Engineering university choices....pls help

[Canadalife]

Hello..we seek help and advice for lovely DD. My daughter is applying for general engineering this September. She is doing Maths, Further Maths and Physics A levels...predicted grades A,A A...poss Oxford.Definetly not London ie no Imperial. She is considering oxford , Durham, Warwick, Cardiff and Sheffield. Does anyone have any experience with any of these unis/cities, or other unis they’d recommend us looking at for engineering? All help gratefully received.. Thank you .

I'm an engineering teacher. I have had many students go to The University of Nottingham which has a great engineering department. Also Nottingham Trent university. I went to Trent myself and loved it. But I think Nottingham University has better facilities and international links. (Don't tell anyone I said that, big rivalry between the 2 uni's ;)

Not really, twinkle. Two different playing fields.

at the moment she is not clear what the specialism will be. That is part of what she is trying to work out.

Does she know the saying "do it once and do it right"?
If she is really undecided then she will be better off taking an extra year to think about it all, rather than rushing into signing up to the wrong course. Better to be the tortoise than the hare.
I'm not saying skip UCAS next term because going through that is quite a learning curve (especially Oxbridge; for many people it is a two-year process) but she can do it in a light-hearted, not-written-in-stone sort of way.

I'll throw in "measure twice, cut once" too.

OP, regarding work experience, many of the unis we have looked at offer a year in industry midway through the course. It's definitely something my ds is interested in.

Also, for Civil Engineering I know students can apply to the Quest(?) programme which links them with companies who give them paid work in the holidays etc. Don't know if there are similar schemes for other disciplines

I work in an engineering field, we work with Nottingham & Leeds a lot although most of my colleagues went to Imperial

“Engineering” is a vast field. I’m a civil engineer, my skills and knowledge are completely different to those of a mechanical/aeronautical/marine/bio/structural engineer etc. The common ground probably only covers the first year. Different universities will have different strengths (ie Newcastle for Civils). .

IME, engineering graduates are expected to work towards chartership through the professional institution of that discipline it: Institution of Civil Engineers. With a general engineering degree i’d check that the course is recognised by/affiliated with the professional institutions that your DD is interested in, otherwise she may well be in for a lot of postgraduate and evening study.

Regardless of the discipline, i’d Look at the outcome destinations of the course graduates and see where the courses you are considering tend to lead.

I appreciate it’s hard at this stage to really nail down your fiend of interest, but saying you are interested in “engineering” is a bit like saying you are interested in “humanities” - 2 branches of engineering - say aeronautical and bio - are as different as say physical geography and medieval history - but could still sit under the same umbrella. Even if your dd died today know what she is interested in, then maybe she could eliminate some areas that she is not interested in.

I did engineering at Cambridge, specialising in civil/structural after two years. It didn't feel like we covered it in any less depth than other universities. One big plus is having university accommodation which is cheaper per week and only pay 30 weeks a year.

Is she only doing maths, FM and physics? I thought a lot of places didn't let you count maths and FM.

I thought a lot of places didn't let you count maths and FM.

Fwiw, we emailed a couple of admissions people at Oxford and Imperial about only doing Maths, FM, and one other subject, and all four replies said it was absolutely fine. I'd always recommend if anyone has any specific questions like that, to go straight to the horse's mouth rather than relying on MN.

I can see lots of advantages to these but what might be the disadvantages?

I looked at the Dyson apprenticeship degree, and it looks amazing - the one major disadvantage is that you live on the Dyson campus, so it's a completely different experience to going to the affiliated university. University isn't only about the education for most people.

Maths, Further Maths and Physics was fine for DS and Electronic Engineering at UCL.

In fact, anyone that didn’t have FM had to do a catch-up course, starting in the summer holidays.

Atia, I wasn't suggesting they just go by MN but to check the entry requirements to make sure before they set their heart on whichever place they want.

I wasn't suggesting they just go by MN - Seeing as you didn't say anything like that, no, I didn't think you were. I was adding my own experience and advice. Not everything on this site has to be an argument [grin

Whatsthe most medical schools don't count maths and FM as 2 A levels if the student is taking 3. Engineering is different.

Sheffield University either own or are massive stakeholders of AMRC. OH works with them and says the university is very higly regarded for engineering. There are also opportunities to take apprenticeship degrees.

The AMRC would be a brilliant opportunity.

I would be wary about apprenticeships in Dyson. Dyson also have a poor reputation as an employer.

