MSc Geotechnical Engineering

The Geotechnics Section in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London is delighted to offer a world-leading selection of specialist MSc courses in Geotechnical Engineering. Our aim is to provide students with an understanding of the mechanics, behaviour and properties of soils and soft rocks to enable them to contribute to applications including tunnelling, offshore wind, geothermal energy, infrastructure, and foundations to landmark building.

Our MSc in Geotechnical Engineering equips students with the fundamental skills and knowledge to enable them to work as geotechnical specialists. We also offer four MSc courses that allow students to focus on specific aspects of geotechnical engineering, these are the MSc in Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering, the MSc in Geotechnical and Geological Engineering,  the MSc Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, and the MSc in Geotechnical Engineering with Data Science.

These are postgraduate taught courses. Each year we welcome students with bachelor’s degrees (BEng or BSc) or master’s degrees (MEng of MSc) in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, geology, geophysics, earth science, and science from all over the world.

Unique features of our MSc programme

1. Students can participate in a comprehensive series of specialist post-graduate modules and complete their own master’s research project within a single academic year (12-month period).
2. There are opportunities to interact with industry throughout the programme. We operate an Industrial MSc Bursary scheme, which provides competitive scholarship awards funded by industry. The participating companies hold recruiting events, deliver lectures, and often participate in social events such as our start of term reception.
3. Graduates from our programme are highly regarded; in recent years some of our alumni have been awarded the British Geotechnical Association Dissertation Prize and the prestigious Cooling Prize, based on their MSc research dissertations. Our alumni pages can give you an idea of what our former students have achieved. Please also check out the videos below .
4. The UK graduate visa programme allows international graduates to remain to work in the UK post graduation.
5. Our staff are internationally renowned and include academics who have been invited to give the British Geotechnical Association Rankine Lecture and the Géotechnique lecture, as well as a numerous high profile international lectures. Our research pages summarize staff achievements and current research projects.
6. Some students select to complete their studies over two years. These students study full time for the duration of the Autumn term in their first year. Then, they return to us again as full-time students for the Spring term of their second year.
7. There are three field trips, including a fantastic one-week trip to Southern Europe each summer.
8. Students can access world leading research facilities including our specialist soil mechanics laboratories, specialist geotechnical software, and the high-performance computing facilities at Imperial College London.
9. The prestigious British Geotechnical Association Rankine Lecture is held on campus each year, and each year we host the annual pre-Rankine seminar. Both events provide the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research and network with geotechnical engineers from all over the world. All without leaving the campus!
10. One member of the academic staff is assigned as a personal tutor to each student. In their tutor role, staff can provide bespoke advice to each student, signpost resources in college and can act as referees to students applying for jobs post-graduation.

To complete the MSc, all students must undertake all modules listed under their programme title.  

Apply Now

We hope you have found all of the information you need to reach a decision. If you would like to apply for this programme, please follow the application instructions here: Application Information and application link.