Engineering - Birmingham, Bath, Loughborough and Warwick

[Guest55]

So you are making statements about 'over abundance' of engineers without any further details?

Every other source of information says there's a shortage across many sectors. Please elaborate or posters might think you have no first hand knowledge.

My DS did considerable research of employment stats before chosing his degree ...

(typos corrected)

[Liz3]

Thanks sbarnes, would you therefore also regard courses with industrial placements as more favourable, and Warwick has pretty strong industrial links?
Guest 55, did your ds study an engineering discipline?

[Guest55]

Yes - he's at uni now studying engineering

He did not choose mechanical engineering in the end but considered all the universities you named, amongst others.

He wanted catered halls in his first year so that cut out quite a few from his 'long list' ...

[sbarnes]

[Edited by moderator]

The beauty about industrial placements is that they can very often lead to an offer of a permanent first job if one impresses at that placement.

This has been the case certainly at our work place, one lad came for a 3 month placement and is now a permanent employee with excellent prospects. Another under mentioned university is Coventry, with excellent placements. This is for others reading and considering university.

[ToadMum]

[Edited by moderator]

Possibly - or not? - misinterpreting that comment as just plain rude, do you need a critical mass of enquiries as to what sector of the engineering industry you are talking about before you will let slip?

Is the list of acceptable universities the published policy of your company - i.e. do applicants find it in the 'preferred' or even 'required' list in the spec - or is it a personal prejudice?

[moved]

Is it common for Loughborough to be above Birmingham? Is this specific to your company and the style of engineers SBarnes? Is this purely mech eng - this is the area that is of most interest in this house.
Birmingham was high on our list.

Edit: Apparently, there are other reasons for Birmingham - I am now reliably informed!

[KB]

Excluding Cambridge and Imperial our research has led to conclusion that work experience is very important so arrangements for placements is a critical factor. Some leave you to do vacation placements while others have option of year placement. In this case its worth trying to find out if the department have specific contacts/ where people have gone before.

Because mech eng is so broad the courses do seem to differ widely. DC has lookedbbith at compulsory and specialist modules to figure out where various departments are focussed.

Bath is the only one on your list we have some experience of and feedback was very positive. They did have odd terms (a 2 semester system) which is worth thinking through.

Research also through up that production engineering is less competitive for first jobs. Maybe because it's a less exciting career path? But may be worth having studied it as part of degree course?

[Liz3]

Thank you for your valued comments, a range of opinions is welcome.
We had decided a course offering a work placement was preferable and a broad based course, although erring towards mechanical engineering was most appropriate. It is very difficult though as many of the course options are in subjects as yet unknown.
The experience of others in terms of lecture quality, undergraduate access to a good range of facilities and general all round satisfaction with a course is useful. On open days we were often shown marvellous facilities and Formula Student projects, but these were in reality probably only available to a few students rather than the majority on the course.

[KB]

If you can access any part of the undergraduate web pages for a university that can be revealing.
Its also worth asking to see real timetables.
Lab time is expensive so a direct question should illicit useful info.

[sbarnes]

The order of universities still stands as communicated before.

Good luck.

It's always useful having 2 sides in any debate.