The Student Room Group

General Engineering or Nuclear?

I'm honestly not sure, the attraction of general (MEng) is the interdisciplinary knowledge, & the fact you have more time to experience the different disciplines before deciding what to specify in. However the number of universities doing the course is limited, and many aren't accredited because the first cohort haven't finished.
I'm very interested in nuclear, mostly because the degree is very heavy on the physics aspects & unlike some engineering courses physics is a required A-level rather than preferred. My only worry is that there's very few pathways to take within the course, unlike general. As well as limited universities, Warwick, Birmingham etc.
Basically, any suggestions as to which would be best? doesn't have to be from either nuclear or general x
Original post by aloosemoose
I'm honestly not sure, the attraction of general (MEng) is the interdisciplinary knowledge, & the fact you have more time to experience the different disciplines before deciding what to specify in. However the number of universities doing the course is limited, and many aren't accredited because the first cohort haven't finished.
I'm very interested in nuclear, mostly because the degree is very heavy on the physics aspects & unlike some engineering courses physics is a required A-level rather than preferred. My only worry is that there's very few pathways to take within the course, unlike general. As well as limited universities, Warwick, Birmingham etc.
Basically, any suggestions as to which would be best? doesn't have to be from either nuclear or general x


Probably general, and if you do general you'll likely have to specialise at some point anyway and thus graduate in a specific discipline.

I have looked at nuclear engineering degrees at Birmingham and Lancaster, and based on the modules, they look very much like standard mechanical and electrical engineering degrees, with just the odd bit of nuclear thrown in.
Given that most General degrees are MEng, which would severely reduce your ability to do an MSc in Nuclear, you might instead want to consider a BEng in a discipline which is broader than Nuclear but still a pathway to a Nuclear MSc, while not forcing you to do an MEng like General.

Or you can do say Mech or Chemical with Nuclear Engineering.

I'd also question whether Nuclear Engineering actually has a high physics content compared to other engineering degrees, based on what I know about it I would've guessed it would be pretty run of the mill, or slightly lower physics content. Also most engineering degrees require physics, the only ones which commonly don't are Materials, Chemical and Bio which I'd argue is a false flag because they all still have significant physics content.
Reply 3
Original post by Helloworld_95
Given that most General degrees are MEng, which would severely reduce your ability to do an MSc in Nuclear, you might instead want to consider a BEng in a discipline which is broader than Nuclear but still a pathway to a Nuclear MSc, while not forcing you to do an MEng like General.

Or you can do say Mech or Chemical with Nuclear Engineering.

I'd also question whether Nuclear Engineering actually has a high physics content compared to other engineering degrees, based on what I know about it I would've guessed it would be pretty run of the mill, or slightly lower physics content. Also most engineering degrees require physics, the only ones which commonly don't are Materials, Chemical and Bio which I'd argue is a false flag because they all still have significant physics content.


Thing is I definitely want to do a masters, I went to the Birmingham open day & spoke to the professor about the course and half of the seminars are actually in the physics department with their students
Original post by aloosemoose
Thing is I definitely want to do a masters, I went to the Birmingham open day & spoke to the professor about the course and half of the seminars are actually in the physics department with their students

Master's as in MEng or as in MSc? Both of the routes I suggested involve doing a master's in some form

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