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News Release

December 22, 2005

Environmental Engineering Gets Top Marks

The University of Guelph’s environmental engineering program is a leader in North America, according to an Australian survey.

The program beat out seven Canadian and American university programs surveyed by Gary Codner, a civil engineering professor and director of the environmental engineering undergraduate program at Monash University.

In his survey, called “The Future for Environmental Engineering,” Codner compared seven programs in Canada and the United States with the Monash degree program. Besides Guelph, he looked at the University of Waterloo, the University of Windsor and the University of British Columbia. In the United States, he visited Georgia Tech, the University of New Orleans and the University of California at Berkeley.

“In general, environmental engineering education is currently not doing well in England, America and Canada,” the report said. “The major exception to this was the University of Guelph course, which is strongly supported by local industry and has very strong student demand.” Codner praised the structure and philosophy of U of G’s program and said the interdisciplinary courses and co-operation are attracting students.

Referring to the paper's emphasis on Guelph’s interdisciplinary program, industry support and student demand, Prof. Doug Joy, acting associate director of the School of Engineering, said: “I was delighted to see it.”

Joy said U of G’s program has three key strengths: a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary curriculum, a strong engineering design theme, and faculty members’ research interests. Students like the broadly based program, ranging from water and air pollution to solid-waste management to soil remediation and risk management. Because Guelph has a relatively small engineering school compared with those of other universities, students learn from varied science and engineering faculty here, Joy said.

About 180 undergraduate students are enrolled in Guelph’s environmental engineering program — one of four programs offered by the School of Engineering. Just over half of those students are in co-op programs, and more than half are female. Between 45 and 50 first-year students enter the program each year.