11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all,

Aside from Cambridge does anyone have any suggestions/knowledge of broad engineering courses where it is possible to specialise later in the degree.

Thanks

We looked at this but a few years back now.

Look for degrees called 'Engineering' or 'General Engineering'; in the end DS decided against this as he found a niche he was particularly interested in.

PM me if you wish and do look beyond RG unis as some of the courses are very theoretical and not very up-to-date. You might like to look at what software they use and how much time they spend in workshops and labs.

Lancaster have a similar setup to Cambridge.. although with them its 1 year as apposed to 2 years that are common.
You can then however go onto a general Degree and in some ways you have a better choice of final degrees then Cambridge. My DD wanted to study Mechatronics which is quite difficult at Cambridge.

http://www.engineering.lancs.ac.uk/undergraduate/

We went to the post application open day and were quite impressed.

Steve

It might be worth looking closer at some unis where several different engineering degrees share the same lectures for the first year. I seem to remember there were a few, but don't know if these still exist. The option to switch from one to another at the end of the frist year is then still an option.

I think the biggest issue and barrier to general engineering courses is that most degree courses are endorsed by one of the engineering institutions, if they aren't, then it makes getting chartered more difficult if you took their course, so students would avoid those anyway.

Its worth thinking through why you want a general course : not yet decided between a few specific options, wanting to keep all options open....

One reason that Cambridge allows students to keep breadth early on is the pressure of work for what are generally bright students means they can 'catch up' with specialisation later on. In a similar way to the Natural Sciences.
That doesn't mean they are necessarily the 'best' course though - different choices for different people and purposes.

Meanwhile Scottish courses often have more breadth in the first year but then have an extra year of study.

Anyway, the point is that there is a danger with some 'general' courses that one ends up with insufficient skill in a particular area unless undertaking further more specialist study.

The idea of courses where several strands have a common first year is a good one but the range of courses that branch out is usually not huge - so if one isn't sure about mechanical or manufacturing its probably easier than chemical or electrical for example.


As s general point - where subjects are 'new' at degree level it can be difficult to know which route to choose so it seems sensible not to get tied down too early on ( the Scottish Unis generally take this approach) however its worth doing as much research as possible to see if you can narrow choices down a bit. For example there are engineering experience courses and Uni open days at the end of year 12.

More specifically , I believe Warwick have a general engineering programme that allows later specialisation and either Swansea or Cardiff ( sorry, memory failing!) as well as those listed by others.

Good point Tinkers - it's a good idea to choose a course recognised by http://www.imeche.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Guest55 wrote:Good point Tinkers - it's a good idea to choose a course recognised by http://www.imeche.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or the IChemE for chemcial
ICE for civil
IEE for electrical etc

Depending on what the course is. I suspect KB is correct in thinking it is going to be easier for mechanical etc than others.

Tbh long term, for me at least, the type of engineering degree isn't necessarily a barrier to doing something different. Hardly anything I currently do at work was covered by my chemical engineering degree, and a colleague doing the same job is electrical. I've even worked in transport for a while (redundancy avoiding measures on both occasions).

Most engineering degrees cover a bit of other disciplines, as in the real world we usually have to talk to other disciplines and understand what they are talking about. I covered some electrical stuff, a bit of mechanical and even a little civils.

Tinkers wrote:
Tbh long term, for me at least, the type of engineering degree isn't necessarily a barrier to doing something different. Hardly anything I currently do at work was covered by my chemical engineering degree, and a colleague doing the same job is electrical. I've even worked in transport for a while (redundancy avoiding measures on both occasions).

Most engineering degrees cover a bit of other disciplines, as in the real world we usually have to talk to other disciplines and understand what they are talking about. I covered some electrical stuff, a bit of mechanical and even a little civils.

Yes, my husband's degree was in Electrical engineering, he started working as a hardware engineer, moved into software a few years later and is now a systems engineer.

Tinkers & Red Velvet ( & any others at the 'coal face')-
Do you think it is still possible for new graduates to come in to a different field or would it be a case of gradually moving across through assimilated knowledge and experience once working?
More out of interest/ adding to my knowledge bank than any immediate purpose.

I think it boils down to personality traits and if the oppurtunitys arise.
My company certainly encourage grads to think about other careers in the company, so a chemical engineer might move into estimating or proposals. I know one changed to law but that's a bit extreme. However most take the same route through.
I started at a small company and this meant I was expected to do far more than grads at big companies. Suited me, wouldn't suit everyone. Did mean I got involved with all sorts including bridge upgrades and lab refurbishment, along side more 'normal' stuff. (Even helped bury a dead horse but that's another story).
I ended up in transport because it was either that or redundancy. Enjoyed it a lot. It was different. Any engineering degree would have got me that job. The previous person was an electrical engineer.

Just last year I changed roles again but staying at the same company.