Online Civil Engineering Degrees in Demand

The naysayers continue to proclaim it's a failed experiment but more and more students are continuing to prove them wrong. Traditional and returning students are flocking to online degree programs in record numbers. Online degree program enrollments jumped by 1 million students in 2010. The eighth annual report of the Sloan Survey of Online Learning also pointed out that the 21% increase was even more significant when compared to only a 2 percent growth of enrollment for traditional curriculums.

It makes perfect sense to anyone paying attention to the economy. It's getting more and more difficult for students to afford the luxury of attending school on a full-time basis. Families are becoming less able to fund their children's or their own educations as they have to dip into IRAs and college funds just to keep food on the table and the lights burning.

What was not so expected is what field of study many of the online students are flocking to. The Villanova University College of Engineering is reporting that they are struggling to keep up with demand and will be adding three more distance education classrooms to their engineering programs. With enrollments that have doubled since 2003, Villanova and other major universities are seeing increased demand for their Master of Science (MS) in civil engineering programs. Yes, indeed, online education is fulfilling the needs of professionals needing advanced degrees in civil engineering to learn how to build bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings like the Queensboro Bridge in New York.

At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, enrollment in their MS Civil Engineering program has increased by 32 percent between 2007 and 2010. They too are adding additional classes to meet demand and are offering more downloadable course lectures on iTunes University.

The University of Florida, who started offering an online degree program in 2006, reports 30 percent of the students in their MS civil engineering degree program are online students.

Part of what might be driving this extraordinary growth in online engineering degree attendance is that many international corporations are requesting online programs be made available for their employees. Drexel University is working with over 200 corporations and professional associations to provide their employees and members with access to advanced degree programs.

Regardless of what is driving the increased demand for online programs in MS degrees in civil engineering, the good news is that the nation's top universities are listening and making their programs even more accessible to the students who need them.