2 entry.
Become an environmental problem-solver, developing practical and sustainable approaches to climate change challenges across a variety of engineering projects on this course run in collaboration with Dundee & Angus College. Prepare for a versatile career in the engineering and environmental industries on this work-focused degree.
You’ll learn how to apply environmental processes, policies and regulations to engineering challenges. For example, you'll explore ways to use renewable energy and recycled materials more effectively to help reduce carbon emissions.
The course is designed around practical learning, featuring a work placement, onsite visits, industry presentations and guest lectures. We do everything we can to help you strengthen your CV and professional experience while you study.
The 12-week work placement provides valuable workplace experience and helps you develop industry-relevant skills that employers are looking for. You'll also build useful professional contacts. Find out more.
In your first year, you'll study for a Higher National Certificate (HNC) at Dundee & Angus College, then move to Abertay from year two onwards. Find out more.
If your interests and career plans change, you can switch to another related degree at the end of first year. This is part of a portfolio of three engineering courses. Find out more.
Our Civil Engineering course (taught by the same lecturers) ranked 1st in Scotland for student satisfaction (Guardian University Guide 2025), and UK No. 2 for Student Experience (The Times Good University Guide, 2025).
Check out BSc (Hons) Environmental Management & Sustainability - Year 2 entry.
'Abertay’s Civil Engineering Course is fantastic. It was an intensive four years that covered a broad spectrum of subjects.'Graham Lawson | Avant Homes | Engineering Manager
This degree gives you all the tools you need to start a versatile career in a growing job market. The work placement means you can apply your learning in professional settings and improve your employability while you study. Potential roles include:
Environmental manager.
Environmental consultant.
Sustainability manager.
Health, Safety and Environmental manager.
Quality Assurance (QA) manager.
You'll also develop key employment skills that are transferable between engineering disciplines. This includes decision making, a creative approach to problem-solving, critical thinking, analytics and the ability to interpret data.
In your first year, you'll study for a Higher National Certificate (HNC) at Dundee & Angus College. This helps you develop strong technical knowledge, while building your practical engineering skills and professional confidence from day one.
On successful completion of the HNC, you'll be guaranteed the opportunity to join Year Two of our Environmental Management and Sustainability degree.
We'll support you throughout your transition into second year, helping you move smoothly from college into the university learning environment. As you progress, you'll continue to gain the technical knowledge and professional skills needed for a successful engineering career.
From the very start you’ll work with other students in teams, collaborating on real-world projects. With everyone taking different roles, you'll gain experience of how engineering teams operate in professional environments, building your confidence to manage people and projects.
Communication, good project management and team problem-solving are key.
You’ll study environmental, business and engineering modules, including topics such as:
Environmental science.
Environmental engineering.
Engineering science.
Sustainable construction materials.
Landscape processes.
Project management.
Climate change and waste management
Find out more in the modules section.
You’ll graduate with a strong environmental, business and engineering skillset, ready to contribute to sustainable infrastructure and environmental projects in this growing job market.
Around 70% of our students get involved with summer work placements in the engineering sector through connections they’ve made from their work placements or by networking. In fact, around 25% of our students go on to full-time employment with their work placement provider.
This is the kind of opportunity that leads to our very high employment rate after graduation.
You'll spend year one at the College, then join us at Abertay from year two onwards.
Learning at college is built around continuous assessment, so you won't sit any exams.
Term (semester) one: September to December
You'll be on campus at D&A roughly three days a week for 16 weeks. You'll study nine units over the first term, and be assessed on each one as you complete it. As there are no exams, your marks build up throughout each term.
Term two: January to May
From January you'll be on the D&A campus around two days a week for 16 weeks. Alongside your other units, you'll have one two-hour session per week covering your graded unit.
Your graded unit means you'll work on a single brief across three stages: planning, development and evaluation. This is where you show you can take an engineering problem from the initial idea right through to a finished, reviewed piece of work.
Progression from D&A to Abertay
During the first year you'll spend at least one session on campus at Abertay, so the move to the Abertay campus in year two feels familiar rather than completely new.
Abertay is at the cutting edge of engineering – both theoretical and practical – so from year two you'll study in a broad range of learning environments.
This includes the traditional lecture and tutorial format, student-led learning, interactive class sessions, field trips and site-visits, and a substantial element of lab and design work. Our class sizes are smaller than average, meaning we can spend more time with each student.
We encourage independent study, which means you take responsibility for your own learning. A variety of methods are used to assess your study, enabling you to demonstrate progress in different ways.
Coursework typically includes design challenges, laboratory reports, essays and oral presentations. Formal exams include questions that require short answers, problem-solving and design.
Your placement will be assessed by industrial and academic supervisors, as well as by report and oral presentation. In your final dissertation, you’re individually supported by one of our research-active members of staff.
We’ll challenge you to ask important questions, such as:
What does it take to plan and build structures?
Can construction materials be reclaimed to develop new roads?
Are sustainable construction and low energy building challenges being met?
How can we work with nature to deliver more sustainable engineering solutions?
Then we'll help you work out how to answer them.
This highly practical degree combines engineering principles with environmental science and management concepts. It equips you with the skills you need to lead teams who design and develop sustainable solutions to continually evolving engineering problems.
The course will also develop key employment skills that are transferable amongst engineering disciplines. This includes decision making, a creative approach to problem-solving, critical thinking, analytics and the ability to interpret data.
Tailor your studies to suit your ambitions and interests. After your first year HNC you can join another related engineering degree if you choose to.
This approach means you can keep your options open. So if you haven’t worked out exactly what you want to do yet, this is a great way to start. There’s plenty of academic support to help you decide – it’s an exciting choice to make.