Most important is that the course is right and it is what she wants to do. Then she needs to like the environment and look at what is right for her. She will be living there for 4 or 5 years.
My DD looked at loads (as she also visited universities the year before with her sister). She knew she wanted to be able to be local to the university - hated the idea of having to get daily buses etc as she gets travel sick. The university she loved on sight was Leeds. She also liked Sheffield (Diamond building is amazing), Manchester (but engineering is away from the main university), Liverpool (as a backup choice as lower requirements). She did a Headstart course at Birmingham and liked it there. We were impressed with Nottingham but DD not as much.
She wasn't keen on Warwick, Oxford or Durham, the course wasn't what she wanted and she wasn't comfortable there - but I know friends of hers there and they love the universities. She also knew she didn't want to go to London.
At Leeds, she lived on campus for the first year (quite expensive) which was only a short walk into the city. But she doesn't go into the city that often. For 2nd and now 3rd year, she lives about 10 minutes walk away from the campus. She pays about £100 per week for accommodation including bills - there are cheaper options. She spends a lot of time in the engineering buildings and library, it is full-on - including evenings and weekends particularly close to exams or deadlines. She lives with students off other courses who don't have to put the same amount of time in to their studies. She is having a great time and enjoys the social side as well as her course.

I don’t think Engineering course are so niche that you have to make that your first decision point.

I have advised my own children to select city vs campus-within-a-city vs remote-campus as their first choice.

For Engineering, I would suggest a first year that covers all four branches - not because they are undecided, but that they will be working in multidisciplinary teams when they enter the real world.

Then, how is the course structured in terms of electives and assessment. I didn’t get any choice in my Chemical Engineering degree - we all did exactly the same modules.

Then I would look at extra-curriculars, and finally ease of getting home.

Thank you all. She has added city, campus, accomadation etc to the spreadsheet. It has helped to get ideas and options from other people. Dd has worked hard to get to where she is and she is determined. she had at least one workplacement this summer and various univ visits. I am confident that she will make the best decision for her. Your input has sparked debate and prompted new investigations and directions. It has been so helpful

Many thanks

I think for Engineering the programmes are pretty similar wherever you go due to accreditation constraints and as long as you stick to well established departments prospects are pretty even for employment. Sometimes earning potential is skewed by departments where a large proportion go into finance etc rather than engineering where an engineering degree can get you a very high starting salary.
I would concentrate on the environment; campus vs big city vs town to start with. Go to open days and get a feel for the students and staff that you meet. The most important thing imo is to find somewhere you think you will be happy. I’ve been talking to prospective students on visiting days for a opulent of decades and this has always been my message. I regularly meet students who have visited top universities that they don’t feel comfortable with and also plenty who clearly don’t like us, which is absolutely fine (as long as they don’t get obnoxious about it). The last thing we want are students who are not happy where they are.

Southampton has never done "general engineering"
but students do seem to move between engineering courses in their first year

When I did my Chemical Engineering degree with its Common first year, I don’t think we had anyone that switched. Everyone pursued the honours discipline they chose from the start.

The advantage of studying all four branches of Engineering is that you will undoubtably need an awareness in the real life workplace, and will be working with other engineers.

I think you’re right to add city, campus etc to the spreadsheet. It’s such a personal decision about the type of uni experience you want - as well as the course. DS is at Cambridge taking General Engineering- you do have a specific named degree (Masters) at the end of 4 years that gives you the full accreditation you need. Perfect course for those who aren’t sure which specialism they want (how many do at 18?). For what it’s worth - DS did a great summer School at Warwick and loved the course but decided against a campus Uni. Really liked Leeds (second choice but very close); found Imperial very “elite” and didn’t apply; Surrey just too small and not the location for him. Please do Pm if you’d like to know more about GE at Cambridge. Really enjoying the course - and the social life. Had some great summer placements too. Good luck to your DD - we need more women in engineering and I know the numbers are increasing.

For students staying within Scotland for tuition fee reasons Strathclyde is considered the top engineering uni by many and is the top Scottish uni for mech eng in the complete uni league table followed by Glasgow then Heriot Watt. When my son was applying for mech eng he didn't put Edinburgh down as he though Heriot Watt had the better reputation and facilities out of the 2. Edinburgh is more internationally known so may be better if you're coming from overseas or may not enter engineering. Strathclyde is top in Scotland for chem eng as well, then HW then Edinburgh.
League tables change though. Robert Gordon in Aberdeen has dropped a few places since he applied. It was and maybe still is a good place to go if you wanted to go in to the oil industry.
Scottish MEngs are a year longer though, unless you enter in year 2.

Heriot Watt was talking themselves up when I was at Edinburgh in the 80s. But they just don’t have the same calibre of students/faculty, and they have lost their Chamber Street building, so everything is out of the city.

I’m surprised so few people have mentioned Bristol. It recently came up as 4th in the league tables for mechanical engineering, just below Oxford. It has great links to industry and what a fantastic city to live in.