Masters of Structural Engineering Degree 1

[Garoppolo]

Hi All,

I am about 5 years in the workforce and am about to begin becoming chartered in structural engineering through engineers Australia.

Whilst looking into this, I saw the option to potentially do a masters in structural engineering.

From the people here, are there real benefits in going down the route of getting a masters degree? Is it beneficial for career progression, pay, extra knowledge etc? I believe that the $40k that it cost would be covered by the consulting firm that I work at.

I don't believe that there is a great deal in my current role/company that requires getting a Master, but to maximise future opportunities I can see the benefit in having one. Also looking into a few Universities in Australia there are plenty of courses that I would be interested in taking to further develop my understanding.

Any feedback as to the pros and cons would be greatly appreciated.

 

[human909]

I now have a long list of books to buy/read!

If you'd care to share that list in this thread then I'd appreciate that. I might find one or two books there that would help.

Its disappointing to hear peoples comments on state of Australian unis.

It is spread far and wide and well beyond Engineering. But rot is most acute in vocational degrees due to the type of demand and the type of teaching. There are many mediocre lecturers as most of the good engineers are practicing not academics, and the good academics are not good teachers. Likewise on the demand side you get numerous international students paying vast sums for vocational degrees and incentivising institutions to lower the pass thresholds.

Its disappointing to hear peoples comments on state of Australian unis. Many young engineers like me are likely embarking down the masters route now hoping to progress their careers for it to potentially be a waste of time/money.

I hope not. I think most competent people get a toehold into the workforce without further study. Those who go onto further study are often those struggling in the workplace. (This doesn't apply to all areas, eg science you pretty much need minimum honours if not masters.)


While my comments may sound jaded, it is not without perspective. I was somebody who went back to study Masters of Engineer and Unimelb after having done a different undergrad and struggling to find a suitable 'career' with my previous studies.

 

[IDS]

A different perspective:

I started work in Australia in 1985, having graduated in the UK in 1972. I started a part-time Master of Engineering Science course in 1986 at UNSW, through the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra (it was about 50/50 military and external students). I found the course interesting and the standard of teaching excellent, and the research component turned out to be directly relevant to a job opportunity 7 year later with a company developing a new product, and is still relevant to the work I do today.

In more recent years I have done part time lecturing work (again at UNSW) and I have found all the academic engineers I work with keenly involved with engineering, knowledgeable, and actively engaged with practical engineering.

Of course there are conflicting commercial interests for universities, and they are far from perfect, but then they always were.

For anyone with a few years practical experience and the opportunity to do a masters course in engineering, I'd say go for it. The end result may not fit your future career as well as it did for me, but contrary to what others have suggested I am sure there are many opportunities with companies looking for staff who have something to offer above a bachelors degree level education, including design consultants, material and product suppliers, and contractors.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[bugbus]

In more recent years I have done part time lecturing work (again at UNSW)

I am interested to know how you got into this gig? It is something that I would be interested to do at some point in the future. I have a few contacts at UNSW and USyd that I could reach out to from back when I did the PhD. I always really enjoyed the teaching aspect of the work (running tutorials for various structural engineering subjects), even though the research aspect wasn't my favourite.

 

[IDS]

gusmurr - it was mainly through contacts made through the Concrete Institute. If you send an e-mail to my gmail account (dougaj4) I can be more specific.


Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[Garoppolo]

If you'd care to share that list in this thread then I'd appreciate that. I might find one or two books there that would help.

Human909 refer to the below list of books that I have read or want to read in the recent/near future. Most of these should be fairly known titles I believe. Hope this helps.

Concrete Construction Engineering Handbook Edward G. Nawy
Wind Loading of Structures, 4th edition John D. Holmes
Designing Tall Buildings: Structure as Architecture Mark Sarkisian
Structural Design for Fire Safety Andrew H. Buchanan
Composite Structures of Steel and Concrete: Beams, Slabs, Columns and Frames for Buildings Roger P. Johnson
Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Structures - 2nd Edition Hardcover M.J.N. Priestley
Dynamics of Structures in SI Units Anil Chopra
Finite-Element Design of Concrete Structures, 2nd edition: Practical Problems and their Solutions GA Rombach
Time-Dependent Behavior of Concrete Structures Raymond Ian Gilbert
Tall Building Foundation Design Paperback Harry G. Poulos

 

[human909]

Human909 refer to the below list of books that I have read or want to read in the recent/near future.

Thanks Garoppolo.

Also I have just noticed that you have only recently joined this forum. Try sticking around.

Reading and answering other peoples questions can greatly expand your knowledge. While many questions are genuinely basic you never know what in depth discussion can occur or what windows into other areas of engineering might be opened up by simple questions. Who ever thought that a question about a

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=459248[/URL]]simple fly brace

could inspire so much discussion including question of the validity of some aspects of AS4100 and expanded blog posts about rational buckling analysis.

A different perspective..

In more recent years I have done part time lecturing work (again at UNSW) and I have found all the academic engineers I work with keenly involved with engineering, knowledgeable, and actively engaged with practical engineering.

Nice to here an unjaded and non cynical view on things... The only two lecturers that I have at Melbourne Uni that were decent were those with real work engineering experience.

I also was a mediocre student when I returned to study strucural engineering, so I'm also partly to blame for a poor experience. Thankfully my enthusiasm and aptitude have help make up for me being a bad student. (I hope anyway!)

 

[IDS]

Nice to here an unjaded and non cynical view on things...

No doubt the real world is somewhere between the two extremes


Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/