Insight into Electrical and computer systems engineering

Sure,

I did electronics engineering.
Workload - as high as any engineering course - think 25+ hours a week contact time, 5 days a week, lots of 9am lectures, labs, coursework, and the maximum amount of exams every exam season. Strong mathematical content, reasonably high dropout rate from people who thought it would be easy. THAT SAID, you WILL have time to socialise, you WILL be able to do extra-curriculars, you MAY be able to hold down a part time job, but come exam time, you WON'T have any time to do anything else. As with most things - it's down to you to organise yourself.

Job Prospects - Excellent. Major shortage of engineers in general, and engineers come with such an enormous set of skills relating to analytics, business and problem solving that there are very few jobs that won't employ one. Unless you want to be a vet or a medical doctor. You have options of pursuing money, saving the planet, designing, building or maintaining stuff or researching new stuff when you come out. Each of those sectors is huge, and you can choose whatever in the world your imagination comes up with. Hell, you can even switch to advertising or law afterwards if you think engineering really isn't for you, and you'll still not really be at much of a disadvantage.

Despite the huge profile that electronics has currently (what with iPhones and iPads), employment prospects are better in electrical, as it's not seen as a flashy subject, and demand is skyrocketting, especially as w're changing everything from internal combustion (mechanical) over to electrical to decarbonise everything. That and there is a much larger shortage of electrical engineers than any other type (with the exception of perhaps mining). That and unlike computer technology companies who boom and go bankrupt within 10 years, utilities are around for 100s of years, so better job security. Everyone needs programming skills nowadays, I'd be surprised if you're not taught a good intro at university - but its a module to check for in the course prospectus.

How I found it - Overall, really good. Would do it again (well, I kindof am with an additional MSc that I don't really need but when the employer pays, who am I to say no?) Workload is high, make no mistake, and you're going to be there because you want to be there, not because "university is the done thing," but I had a phenomenal time over my 4 years.

The course is hard from the start but it's also interesting, and the projects can be fantastic. The step up isn't too much from A-Level, it's certainly not a GCSE->A-Level step, but it isn't that far off. then again, I was doing A-Levels 9 years ago so it could well have changed.

Hope this helps,

Stu Haynes, MEng