Mechanical Engineering (with a placement year)

Our course has been designed for you to experience different aspects of Mechanical Engineering to enable you to develop your knowledge and skills and prepare you for a career in Engineering. Our Mechanical graduates have gone on to a range of engineering roles including design engineers, project engineers, systems engineers and mechanical engineers.

The course can offer you unique opportunities to engage with industry and to get involved in real life projects and this experience will help you develop, grow and have a great future as a modern engineer.

You will gain fundamental and advanced theoretical knowledge through a range of engineering topics with continuous opportunities to apply and evaluate this acquired knowledge in various practical situations using our mechanical engineering laboratory equipment. Alongside these subject specific skills, we’ll work with you to develop your employability and transferable skills, so you’ll be able to approach industry with confidence.

You will be surrounded by supportive and approachable teaching and technical staff and you will be offered opportunities to develop skills that underpin engineering and the chance to collaborate, communicate and be creative using our wide range of equipment. To maximise your practical experience, you will have opportunities to get hands-on with our cutting-edge facilities including, 3D scanners and 3D printers, rapid prototyping, laser cutters, wind turbine lab facilities and the latest Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software.

You will be encouraged to pursue a 9-12 months of work experience in industry between the second and final year of the course and you’ll be supported by our own placements team and careers staff with your CV preparation, interviews and careers skills to make sure you present yourself and your talent in the best possible way. For example, mechanical engineering students have gained placements previously with Bentley and Alton Towers amongst others.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award:

BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering (with a placement year)

Year 1: Applications of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 1, Engineering Mechanics, Engineering Professional Development, Engineering Thermofluids, Engineering Design and Practice, Engineering Mathematics 1.

Year 2: Engineering Mathematics 2, Engineering Product Commercialisation, Control Systems Analysis, Sustainability Group Project, Mechanical Design & Structures, Manufacturing Systems and Quality Management.

Year 3: Placement Year.

Year 4: Modern Power Plant Technologies, Manufacturing Technology and Operations, Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics, Structural Analysis and FEA, Engineering Project.

Your course will provide you with opportunities to test your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments that count towards your final mark. Each module normally includes practice or ‘formative’ assessments, for which you receive feedback from your tutor. Practice assessments are developmental and any grades you receive for them do not count towards your module mark. There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, such as essays, reports, portfolios, performance, presentations, final year, independent project and written examinations. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark.