Engineering degree- BEng or MEng/ Mech Eng if not sure of focus?

[CatM1nt]

And which engineering degree for best job prospects?

You may have two issues here?
By ‘focus’ are you saying they don’t know which branch of engineering they are interested in?
Can they rule any branch out?
There are more general engineering degrees, eg York do one that covers a few branches.
I think you’d need to narrow the branch down before you think about the level of degree. No point doing 4 yr MEng in something if a year in that something turns out not to be the branch they are interested in.

Def doesn’t want to do Civil or Bio. May be interested in electrical but not particularly or sure at this stage. Likes a bit of coding, puzzling things out and practical scenarios re engineering. Mentioned robotics a while back as a potential interest but not a burning interest. Scrolling through the diff MEng syllabus he thinks they may be the best fit. If he changed and thought materials, electrical or robotics were his thing would an MEng be a big mistake?

It’s Mech engineering degrees he’s looking at.

MEng just means Master of Engineering. BEng is Bachelors. You can get MEng in any Engineering discipline.

Is your question, what type of engineering someone should choose if they don't know what to do as a career. A general engineering degree from eg York, Durham, Cambridge are very well respected options. You do lots of different types in the first year and then specialise further in years 2,3,4

You will do bits of materials engineering as part of a mechanical engineering degree, but less of the other two.

Robotics/electrical eng and mechanical are really quite different, so he/she probably needs to do some more thinking about which captures their interests better

York and Durham don’t seem to do general engineering. It’s Electical or Mech. Think we’ve seen a couple of Mech/ Electrucal degrees elsewhere.

What are the advantages between BEng and MEng?York and Durham don’t seem to be high on the best course list for engineering.

York do Engineering, either BEng or MEng. And I’m just using it as an example, I don’t know if it’s rated or not.
www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/beng-engineering/
A Masters degree takes longer as it’s a higher level. In the old days, I believe, you needed the Batchelors degree before you did a Masters, but now you can go straight into a Masters but needing higher entry grades.
So, in theory, it would put the holder in a better position but some employers may think you’re over qualified. You’d need to look at job adverts or wait for Engineering employers to come along to advise.

York want AAA for the MEng but only ABB for the BEng, and it covers
‘At the beginning of your course, you'll develop a solid foundation in mechanical, electrical and electronic principles and programming.’, so a mixture.

To reiterate: MEng is not Mechanical Engineering. It's a Masters in Engineering, normally taking four years rather than three with a greater project/innovative work component.

A lot of places offer MEng as standard because to become a Chartered Engineer you need (among other things) a Masters. (My son is about to start his fourth year.) If you did a BEng to start with you'd need further study alongside a job before achieving Chartered status.

How old is your son? If he's thirteen then he's got time to refine his thinking but if he's seventeen and about to start applying it might be best to go for a more generalist degree. In which case the next question is what sort of level is he working at?

If he's about to start Y11 or under, have you heard of the Arkwright scholarships?

Agreed, the main advantage of doing an MEng is that a masters-level degree is a requirement of becoming chartered. With a BEng, further study would be required - either a 1 year masters after graduation or study alongside work.

Yes know that MENg is not Mechanicsl Engineering.

He is trying decide between Mechanical or Electrical and wondering whether to do a BEng or MEng in either.

He is going into year 13. Seems so early to decide when you’ve not had much experience.

I'd say also look at whether they offer a year working in industry.

There is currently lots of work for electrical engineers in the microchip industry, and there are opportunities to work all around the world.

So, firstly, sounds like a general engineering degree which includes mech and elec may be best, to keep his options open, then specialising more in the last year.
The chartered thing does make it more tricky for MEng/beng.
If doing MEng then by definition it would need to be at a lower ranked uni using the same A level grades. Which then may not be as good for prospects, if employers put a lot of emphasis on where the degree came from.
If doing beng then can do it at a higher ranked uni with same A levels which may be better for prospects but if wanting to get chartered then more work later.
That’s really tricky without knowing what recruiters think.

Maybe pose the question differently - in 6 years time which company or type of company would you like to work for and doing what ideally, and then look at their recruitment requirements.

Has he looked at aerospace engineering? It includes coding, electronics, materials, design, and mechanical during the programme.

Has he considered engineering mathematics at Bristol? Worth a look. V broad in areas that might suit him.

Please check if it’s endorsed by the main engineering bodies, I know it wasn’t when it first came out, but was endorsed by the professional maths organisations I think.

Some universities e.g. Birmingham, offer a general engineering programme with the option to choose your pathway after then. So you get a BEng/MEng in your chosen Engineering area - Mechanical, Electrical, Civil etc but have the flexibility of a year to decide what route you want to go down.

I wouldn’t worry too much about BEng vs MEng. If you have the right grades/first year marks there’s normally the option to switch to an MEng and its normally straightforward to change from an MEng to BEng. This should be on each university’s website.

As others have said, there are also really interesting new/niche engineering disciplines, e.g.aerospace, materials science which are worth looking at. The best advice is to try and get to one of the early autumn open days/online events and speak to admissions tutors & current students.

An MEng will give him chartered status, so that's a no-brainer surely? If he want to be an engineer he can't be with just the BEng.

@titchy I’m not sure it is a no-brainer, because the entry requirements are different. ABB would get you onto the York BEng, but if you wanted an MEng with those grades you would need to go to a lower ranked (probably) uni. Say York was the most respected course then you may choose the BEng from York over an MEng from somewhere else.
However, we don’t know unless Engineering recruiters come on.
They may say that MEng is usually required.

I'd have thought most would choose thebMEng even from a lower ranked institution - largely because for vocational courses the rank is irrelevant as long as the course is accredited. Plus post 92 sector is largely made up of places designed to offer proper content that employers ask for, and often sandwich placements.

But if rank is important to him then as others have said transferring to integrated Masters is often straightforward - though will use up his 'spare' year of loan funding.

What/who would the BEng be for?