Dec. 27—In the works for about four years, the University of Texas Permian Basin is poised to offer a civil engineering program starting in fall 2025.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the civil engineering field faces a shortage of trained engineers and the supporting engineering technicians and technologists who help those engineers build, operate, and maintain our key pieces of civil infrastructure.
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Behzad Behnia said civil engineering is one of the top fields in advanced technology and manufacturing overall. He added that by the time students reach their senior year, they will already have a job offer.
“Salaries in the oil and gas industry (are) amazing. The good thing about here, in addition to traditional civil engineering jobs, students have the opportunity to go (into the) oil and gas industry, which is something unique for our area,” Behnia said.
Raj Dakshinamurthy, UTPB Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, said UTPB launched the College of Engineering in 2018. Since then, they have been offering four undergraduate programs — mechanical, petroleum, electrical and chemical.
They have been offering mechanical and petroleum engineering for almost 20 years, Dakshinamurthy said. Electrical and chemical are the newer programs. Dakshinamurthy added that based on feedback from advisory boards, partners such as the Midland Development Corporation and Odessa Development Corporation, a Perryman Group report and others, there is a “huge need” for civil engineers in the Permian Basin.
This can be civil engineers for transportation, construction, environmental and many jobs.
“There is a huge scarcity (of civil engineers) and there is, as Dr. Behnia mentioned … no other civil engineering program within 150-mile radius,” Dakshinamurthy said.
Other area schools offering civil engineering are Angelo State University or Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
“We have opportunity here in the Permian Basin to grow our own talent, train them, graduate them, retain them here, because we have the resources to do it. That’s when we put together a team of people four years ago, to start drafting the program proposal and start getting all the approvals from in Austin, as well as other agencies, to launch the program” in 2025, Dakshinamurthy said.
Dakshinamurthy said UTPB’s program is going to be unique compared to other programs.
“We are going to provide as much flexibility as possible. We want to design this program based on the students’ interest. Many of our students are non-traditional. They have a part-time or even a full-time job,” Dakshinamurthy said.
They are going to offer evening classes, hybrid classes, hands-on classes in the summertime. Dakshinamurthy added that they may try to adapt some of the features in different disciplines.
Dakshinamurthy and Behnia said they will visit local high schools and community colleges to let them know about the program. they will also interact with the marketing, recruitment and enrollment team to attract prospective students.
Dakshinamurthy said the goal is to launch the program next year and then see where they are four to five years down the road and pursue Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation for the degree.
“We are looking at anyone within UT Permian Basin who wants to pursue an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, as well as freshman students who want to start fresh,” Dakshinamurthy said. “This is a multi-prong approach. One is collaboration internally; one is outreach activities across the community. We have more work to do. We are in the process of launching more additional marketing campaigns, specifically targeting putting him (Behnia) out there,” to talk to students and parents.
Dakshinamurthy said they had a lot of traffic during Falcon Day where students and parents get a glimpse of college life, hear from current students about their college experience, and gain important information, UTPB’s website said. They cover everything from financial aid, residential living and student activities. College and academic department representatives are available to answer questions.
“We had three Falcon days this semester so far, and we had a heavy interest in the civil engineering program. We hope to see a good incoming class for fall of 2025,” Dakshinamurthy said.
They don’t have a figure for the maximum number of students at this time. There is only one faculty member at this time, Behnia, so they are in the process of hiring a couple of more.
“We are ready to make actual investments in the form of infrastructure as well as new faculty positions. We want to see how the next year goes, and we want to go from there,” Dakshinamurthy said.
Behnia said he is very excited about building the civil engineering program.
“I see a lot of growth for this program in the next few years,” Behnia added.
“Overall, there has been very positive feedback from the community, from industry and I’m very hopeful that we can serve the Permian Basin area with this program,” Behnia said.
Dakshinamurthy said they started the process of putting the program together in 2021, put a proposal together and sought internal approvals. They got UT System and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval in 2022 and from Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in 2023.
They conducted a national search to hire faculty. Behnia started three months ago and is teaching general engineering classes and working with Dakshinamurthy to prepare to start the program in fall 2025.
“He’s working on the curriculum, the labs. We need to put together the infrastructure to teach. That’s a planning process. We are finding resources on how to furnish these labs, what type of instruments we need and so on. That’s what we are going through right now,” Dakshinamurthy added.