What are the best universities in the UK for an undergrad in Aeronautical engineering

Nishant2002

I've been trying to find rankings but still no clear picture as to what the rankings are in the UK. It would he great if someone could tell me which University has the best program in aeronautical engineering at the undergraduate level and rank the top 5 thanks :smile:

Reply 1

161BMW

Different league tables will generally produce different rankings as some have different criteria. Have you looked at the league tables ? Do you want to study general then specialise after couple of years or straight 4 years Aero Eng (MEng) ?

Reply 2

Nishant2002

Straight 4 years ,but you send me the link of these league tables I haven't really taken a look at them I'd really appreciate if you could do that and list your own opinion on the rankings as well

Reply 3

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Nishant2002

1) Imperial

2) Bristol, Sheffield, Southampton, leeds, Bath, Birmingham, Nottingham, Loughborough

Reply 4

Nishant2002

By Bristol you mean The University of Bristol or UWE, Bristol ?

Reply 5

Helloworld_95

There isn't any particular top 5, there's 10 or so at the top which are roughly the same level though have some differences between them (not in terms of quality, more in terms of how they do things). If you're an international student then you need to balance that against international reputation, e.g. UWE is in that list, but if you're an international student you probably want to be going to Bristol instead which is also in that list, but higher in the international rankings which is what employers back home will care about.

In no particular order: Surrey, Southampton, Sheffield, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Bristol, UWE, Leeds, Bath, Loughborough, Imperial. On top of that you have Oxford and Cambridge but those are general engineering degrees which aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Surrey, Southampton, Sheffield, and Strathclyde all have close links to the space industry.

Imperial is the only one in London, however this means it's a lot more expensive than alternatives, it also gets the lowest proportion of graduates into engineering jobs, but it's a good option if you want to go into finance or banking.

Sheffield, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Bristol, UWE, and Leeds are in decent sized cities and so have more amenities than the others, although Bath gets an honourable mention because it punches quite far above its weight and students get free bus travel between Bath and Bristol.

Surrey and Sheffield are both very involved in engineering competitions, while the other universities aren't nearly as involved.

Loughborough is very sporty so it's a good option if you like sports.

Sheffield, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds, and Imperial rank higher internationally so are better options for getting jobs back home.

Bath has a strong emphasis on industrial placements. Other unis on the list are good for getting placements too but Bath is particularly renowned for it.

All of the degrees are slightly different in the exact content they cover. The most different ones however are Leeds which is very focused on the mechanical engineering side, and Sheffield which gives you a wide variety of specialisms and modules to choose from, so you can decide you like the electronics or programming side more and focus on that, whereas at other unis you will be more focused on the mech/aero side of things.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

161BMW

Original post by Nishant2002

Straight 4 years ,but you send me the link of these league tables I haven't really taken a look at them I'd really appreciate if you could do that and list your own opinion on the rankings as well

I would look for a course accredited by Royal Aeronautical Society and IMechE so gives you options for aeronautical or mechanical jobs.

The universities would good reputations for Aero in U.K. in no particular order include Bath, Bristol, Brunel, Imperial, Leeds, Loughborough, Sheffield, Southampton, Surrey. I probably missed out some. You want to check the courses and see which ones you like most and where you would like to study. Aero Eng is a very tough course.

Reply 7

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by 161BMW

I would take off Brunel & Surrey, not that their bad just less well known for Aerospace. As a Notts graduate id also put us in the list of strong Aero unis as we have a very strong relationship with Rolls Royce aerospace, who have a huge base in Derby (right next door), lots of the researchers at Notts are basically working for RR.

Reply 8

Helloworld_95

Original post by mnot

Surrey is very, very integrated into the UK's space industry and competes at high levels in more competitions run by IMechE etc than most other unis. To say they are less well known for aerospace is completely false.