The profession of a rock engineer is not defined in any academic curriculum. We discuss the professional requirements for civil engineering or mining engineering applications and recommend the necessary classes to form a competent rock engineer. Emphasis is placed on the knowledge about the creation of the appropriate geological and geotechnical model through abstraction of results from site investigation and rock mechanical principles. Design analysis and constructability are further important parts in rock engineering education. The key challenge is, however, to recruit students into entering this rewarding professional career and to provide proper education to them. As most universities tend to hire basic scientists there is little conveyance of personal experience from rock engineering practitioners and little appreciation for rock engineering works.
There is a consistent demand for competent rock engineers for both, civil engineering, and mining projects. However, few university entries choose this demanding career path although it is one of the most fulfilling professions that can be exercised. It is true that the presently advertised work-life balance is difficult to achieve when the site is not near home or at remote places. However, the benefits in terms of income and professional satisfaction go along with growing competence gained from lifelong project work with rock masses.
How to inspire young people to choose rock engineering as a career and to get competent in that area? The goal must be to teach students how to make design decisions with incomplete information about the proper geological model, with strong but not necessarily correct assumptions about the mechanical behavior of a rock mass in response to excavation and the ability to evaluate the ever more sprawl of numerical models by applying the principles of mechanics. Towards this, appreciation of sketchy geology, rock mechanical basics and construction technology should be enthusiastically taught by academics AND practitioners who experienced their shares of failures in rock engineering issues. The very nature of failure is inherent in rock engineering and should be embraced as necessary backslashes towards the development of personal competence.
