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Original poster

Design Engineering: UK universities

87 replies

Orquid · 15/10/2023 12:03

DD16 is thinking in studying design engineering at university and we are looking for recommendations on which universities she could apply. We live in London, she thinks she would like to stay in London so thinking Imperial College.

Other options are Bath and Bristol. What other universities do people recommend fir this course? She knows it is competitive, how many universities she needs to apply for? I believe open days have already passed this year.

I think UCL offer architectural design only? She doesn’t want to do that

Would be grateful for any advice, DH and I are both foreigners but kids born and growing up in London. DD wants a lively/busy city

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Original poster
Orquid · 26/11/2023 08:44

DD is now certain she wants to do Design Engineering or Product Design Engineering so we are focusing on those courses. We saw Sheffield which she really liked but it doesn’t offer the course she wants. We saw electric and electronics which I thought it could be an option but it helped confirming is not what she wants to do. She linked it but as part of the whole design Engineering.

Just want to confirm whether Liverpool and Nottingham courses got accreditations to see if we go and see them next year and put them on the list. Nottingham course is called Product Design and manufacturing so seems to have some engineering involved.

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TizerorFizz · 26/11/2023 09:08

If is accredited. It’s BEng though if this matters to her. So Incorporated Engineer for professional qualification. You can look at CE list of accredited courses in Product Design to see who else offers it. Not very many!

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Bandolina · 26/11/2023 09:47

My DH is a product designer with his own (small) consultancy business
He rates Brunel, Loughborough and Nottingham. He attends their degree shows to look out for graduates to employ. If she wants product design (rather than mechanical engineering) then she should look at those courses. He always looks for BSc rather than BA courses with a placement year.
He designs mainly consumer and industrial products and biotech.

Original poster
Orquid · 26/11/2023 10:18

Bandolina · 26/11/2023 09:47

My DH is a product designer with his own (small) consultancy business
He rates Brunel, Loughborough and Nottingham. He attends their degree shows to look out for graduates to employ. If she wants product design (rather than mechanical engineering) then she should look at those courses. He always looks for BSc rather than BA courses with a placement year.
He designs mainly consumer and industrial products and biotech.

Thank you. Loughborough is definitely her top choice; haven’t thought of Brunel but I can see the course is accredited by IED at least; Not sure if Nottingham is accredited but will research more into these 2 universities

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Original poster
Orquid · 26/11/2023 10:24

Just to clarify she wants to do Engineering rather than product design only

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Bandolina · 26/11/2023 11:43

I think there's a lot of crossover to be honest

You can be more of an artistic product designer who just does looks and concepts which DH is not. You would have a BA product design degree for that

You can be a mechanical engineer who mainly does mechanisms and internals which is also not what DH does

There is a middle ground where people with a BSc engineering/ product design operate which is what DH does. He designs concepts but he also does detailed design for manufacture. He does some mechanics, knows a lot about materials and manufacturing processes
He is a member of ImechE but not a chartered engineer

You need to check out the detailed content of the courses because the names of the courses don't completely align to the possible career

Original poster
Orquid · 26/11/2023 15:09

Needmoresleep · 26/11/2023 12:01

What does she want to design?
Throwing out ideas, but we knew someone who did this:

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/2024/architectural-engineering-meng

and someone who did this, albeit after a first degree in EEE and a strong interest in robotics:

https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/innovation-design-engineering-ma-msc/

Thank you. I think she is leaning more to product Design Engineering than architecture design engineering

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Original poster
Orquid · 26/11/2023 15:22

Bandolina · 26/11/2023 11:43

I think there's a lot of crossover to be honest

You can be more of an artistic product designer who just does looks and concepts which DH is not. You would have a BA product design degree for that

You can be a mechanical engineer who mainly does mechanisms and internals which is also not what DH does

There is a middle ground where people with a BSc engineering/ product design operate which is what DH does. He designs concepts but he also does detailed design for manufacture. He does some mechanics, knows a lot about materials and manufacturing processes
He is a member of ImechE but not a chartered engineer

You need to check out the detailed content of the courses because the names of the courses don't completely align to the possible career

Makes sense. For what we have researched it seems Loughborough is her only choice as she doesn’t want to do Product Design only.

Liverpool doesn’t seem to be accredited and Nottingham has some engineering on the content but it is not an engineering degree hence no accreditations. I am not sure reg Brunel, requirements seem on the low side but it has one accreditation so worth looking at I guess.

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NotMeNoNo · 29/11/2023 14:16

The Aston Design Engineering course is accredited by IMechE, it is just a BEng but with a placement year and could always be followed by an MSc

Original poster
Orquid · 29/11/2023 20:34

NotMeNoNo · 29/11/2023 14:16

The Aston Design Engineering course is accredited by IMechE, it is just a BEng but with a placement year and could always be followed by an MSc

Thank you

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