Good universities to shortlist for mechanical engineering

[Boymum71]

My DS,Year 12 is looking to study Mechanical Engineering at university. We would like to take him to open days in the spring but how do we start making a shortlist? We have been told to take league tables with a pinch of salt . He is fairly academic but not Oxford or Cambridge.
Any advice on how to decide which ones to shortlist would be helpful please so we don’t waste weekends travelling all over. What needs to be considered apart from the league tables ( that don’t agree with each other) TIA

In the UK Cambridge and Imperial College are very well regarded.

What sort of place would he like to live? Campus or in a city?
What grades is he expected?

Thank you for your replies. Think As are achievable but he would aim for an A star in maths. I don’t think he knows where he would like to live so this is one of the reasons he would like to visit different types of campus. Is it just a case of reading through the course descriptions and choosing on that maybe. It all seems overwhelming

A range of university 'site types'
Loughborough
Leeds
Southampton
Birmingham

Of those, Loughborough is the furthest from a city centre (has a good reputation, though and has apparently got a lot more interesting in the 4 decades since someone I knew described it as so boring that she'd joined the TA for the sake of something to do in her spare time).

Two of our DC were / are at Birmingham (not Engineering, though, I'm afraid); nice campus, a few minutes on the train into the city centre and plenty of post-first year rental accommodation within 10-15 minutes' walk

DD studying this at Imperial, she loves it. Apparently Loughborough also v good too. Only downside with Imp is the living costs which are horrendous.

Warwick, Birmingham were the two DS shortlisted.

Strathclyde is worth looking at. It’s not a traditional red brick that everyone raves about on here, but it has great links with industry so the job prospects after are excellent.

Thank you for the suggestions. He says he will looks at those options online and plan some visits. Strathclyde is too far to visit for us but he will look at the online information about the course.

@Boymum71 There will possibly be some slight variations in course content but as this subject is offered at so many universities I would not get too bogged down in comparisons. I would start with him deciding if he wants to apply to a London uni - Imperial & UCL are probably the best for engineering.

Then decide what sort of location, eg city (big or small?) or campus. Plus are any locations ruled out because of distance or difficulties getting ther. It should be fairly easy to shortlist then.

As an example, my Ds did not want Oxbridge, London, Scotland & Exeter and Durham were ruled out due to distance. He applied to Bristol, Bath, Birmingham, Southampton & Sheffield.

@Boymum71
The unis that @Decorhate DS applied to are all excellent for Engineering. They have a long history of being first class. I would add in Manchester and Warwick. Warwick will feel different from a city university and Loughborough will too.

You don’t need to go to Imperial (although it’s probably the best) but will feel very different to Sheffield. Also if he wants Mechanical, don’t go for General Engineering. Stick to mechanical and apply for MEng if he meets entry criteria. It’s a faster route to being a chartered engineer.

The complete university guide is useful but ignore the Guardian. The old industrial cities still have excellent mechanical engineering courses.

Imperial definitely!

Southampton has a vg reputation for engineering.
When ds was deciding which uni, in addition to the course he considered:
City v campus
Transport links- we were living overseas at the time
Accommodation type and cost.
Sports facilities/ clubs

Southampton is very strong for engineering

One thing worth looking at is whether the degree is accredited by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). It will say this on the relevant university web page. See, for example, the mechanical engineering page for Sheffield: www.sheffield.ac.uk/mecheng/undergraduate/courses.

Unfortunately, the IMechE's own list of accredited degrees is on a password-protected page.

My child had an excellent time doing an MEng at Swansea. Bay Campus is superb.

After Oxbridge and Imperial, I believe Manchester is the top ranked uni for Engineering. Edinburgh and Southampton also highly regarded as are Sheffield and Leeds. Those last two also consistently feature highly in the lists for best student experience.

No respected RG university (or indeed the vast majority of others) are running a MEng course in mechanical engineering which is non accredited. Just doesn’t happen. The Engineering Council has the course list if you need it. It has lots of other info too.

DP studied MEng Mechanical Engineering with a Year in Industry at Manchester and really enjoyed it. I believe there is also the option to do the MEng course with a year studying abroad too.

I think the Year in Industry placement was really beneficial for his confidence and prepared him well for professional life as an engineer, so would recommend looking for courses which offer this option.

DDs former boyfriend did a year abroad in France with his MEng at Bristol but English speaking unis are available! MEng with a year in industry will be 5 years though. Work experience can be an alternative.

If you look at global rankings, the UK has just two Universities in the top 10 - Imperial College and Cambridge. Both are excellent for engineering!

@Lilaclavenders

If you look at global rankings, the UK has just two Universities in the top 10 - Imperial College and Cambridge. Both are excellent for engineering!

But both likely to want A A A (if not all 3 subjects at A*, which I think has been reported elsewhere for Imperial) and the OP hasn't really indicated that this is a given; in fact has said that her DS is not 'Oxford or Cambridge' sort of academic? So he does need a few more options (even if he decides, What the heck, let's stick those down anyway), decent universities for his intended course and with more realistic entry requirements.

Hi @Boymum71
I have 2 boys applying for Mech Eng this year!
After Oxbridge and Imperial I'd say the next tier is Bristol, Bath, Southampton and the Glasgow and Edinburgh ones. But all likely to want at least one, probably two As.
One DS has an offer from Exeter with his current grades achieved of AAA, so that's probably a good bet.
Another good bet is Swansea who don't seem to require As or even many As, but are still in something like the top 20. My DS1 visited Swansea last year and it all seemed good

My son had a great time at Strathclyde doing a MEng in mech eng with international studies. Now doing a robotics PhD at UCL.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Lots to look at. Think imperial and Cambridge out of reach but the others look reasonable and he can add a lower one for a backup. We will aim to visit a few different campuses to get a feel but lots to start him off. Thank you for the advice

Exeter isn’t an engineering powerhouse. Sheffield is. Don’t ignore Sheffield.

No one cares about world rankings for engineering. There’s plenty of jobs to go round for grad and chartered engineers.