[11] The department offers both undergraduate and postgraduate level studies, as well as a number of short courses for practising engineers.

[12] The department has study-abroad arrangements with universities in Europe, including ETH Zurich, TU-Delft, École des ponts ParisTech and ENSHM Grenoble, as well as in America, Australia and Hong Kong.

All students graduating with any of the postgraduate degrees (MSc, PhD or EngD) are also awarded the Diploma of Imperial College, DIC.

It covers mainly standard reference textbooks, academic journals, proceedings of conferences, geological maps, theses, electronic information resources and a collection of old historic books, some of which date back to the 19th century.

[citation needed] From the department's academics, two[18] have been knighted, several others have received other classes of the Order of the British Empire, five[19] people received the Institution of Structural Engineers Gold Medal, nine[20] people delivered the British Geotechnical Association Rankine Lecture and several have been Fellows of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering and have delivered the Geotechnique Lecture.

[citation needed] Several notable people have passed from it and some of them are (in alphabetical order): Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, (ICE) Paul Jowitt[22] is an alumnus of the department.

The current Head of the Civil & Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), Andrew J. Whittle[27][28] is also a graduate of the department.