Questions about Engineering

Hi everyone,

I was hoping that any current students could answer a few questions I have about the engineering course at Durham:

- Does the department have good links with industry? Do you know of any graduates that have gone on to work with companies such Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Mott McDonald etc?

- How is the work load? I'm aware that you can specialise after two years but I'm worried that trying to learn about a particular discipline in half the time may be too difficult!

- What are the facilities like?

I would probably take the civil stream so any important info about this path would be appreciated :smile:

Thanks!

Reply 1

Helioghost

13

Original post by icandoscienceme

Hi everyone,

I was hoping that any current students could answer a few questions I have about the engineering course at Durham:

- Does the department have good links with industry? Do you know of any graduates that have gone on to work with companies such Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Mott McDonald etc?

- How is the work load? I'm aware that you can specialise after two years but I'm worried that trying to learn about a particular discipline in half the time may be too difficult!

- What are the facilities like?

I would probably take the civil stream so any important info about this path would be appreciated :smile:

Thanks!

I've got an engineering finalist sitting next to me know; I'll tell you what she says. :P

- Yes, the engineering department (probably more than any other in Durham) maintains very strong links with industry, with industrial tutors, interdisciplinary design projects that are most often working for real companies, and te usual employment seminars and job fairs and so on.
She mainly knows mechanical and electronic people who've gone onto work with companies like BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Thales, and assumes that civil graduates will have gone on to similarly respected companies.

- On the 'learning a particular discipline' she thinks it's not too bad - after two years most people are quite happy in picking their specialisation, but even after that at the end she'd feel quite happy going into any area of industry. She points out that while you may (for instance) be disadvantaged in job interviews compared to graduates who've done a specialised course (a Mechanical friend having a Rolls interview had problems when asked specific questions about jet engines), most of the stuff you'll do on a job will be learned after getting hired, and not actually the stuff you learned in university.
On workload in general, there's a lot of lectures, but probably overall not much different to any other Engineering degree - which is to say you'll constantly have problems, projects, and the like to work on. It gets pretty exhausting by the end. But that's what you're getting yourself in for in any degree.

- Facilities - there's a wide, wide range of facilities (they kinda have two buildings), an half the stuff you'll never run into until later in your degree. Are you particularly asking about labs, lecture theatres, computer rooms, workshops...?

And on the civil stream I'm afraid we've not got much to say, except generally that you'll be exposed to a very wide variety of aspects of engineering, which is one reason Durham engineering graduates are pretty valued by employers - they have a better overview of everything than people from more specialised courses.

Reply 2

icandoscienceme

OP

Thanks for the reply!

With regards to the facilities, I was thinking more towards the labs and workshops. Do you find that they are up-to-date and large enough to support the number of students?

Reply 3

Helioghost

13

Original post by icandoscienceme

Thanks for the reply!

With regards to the facilities, I was thinking more towards the labs and workshops. Do you find that they are up-to-date and large enough to support the number of students?

I've never heard any criticisms of the labs, so assume they're up to standard, but I've heard positively good things about workshop facilities - helpful people working in them, and ridiculous varieties of tools and components and so on. The top floor of the building is mostly cleanroom, for example!

The only issue you might run into (that I'm aware of) in terms of supporting numbers is when the department runs into trouble with more specialist software licences for the smaller classes (like electronics and civil specialists), where they just can't have enough computers with the software for everyone to use. But the department changes every year with student feedback and so on, so everything's improving.

Reply 4

icandoscienceme

OP

That's great, thanks for all the info!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

jly12

Thank you, this was really helpful. I too am going to be studying Engineering at Durham from October and this really helped clear up a few things :smile:

Reply 6

kettlechips

Original post by Helioghost

I've never heard any criticisms of the labs, so assume they're up to standard, but I've heard positively good things about workshop facilities - helpful people working in them, and ridiculous varieties of tools and components and so on. The top floor of the building is mostly cleanroom, for example!

The only issue you might run into (that I'm aware of) in terms of supporting numbers is when the department runs into trouble with more specialist software licences for the smaller classes (like electronics and civil specialists), where they just can't have enough computers with the software for everyone to use. But the department changes every year with student feedback and so on, so everything's improving.

Thanks

when I was at the offer holder day they said they're doing up the IT lab to get more computers ober the summer....

Posted from TSR Mobile

Questions about Engineering

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you