The construction project

The project-based approach of the civil engineering course encourages the independence of the students during the learning process and is characterised by its orientation towards real tasks taken from professional practice. It is only by the practical implementation of what one has learned that knowledge can be absorbed and the relationship between theory and practice fully grasped. More importantly, this provides an opportunity to learn the soft skills which are of such importance in nearly all academic fields: communication, research, presentation, flexibility and creativity. Furthermore, contact between the students and teaching staff is far closer in a project-based approach than with other teaching methods, which in turn promotes a more intense exploration of the subject matter and makes it easier to remedy shortcomings.

As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe observed in the year 1831:

“No man learns by listening alone and he who does not make an active effort in certain matters has a purely superficial and incomplete knowledge.”