Engineering geology and geotechnics: the role of higher education with particular reference to the undergraduate programme at Portsmouth

The Honours degree in Engineering Geology and Geotechnics, founded at the (then) Portsmouth College of Technology in 1967, is the only UK full undergraduate programme in Engineering Geology to have been in continuous operation since the founding of the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology in that year. Now part of the portfolio of the University of Portsmouth, the vocational nature of the programme is made clear and the evolution of the curriculum over the years discussed in the light of the changes in Higher Education more generally in the UK and the EU. The student context is reviewed and the fulfilment of the intention to prepare graduates for immediate employment in engineering geology and geotechnology explored.