Any experience of NMITE? (Engineering degree/MEng)

[ItWillBeDone]

Hello
Does anyone have any experience of NMITE? Google has very little info. It looks good on the face of it but the lack of reviews makes me wonder. Especially as entry requirements are lower than for other engineering courses. Thanks for any help or advice you can give.

@TizerorFizz

It’s going to mean foundation limits to BEng. No possibility of MEng integrated I think.

No, you can do MEng with a foundation year, and get funding for the entire course length.

Here’s the relevant bit from the Uni of Birmingham website.

Ok. Birmingham is very unclear! Many HE posters talk about undergrad funding for 4 years and say foundation is part of that! I’m not doing it but it’s a long haul! Cheaper to get the right A levels maybe?

🤷‍♀️ It's one extra year. Sure always better to pick the right A levels, but kids are 15/16 when they choose subjects - they don't always get it right! One extra year to invest in a 40 year career isn't too much surely.

The foundation year is not a foundation degree though - the foundation year is integrated into the undergrad degree and essentially extends it by a year. It’s not a standalone course. That’s why the funding is available.

Many foundation degrees do not require Math + Physics A levels, and it is possible to top up to a full degrees

Apprenticeships are available at different levels, and they can top up to degree level.

NMITE is a new institute of technology - there are a few around. It is part of the same government agenda which brought in Tlevels. The aim is to make it easier for more people to go into jobs where there skills gaps, and to ensure students gain practical skills needed for them to be employable.

The big problem is that many graduate/professional jobs in engineering are not “practical”. Practical means what exactly? It’s not the detailed knowledge and education to design a bridge I suspect? Or much design knowledge at all. With no accreditation it’s pretty useless. Does it mean use CAD? Or similar? The syllabus is limited so I don’t see how these grads can realistically compete for grad engineer jobs. I think they are likely to produce people the old basic apprenticeships did with many failing to get professional qualifications. I’m really not sure this is the best way to go about upskilling when so many engineering degrees are in clearing,

UCL Civil Engineering doesn't require any specific A levels - they want an aptitude for maths/physics rather than necessarily A Levels in them and they encourage students with other subjects to apply.

UCL Civil Engineering doesn't require any specific A levels - they want an aptitude for maths/physics rather than necessarily A Levels in them and they encourage students with other subjects to apply.

Wow. Good to know! They also offer a FY asking 100 tariff points....

Their admissions tutor feels very strongly that civil engineers need a mix of skills, and that they can teach all the maths and physics needed for the course.

Out of interest, what percentage of successful applicants don’t have maths? Their statement is somewhat odd. “If you don’t have A level maths” actually suggests very many do. As they don’t interview one wonders how they decide who can be taught a mix of skills? I think the best civil engineers do have maths because they will need to understand design principles and use them. Other skills are very welcome though. Not many actually have them at 18. Difficult enough to find them at 22. DH used to test their civils and structures applicants and an awful lot were poorly educated in terms of basic understanding of the problem to be solved, let alone solving it.

"Out of interest, what percentage of successful applicants don’t have maths?"

No idea.

This is the online version of their Open Day talk: https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/h4F9j7E6.

I suspect that most of their applicants will have maths and/or physics, simply because UCL will be one of 5 choices and all the others will need maths and/or physics.

At the on-site open day I went to with my son, a young person in the audience asked the admissions tutor's advice about applying for different courses with the same personal statement. Unfortunately, I don't think he answered that question well because he interpreted it as a red flag for indecisiveness. Hopefully he thought about it afterwards and realised she probably meant she was applying for related courses, e.g. architecture, and was there because this particular civil engineering course had been brought to her attention as an alternative option in line with her interests.

Dear ITWillBeDone, Thank you for your post. I am the CEO of NMITE and I would be very happy to speak to you to answer your questions and to explain how and why we are different to a traditional university engineering degree. We may, or may not, be right for your children and there won't be any "hard sell", but I am happy to chat to you if you contact me directly via our website.

In the meantime, I'll provide a few answers to the comments raised here:

1. NMITE is a new university, set up to change the way engineers are trained. We focus on blending academic rigour with vocational training. Our students learn how to become working engineers.
2. Maths A Level is not required because our curriculum includes the maths needed to succeed as an engineer, introduced when it is needed. Additional maths support is provided by a dedicated maths support team. This allows those who, for whatever reason, failed to secure maths at A level, to aspire to become a professional engineer. In our experience, there are plenty of talented and practically proficient potential engineers without A level maths.
3. We are in the process of securing accreditation for all our programmes and expect to finalise it this year. Accreditation requires an institution to demonstrate the outcomes it achieves in the form of technically proficient engineers. As a new provider, with our first cohort of students graduated and now in the workplace, we are now able to do that.
4. As our programme is co-delivered with our engineering employer partners, our students learn the rhythms and disciplines of a workplace and become highly employable during the course of their studies. 100% of our first graduating cohort of students have secured professional, degree level engineering jobs - most before they even finished their course.
5. We have been set up to provide opportunities for a lower cost degree for people of all backgrounds, including those who might not be qualified or prepared academically for entry to a traditional undergraduate engineering degree. We are very happy to speak to prospective students or parents explain what all this means.