The first-year HNC curriculum covers an introduction to engineering and all the specialisms, which means you can choose to move to one of the following:
We're here to help if that's what you decide to do, and your lecturers are more than happy to talk it through with you.
Please note: All applicants must have a pass in Maths - National 5 grade C or GCSE grade C/4 or equivalent.
Please visit our College Qualifications pages for suitable College courses.
Republic of Ireland applicants, please click on the UK tabs and scroll down to find your Entry Requirements.
See information about studying and applying to Abertay for International students.
If you have the potential and motivation to study at university, regardless of your background or personal circumstances, we welcome your application.
We understand some people have faced extra challenges before applying to university, which is why we consider the background in which your academic grades have been achieved when making an offer.
If you expect to receive passes in three Scottish Highers (grades A–C) and have...
been in care, or are a young carer yourself
attended a school or lived in an area where not many people go to university
are eligible for free school meals
are a young person estranged from your family
are a government-recognised refugee or have asylum seeker status
are a registered pupil with sustained engagement in a targeted aspiration-raising programme such as LIFT OFF, LEAPS, FOCUS West or Aspire North
... we encourage you to submit an application.
| Qualification Type | Grade Requirements | Essential Subjects |
|
Scottish National Certificate |
Pass | Built Environment |
| Higher (standard entry) | CC | Grade C in one of the following: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Design and Manufacture, Economics, Engineering Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Human Biology, Mathematics, Applications of Maths, Physics |
| A-Level | DD | Grade D in one of the following: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Design and Manufacture, Economics, Engineering Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Human Biology, Mathematics, Physics |
| T Level | Pass (D or E) | To include Design, Surveying & Planning for Construction / Onsite Construction / Building Services Engineering for Construction / Design & Development for Engineering & Manufacturing / Maintenance, Installation & Repair for Engineering & Manufacturing / Engineering, Manufacturing, Processing & Control / Agriculture, Land Management & Production. |
|
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017) |
H3H3 | To include H3 in one of: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Design and Manufacture, Economics, Engineering Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Human Biology, Mathematics, Physics |
|
International Baccalaureate Diploma Based Programme (IBDP) |
24 Points | With 3 subjects at minimum of S5 or H4 in one of: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Design and Manufacture, Economics, Engineering Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Human Biology, Maths Analysis & Approaches, Physics |
|
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) |
PPP | Construction and the Built Environment (all pathways) / Engineering |
Check out our BEng/MEng Civil and Environmental Engineering degree which starts in year two.
For 2027 entry, international applicants who require a Student visa (and therefore a CAS from Abertay University) can apply for Year 2 entry only.
Year 1 entry is not available for these applicants. Year 2 entry requires qualifications equivalent to Scottish Advanced Highers or A Levels. If your qualifications don't match these, we may still consider your application on a case-by-case basis.
This restriction doesn't apply to UK applicants, or to international applicants who don't need a Student visa to study in the UK.
The tuition fees you'll pay and the funding available to you depends on factors such as your nationality, location, personal circumstances and the course you're studying. If you’re studying a full-time undergraduate degree, your fee status will be classed as one of the following:
Scotland
England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland
International
Your fee status is typically based on the country where you've lived on a regular, non-temporary basis for the three years prior to the start of your course.
We’ll confirm your tuition fees once you’ve applied.
International includes applicants from EU countries who do not hold Pre-Settled or Settled Status in the UK. (Students from the Republic of Ireland are not included.)
|
Fee Status |
2026/27 |
2027/28 |
|
£1,820 (typically paid by SAAS) |
£1,820* (typically paid by SAAS) |
|
|
£9,790 |
Tuition fees for 2027 entry are being confirmed and will be published here. Fees shown are for 2026 entry.** |
|
|
£16,950 |
£16,950*** |
*For Scottish undergraduate students, tuition fees are set by the Scottish Government and confirmed annually. If the approved fee level changes in future, Abertay may update its published tuition fees in line with the confirmed government rate.
**Tuition fees for Rest of UK students are reviewed annually. Where permitted, the University may increase tuition fees for continuing students (those starting their course from September 2027) in line with changes to the maximum tuition fee cap set by the UK Government. Students should take the potential for future fee increases into account when planning the overall cost of their studies.
***Eligible international students will automatically receive a scholarship worth between £12,000-£28,000 over the duration of their course.
See more about tuition fees, grants, bursaries, tuition fee loans, maintenance loans and living costs in our undergraduate fees and funding section.
We offer a range of scholarships to help support your studies with us.
As well as Abertay scholarships for English, Welsh, Northern Irish and international students, there are a range of corporate and philanthropic scholarships available. Some are course specific, many are not. There are some listed below or you can visit the Undergraduate scholarship pages.
A scholarship for prospective undergraduate Science and Social Science students applying from England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
An award of up to £3,000 per year for up to a maximum of four years, for prospective new international undergraduate and postgraduate taught students.
Two £1,000 awards for students who have overcome challenges to attend university.
Grants of up to £500 from The Batchelor Trust for eligible Year 1 and 2 students facing financial hardship.
Find out what some of our Engineering graduates are doing now
We're keen to offer help to Ukrainian students who may wish to transfer from their existing institution in Ukraine or to register with us as new students for intake in September. There will be no tuition fees charged for the duration of the degree programme, as those with refugee status are treated as ‘Home/Scottish’ students and will also have access to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland bursary and student loans. Our Recruitment Team can help guide applicants.
The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats) is an official source of information about higher education. It collates comparable information in areas students have identified as important in making decisions about what and where to study.
Talk to lecturers, engage with current and past students, and see our perfect city centre campus.
If you're thinking about doing your degree here at Abertay, our undergraduate prospectus has all the info you need.
Everything you need to apply from UCAS deadlines to entry requirements.
Get all of your questions answered: call us, email us or chat online. We are here to help!
