E&E engineering: Nottingham or Strathclyde?

Hi guys.
I'm wondering which of those universities is better for a MSc programme in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
Strathclyde seems to be a good university for engineering and finance, but it's not a member of the Russels Group.
Whereas Nottingham is a member and has also the better ranking.
On the other hand is Strathclyde in the centre of Glasgow, which is the better city.
And the MSc programme in Strathclyde contains a 3 month industry placement.
But in Nottingham you seem to have more modules to study.
Which of both programmes would you choose, if you would have offers from those universities?

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

University of Strathclyde

Official Rep

Original post by MariaEng

Hi @MariaEng - thanks for your email and interest in Strathclyde! I can't speak about Nottingham (which is obviously a great university!) but I am a student recruitment officer at the university of Strathclyde and happy to provide some advice on our programme and its key selling points and the university in general :smile:

It is a big decision so you are right to try and find out as much information as possible.

Whilst we are not a member of the Russell Group Strathclyde has a great reputation for Engineering and research, if you are interested in getting involved in research eventually? If you look at the subject specific ratings in the Complete University Guide we are actually 6th in the UK for Electronic & Electrical Engineering (something we are quite proud of!) We have the largest Engineering faculty in Scotland,and one of the key elements of all our Engineering programmes is how closely we work with industry (you mentiond the 3 month industry placement for our MSc programme) The programme is fully accredited also.

As you mentioned we are based right in the city centre of Glasgow. Glasgow is such a fantastic city to live in. There is an amazing music scene, unbelieveable shopping, and loads of museums and art galleries to choose from. It is a real multicutural city with loads going on and if you study at Strathclyde you will be very much right in the heart of it - it is hard to get bored here! We have great facilities on campus including a brand new sports centre, and our Strathclyde Postgraduate Student Society run lots of social events for PG students.

We will actually be running a Postgraduate Open Afternoon on Tuesday 19th February and you would be welcome to come along and have a look at the campus if you have not already visited. All academic departments will be represented on the day as well as a number of student services.

Was there anything else specific you wanted to ask about? I am happy to answer any questions you might have!

Good luck with you decision making!

Sarah - Strathclyde official rep

University of Strathclyde

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

@Smack might have some thoughts.

My impression has always been that Strathclyde is very strong for engineering, both good in academics and especially as far as working in the industry goes. If your goal is to work as an engineer then it's a very strong option with a lot of industry links, and as you note specifically has a placement as part of it which is quite attractive for that goal.

If your goal is a PhD then maybe the RG tag for Nottingham might be relevant, but Strathclyde does have ongoing research and is part of a few major cross-institution research groups in engineering particularly (including with some quite notable universities) so even then I don't think it's necessarily a deciding factor anyway. For the PhD angle I think you would want to look at which has research groups/supervisors in the area you're specifically interested in (i.e. the very specific area, not generally "power electronics" or something).

For a one year MSc I don't think location is really worth dwelling on too much. Just approach it as a tickbox exercise to ensure you can reasonably afford to live in the area, the course is short and intensive (compared to undergrad/PhD) so you're not really going to have that much time to enjoy the local amenities realistically anyway.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 3

MariaEng

First of all, thank you very much, both of you.
That's a very good service you offer Sarah.

Original post by University of Strathclyde

Was there anything else specific you wanted to ask about? I am happy to answer any questions you might have!

If you offer it to me, then yes :smile:

But the questions are very course-specific:
- Is it possible for a student to organize an internship on his own or are they "given" by the university and its industry links?
- On the webpage of the course there is this headline: " Elective classes - Choose at least five from this list". So could I take also 6 or 7 elective classes? Would they all been relevant to the overall grade at the end?

@artful_lounger

Won't I have enough time to go out and drink some beers at the week-ends?I already heared that one year masters are tuff but I didn't thought that you wouldn't have time anymore for a private life.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 4

University of Strathclyde

Official Rep

Original post by MariaEng

First of all, thank you very much, both of you.
That's a very good service you offer Sarah.

If you offer it to me, then yes :smile:

Hi @MariaEng - thanks for your message again. I am just going to double check your queries with my colleague within the department and get back to you as I am not sure if you would be able to take more than 5. As regards the internship I also want to get clarification for you on this and how it works, as I know that the internships can be competitive so there may be the option to organise your own. I will get back to you as soon as I have a response from my colleagues in the department.

Best wishes - Sarah

Reply 5

University of Strathclyde

Official Rep

Original post by MariaEng

First of all, thank you very much, both of you.
That's a very good service you offer Sarah.

If you offer it to me, then yes :smile:

Hi @MariaEng - just wanted to give you a quick update from the department on your questions. They are just checking with the programme coordinator regarding your query around internships but have responded with the following:

"I have contacted our MSc Project Coordinator for further information on the internship programme and will let you know as soon as I get this information.

It is normally five classes that are selected from the module choices for the course. Part of the induction session for the course includes a meeting with the Course Director to discuss and select module choices for the course. The student would be able to discuss the number of modules and choices with her Course Director during this induction session."

I hope this clears things up for now a little and I will let you know as soon as I have a response from the department on your internship query.

Ps. having never been a PG student here myself I can't say this for certain however I am fairly sure you wouldstill have time to socialise during your course and get involved in all that Glasgow/Strathclyde has to offer despite a heavy workload :smile:

Best wishes - Sarah

Reply 6

University of Strathclyde

Official Rep

Original post by MariaEng

First of all, thank you very much, both of you.
That's a very good service you offer Sarah.

If you offer it to me, then yes :smile:

But the questions are very course-specific:
- Is it possible for a student to organize an internship on his own or are they "given" by the university and its industry links?

Hi @MariaEng - just wanted to let you know I have now had clarification from the department on your query around internships for this programme having been in touch with the projecy coordinator. They have said the following:

"A student can arrange his/her own internship. Department internships are offered to all students when the list of project assignments is issued. Interviews for the internships will take place.

The list of project assignments, including internships, is opened to students around the middle of February (Week 6) with the deadline for students to submit their assignment selection usually early in March (Week 8). Project assignments are usually allocated at the end of March (Week 11) with the project work starting in May after the exams."

I hope this helps!

Let me know if you have any further questions I can assist with. All the best - Sarah