Best unis for Engineering?

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Hi - my son has applied to Cambridge for Engineering as his first choice for 2022 entry, but as his chances of getting in are slim (1 in 7 approx I believe), he's exploring other options (General Eng or Mechanical Eng).

As he's a quiet lad who prefers not to be in the middle of busy action, he's not too keen on the idea of the obvious London choices (Imperial, UCL etc). He's a keen road cyclist and runner so access to green spaces and countryside whilst studying will be important to him (as will be applying to good unis with reputable engineering departments with good links to industry). We live in the north of England, but are also considering looking uk wide.

Anyone got any Engineering insights as to which unis may suit? We're trying to draw up a shortlist of a couple to visit before Christmas but are failing to move forward much on this. Any help much appreciated!

Thanks!

Bristol?

Sheffield? Great access to the Peak District.

Isn't Loughborough supposed to be particularly good for engineering?

University of Surrey has always been strong for engineering plus most of their degrees include a year in industry. It’s in Guildford and on a smaller campus than most unis so might suit him better than the London unis.

Lancaster.

I think it does a first year where you study parts of a selection of topics in electrical/mechanical/civil/aeronautical/etc.

I believe Bath is also good for engineering.

Southampton

Has he considered an apprenticeship? That way he gets industry experience and studies at the same time… same degree just takes one more year! Best bit he doesn’t pay and he gets paid to do it!

Sheffield - my DS is there doing mechanical engineering and loves it . Close to the peaks fir walking / cycling etc.

My DD finished her MEng at Cambridge this year. Apart from that, she was looking for electrical &electronic eng - she didn't rate any other gen eng course for 'generalise then specialise' which may or may not be a fair assessment. She also excluded London for similar reasons to your DS.
Her other ucas choices were Southampton, Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham; the others she considered were Bristol, Newcastle, Surrey, Birmingham and Loughborough. She'd visited Lancaster uni (with school and her Arkwright interview was held there) - I think she said it seemed like a eager too small engineering dept but obviously that was a few years back now. (She didn't look at bath because its open day clashed with Bristol).
There are also Scottish unis strong on engineering which might be worth your Ds considering, maybe someone else knows about those.

Eager = rather... autocorrect

Durham? Friend’s DD did Engineering there.

Scottish unis for engineering:

Strathclyde in Glasgow
Herriot-Watt in Edinburgh

Both well respected

Heriot-Watt damn auto correct

For the green spaces aspect, agree with PP Sheffield might suit your DS. Lancaster too - he could cycle up to Silverdale, the bowland fells, the western Yorkshire Dales and southern Lake District from there I'd have thought.

Re Durham ... I didn't think it's particularly highly rated for engineering.

Not sure how Lancaster is for industry links ... not exactly a centre of mech eng type of stuff unless it's very well hidden!

Thanks so much for your comments all! Are York or Leeds good for Engineering does anyone know?

Leeds may be ok, but I omitted that because it was the one place DD visited and really disliked the place (she and DH made a bit of a hobby of doing open days!).
York is a lovely university... it's really good for some things but afaik it's not particularly known for engineering. I'm not sure it does mech eng?

Following, as DD pretty much burst into tears at the thought of Imperial/London. She likes Cambridge, but we need to look at backup options too.

Manchester? Liverpool?

A friend does a lot of cycling / running in the Norwich area (and a lot further afield; chacun à son goût, as they say). I have no idea what UEA's official rep is for engineering, however.

Has he considered the dyson institute (can’t remember exact name),,,,

Sheffield!
Green city, close to the peaks, strong 'outdoors' culture, huge investment in Engineering teaching space recently and a really proactive teaching team (very visible in University teaching initiatives and awards - academic from a different Shef department here)

Warwick?

Also Loughborough, Bristol, Bath, Southampton, maybe Leeds or Newcastle

@MarchingFrogs

A friend does a lot of cycling / running in the Norwich area (and a lot further afield; chacun à son goût, as they say). I have no idea what UEA's official rep is for engineering, however.

I don't know, but I can't spot any courses from it in the IET accredited courses list. The OPs DS is able to consider Cambridge so he should definitely be looking for courses with full CEng accreditation.

https://www.theiet.org/media/8360/accredited-programmes-weblist.xlsm