As a graduate mechanical engineer, this MSc course will provide you with an advanced qualification which will enhance your career prospects and extend and update your skills and knowledge. The course actively encourages the understanding and practice of inter-disciplinary systems engineering thinking that brings together mechanical engineering subjects in a way that reflects the needs of industrial and academic problem solving.

More specifically, the programme aims to:

• Provide you with an advanced knowledge of topics in mechanical engineering, and in associated engineering and scientific disciplines over a broad range of specialist subjects.
• Provide an awareness of the safety, environmental, social and economic context in which mechanical engineers need to operate.
• Offer you the opportunity to develop a wide range of intellectual, practical and transferable skills that will allow you to follow a career in research, industry and other professional areas of the economy.
• Help you to gain a systematic understanding and a critical awareness of current problems and new insights which are at the forefront of mechanical engineering.

The close integration of the case study and project will allow you to explore, in-depth, a chosen topic related to the course. This provides you with an individually tailored programme to meet your needs in a flexible yet focussed manner, with the project seen as being the key opportunity to acquire and exercise leading edge mechanical engineering knowledge. You will be given the opportunity to show originality in applying the knowledge you acquire, and will develop an appreciation of how the boundaries of knowledge are advanced through research. You will be trained to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, and will be given the opportunity and encouragement to demonstrate initiative and innovation in solving challenging problems and in designing new components and systems.

The close involvement with industry, particularly at the project stage, ensures that the experience the course provides has both relevance and meaning. Lecturers delivering the modules are working with some of the world's most renowned engineering companies. Partners include Airbus, BAe Systems, Bosch, Tata Steel, Daimler, EADS, Fiat, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Messier-Dowty, Network Rail, TWI, Parametric Technology, Physical Acoustics Ltd, Renault, Renishaw, Rolls-Royce, SAP, Siemens, Silicon Graphics, Stile Bertone, The Highways Agency, TRL, Microchip, and WS Atkins.

This degree course will prepare you for entry into careers in research or industry. In addition to technical skills, you will acquire professional skills such effective communication with technical, management and non-technical audiences, project planning, evaluation and prioritisation.

Distinctive features

The distinctive features of this course include:

• Renishaw PLC has equipped and supports a state of the art Metrology laboratory to underpin the teaching and projects offered in this course. This laboratory also supports post-graduate research collaboration and on-going doctoral level projects.
• Research-led advanced mechanical engineering projects are made available to all students in collaboration with current industrial partners.
• The opportunity for you to learn in a research-led teaching institution while accessing facilities commensurate with a top-class research unit. This is reinforced by the participation of research-active staff in programme design and delivery. Included in this context will be the opportunity for you to undertake project work in a successful, research-based environment.
• The course benefits from substantial industrial input to the programme through invited lecturers and industrially based projects.
• There is an open and engaging culture between students and staff.