The Department of Civil Engineering was established in 1968 at the same time as the then Institute of Higher Education, the prelude to the Institute of Technology and Unitech. It was one of the two pioneer Departments organized with the University, the other being the Surveying and Land Studies Department. In 1971 the Department graduated its first three Civil Engineers, a modest number but history in the making. The same number of graduates passed out in 1972. The numbers have grown steadily over the years to over 50 in 2017 and up to this year 2024. Being still the only Civil Engineering school in the country, it takes on the unenviable responsibility of educating and preparing graduates for the relevant responsibilities in the industry and employment destinations in the country. The Department was established with four main buildings, two of which were burned down in the fire of 1980. The buildings were rebuilt in 1982. An additional building has since been added to cater for the expansion in the department’s services, teaching and research, and material testing requirements. Both the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering were guests of the Civil Engineering Department until their respective buildings were completed. A succession of Heads of Department Name of HoD Status Citizenship Period of Tenure 1 Professor Laurenson Australian 1968 – 1971 2 Professor Don Mansell Australian 1972 – 1975 3 Professor Don Morley Australian 1976 – 1978 4 Mr Eric Cousins (Acting) English 1979 – 1982 5 Professor Rex Coates English 1983 – 1987 6 Professor Roy Halliwel English 1988 – 1990 7 Assoc Prof Puvanachandran (Acting) English/Sri Lankan 1991 (Part) 8 Professor Brian Young English 1991 – 2004 9 Mr Patrick Oai (Acting) Papua New Guinean 2005 – 2006 10 Professor Bashudha Indian 2007 11 Dr Fifaia Matainaho (Acting) Papua New Guinean 2008 12 Mr Chris Kobal (Acting) Papua New Guinean 2008 – 2010 13 Professor Yaip Telue Papua New Guinean 2010 – 2013 14 Chris Kobal (Acting) Papua New Guinean 2014 – 2018 15 Dr. Mirzi Betasolo Filipino 2019 – 2020 16. Dr. Revanuru Subramanyam Indian 2021 – 2022 17. Dr. Mirzi Betasolo Filipino 2023 A succession of Heads of School Name of HoS Status Citizenship Period of Tenure 1 Dr. Mirzi Betasolo Filipino 2024 Graduands The Department has seen the enrolment of several higher-degree candidates. It has as a result graduated 2 PhD and three Masters students. The Department has recently introduced two Masters programmes, by coursework and a project Thesis. This is in addition to the current Master of Philosophy and PhD programmes already available. The Department initially offered two degree streams, the Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering (BTech) and the Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering (BEng). It was later reduced to the current single degree when the Course was revised to have all students follow the same programme. To date, according to records, a total of over 1000 students have graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the Department. The enrollment records from 2019-2014 (the refreshed program, Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, Honours) are below:
