Do you dream of buildings, bridges, railways, and water channels, helping to meet the needs of communities in safe and sustainable ways? Our two-year, high value course of study will enable you to conceive, design and build buildings, systems and infrastructure in the public and private sector; including roads, airports, tunnels, dam and sewage treatment.
Two years full-time
2025 Semester 1: 24 February to 28 November
Students who have already completed some study in this qualification may join SIT in semester 2. Please contact Carlo Gabriel carlo.gabriel@sit.ac.nz for potential study options.
This programme is eligible for the Zero Fees Scheme.
International Fees can be found here.
The SIT Zero Fees Scheme (ZFS) is subject to NZ government policies.
The course acts as a foundational year for advanced civil engineering and is designed to upskill students for advanced studies and career opportunities.
You will:
Engineers can find themselves working in many different disciplines and environments, from overseeing maintenance operations to designing and building engineered solutions, the range of career options is vast, varied and challenging.
Technology used on the course:
Software
Adobe Suite
AutoCAD
BIM360
Civil 3D
Inventor Professional
Revit
Ansys
EES Equation Solver
Matlab
MDSolids
Solid Works
SAP 2000
Rapid Traffic Management
Hardware
3D Printer
Total Station
GNSS System
Laser Cutter
Robotic Arm 3D Printer
Year One
DE4101 Engineering fundamentals
To introduce the basic fundamentals of a range of engineering strands.
DE4102 Engineering Mathematics
To develop mathematical skills, concepts and understanding in order to perform calculations and solve problems within engineering contexts.
DE4103 Technical Literacy
To develop technical research skills along with oral, written, graphical and interpersonal communication skills.
DE4201 Materials (Civil)
To introduce the fundamentals of geological and geomorphological processes and the properties and application of a range of civil engineering materials.
DE4202 Land Surveying 1
To understand and apply the theoretical and practical concepts of Land Surveying.
DE5201 Structures 1
To analyse structural elements and simple structures.
DE5202 Civil and Structural Drawing
To develop skills required to produce civil engineering and structural drawings.
DE5207 Geotechnical Engineering
To introduce the fundamentals of soil composition, the engineering properties of soils, and site investigation procedures.
Year Two
DE5203 Hydraulics (Civil)
To introduce the principles of fluid mechanics and apply them in civil engineering hydraulic applications.
DE5204 Highway Engineering 1
To introduce the fundamentals of road materials, road construction practices, principles of drainage design, and basic geometrical alignment of a road.
DE5206 Structures 2
To develop further knowledge of structural analysis and structural design.
DE6101 Engineering Management
To develop the knowledge and skills required to administer and manage projects effectively in a specific strand of engineering.
DE6102 Engineering Project (Civil)
To apply knowledge and problem-solving skills to plan and complete an engineering project relevant to the strand studied (civil, mechanical, electrical or electronics) to accepted practice and standards from a given specification.
DE6201 Geotechnical Engineering 2
To develop further knowledge of the principles and practice of geotechnical engineering.
DE6205 Water and Wastewater systems
To evaluate the requirements of, and design water, wastewater and storm water reticulation systems.
DE6207 Land surveying 2
To develop further land surveying knowledge and skills.
Civil Engineers design and build roads, structures, utility infrastructure and buildings. Civil is the broadest field of engineering and can involve working in construction, materials, maintenance and utility operations.
It is expected that graduates will attain the educational underpinnings and work ready attributes defined in the ENZ Graduate Profile for Engineering Technicians. The graduate profile defined by ENZ is benchmarked internationally to the exemplar graduate attributes for graduates of technician education programmes recognised under the Dublin Accord.
For entry to this programme, applicants are required to have
English Language Requirements
Applicants, whose first language is not English, or who come from a country where the language of instruction in schools is not English, are required to provide evidence of having achieved one of the following
NCEA Level 3 with University Entrance, or
an International Baccalaureate Diploma or Cambridge A- level qualification for which the teaching and assessment was conducted in English; or
Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA),or Trinity College London Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CertTESOL);or
Successful completion of all primary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand primary school years 1 to 8) and at least three years of secondary education (being the equivalent of three years from New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand,,Australia,Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States one of the countries listed in Rule 18.5 where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or
Successful completion of at least five years of secondary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or
Successful completion of a Bachelor's Degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, Bachelor Honours degree, Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters' Degree or Doctoral Degree, the language of instruction of which must be in English and which must be from a tertiary education provider from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States or
Successful completion of one of the following internationally recognised proficiency tests listed below to the level required of the programme of study and with all scores achieved in a single test during the two years preceding the proposed date of enrolment
IELTS test - Academic score of 6 with no band score lower than 5.5 TOEFL Paper based test (pBT) - Score of 550 (with an essay score 5 TWE) TOEFL Internet based test (iBT) - Score of 60 (with a writing score of 18) Cambridge English Examination - B2 First or B2 First for schools or C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency with a score of 169. No less than 162 in each skill. OET - Minimum of Grade C or 200 in all sub-tests NZCEL - a) Expiring Level b) Current: a) Level 4 (Academic) b) Level 4 (Academic) Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE (Academic) score of 50 with no band score lower than 42 Language Cert - C1 Expert International ESOL Written (LRW) PASS with no less than 25/50 in each skill and Spoken (S) PASS Trinity ISE - ISE II with no less than distinction in any band
* New versions of some NZCEL qualifications, and in some cases new qualifications, were published on 13 June 2017. These are intended to replace pre-existing versions and qualifications, which have been given expiring status until discontinued on 31 December 2019. (a) denotes expiring (b) denotes current
New Zealand Diploma in Engineering:
For students to be considered to have satisfactorily completed this programme, and to be eligible for award of the qualification “New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Civil)”, they must have:
Shown competence in all of the scheduled units, to a minimum of 240 credits in the specified strand, and upon application to NZQA.
(Please note – students failing to attend for 80% of timetabled programme hours will forfeit zero fees entitlement)
Classes are held Monday to Friday, 9.00am-5.00pm at SIT's Invercargill campus.
Night classes may be available. Please contact Carlo Garbiel here for more information.