Mechatronics not as good as I thought - Is unistats wrong?

I'm referring to mechatronics and robotics course at the uni of leeds. It says for electrical eng and mechanical eng, starting salary is 26k (lots of respondents), whereas mechatronics was 25k. After 3 year the average for electrical is 31k, mechanical is 34k, however the average for mechatronics is apparently on 26.5k????? Sometimes it can't get the exact data and on the disclaimer it says the stats are for all production and manufacturing engineering degrees at leeds for the past 2 years. Thing is Leeds don't have a production and manufacturing and engineering degree, so the data must be for the mechatronics graduates. Do you think this is true? it is data from 50 students that have responded. Since theres no prod and manufac degree at leeds, these students must be mechatronic gradates. How can their salary be so low after 3 years? I thought mechatronic engineers could get jobs in either mechanical and electrical as well as both? So would the average salary not be similar to the other two?

Reply 1

Lightning-Strike

13

Original post by john_iqbal786

I'm referring to mechatronics and robotics course at the uni of leeds. It says for electrical eng and mechanical eng, starting salary is 26k (lots of respondents), whereas mechatronics was 25k. After 3 year the average for electrical is 31k, mechanical is 34k, however the average for mechatronics is apparently on 26.5k????? Sometimes it can't get the exact data and on the disclaimer it says the stats are for all production and manufacturing engineering degrees at leeds for the past 2 years. Thing is Leeds don't have a production and manufacturing and engineering degree, so the data must be for the mechatronics graduates. Do you think this is true? it is data from 50 students that have responded. Since theres no prod and manufac degree at leeds, these students must be mechatronic gradates. How can their salary be so low after 3 years? I thought mechatronic engineers could get jobs in either mechanical and electrical as well as both? So would the average salary not be similar to the other two?

I think the issue is that mechatronics degrees are not specialised. You get a little bit of both mech and EE. Realistically, why not hire someone for a mechanical engineering job that has a full mechanical engineering degree. Also the same with EE.

You don't learn all of mech and EE in a mechantronics degree. It's not possible.

Reply 2

Neilos

18

Original post by john_iqbal786

Sometimes it can't get the exact data and on the disclaimer it says the stats are for all production and manufacturing engineering degrees at leeds for the past 2 years. Thing is Leeds don't have a production and manufacturing and engineering degree

No, but there are a number of degrees at Leeds that Unistats is grouping into a category called 'production and manufacturing engineering' (I have no idea which ones, though). So it's data from a number of different degrees, not just mechatronics.

Reply 3

john_iqbal786

OP

14

Original post by Lightning-Strike

I think the issue is that mechatronics degrees are not specialised. You get a little bit of both mech and EE. Realistically, why not hire someone for a mechanical engineering job that has a full mechanical engineering degree. Also the same with EE.

You don't learn all of mech and EE in a mechantronics degree. It's not possible.

Is that actually how employers see it? Seems like I have been sold a dream, I thought as long as you can show enthusiasm for say a job an EE would normally fill and have some sort of relevance to the job through your degree then you stand a good chance. The mechatronics course is mainly split between electrical and mechanical with abit of computing, a lot of the module are electrical and electronic related though

Reply 4

john_iqbal786

OP

14

Original post by Neilos

No, but there are a number of degrees at Leeds that Unistats is grouping into a category called 'production and manufacturing engineering' (I have no idea which ones, though). So it's data from a number of different degrees, not just mechatronics.

I have looked through each course and seen that the only other course that get grouped with "production and manufacturing engineering" is the product design course. The reason my unistats are showing the salary data for mechatronics as this is because there is not enough data for mechatronics. I believe that these stats are correct for product design but im not sure about mechatronics (if it sounds like i'm in denial, tell me lol). Because for other universities that have the same course, unistats don't display mechatronics data as this. Instead they just show the salary data for electrical engineering or for both mechanical and electrical engineering which I think might be more realistic (hopefully). What do you think, do you think the salaries for a mechatronics and robotics engineer who studies lots of electrical modules with few mechanical and some computing modules would more likely have the salary of a product design engineer or more closely to a mechanical or electrical graduate.

Reply 5

almostmaybe

8

I wouldn't get too worked up about this, averages hide huge variations and it mostly depends on the individual. Focus on getting a good degree, get experience wherever you can, get help with your job applications and you will be fine.

Two years into your first job, no-one will care about your degrees any more anyway.

Reply 6

----_----

15

if I remember correctly, its a relatively newer course than the other two and much less people do it so the stats are skewed. unistats is like kinda bull**** anywyas.

Reply 7

john_iqbal786

OP

14

Original post by ----_----

if I remember correctly, its a relatively newer course than the other two and much less people do it so the stats are skewed. unistats is like kinda bull**** anywyas.

I was looking at electrical engineering stats and comparing them between Manchester and Bristol which are both very good unis. What I found was that 50 people responded in the Manchester survey replying after three years the average is 31k (ranging between 24k - 38k) whereas Bristol had 100 respondents from the course replying after three years that the average salary was 35k (ranging between 30k - 45k). Since they are both relatively large sample sizes, why do you think they are so different?
You could say that more Bristol students may have gone into finance which could explain the higher top salary, but out of 100 students the lowest salary after 3 years was 30k whereas Manchester was 24k.

Why do you think this is? Do employers just really like Bristol? Or would it be something to do with the course? (I've looked into other unis too but the stats are not as good as Bristols and the same is for mechanical engineering, I think it's even worse for Manchester)

Reply 8

swelshie

19

If potentially earning a £26.5k salary 3 years post graduation is alarming to you, you best not pursue a career in engineering!

Like others have said there is large overlap between universities, within the quoted average starting salaries etc (remember many people are excluded from those statistics as well). It's not as simple as predicting your own/an individual outcome from them. Where you studied is only one of many hundreds of factors affecting employability, as well as factors from a hugely stochastic uk graduate engineering job market.

One such factor might be mechatronics being a more practical qualification whereas statistically more electrical/mechanical will suit higher paid management roles or be in the 60% that land grad scheme places. Many, many practical graduate roles in engineering start below £25k and are unlikely to progress much past £30k after several years. Even some grads from top 20 world institutions take years to find a graduate position. So I think you may be misinterpreting those results as salary at 3 years post graduation is not necessarily 3 years of experience.

In any case the statistics the universities show prospective/current students are always going to be tweaked to whatever looks best for the university. Contrary to what the uni's would have you believe, most employers aren't going to be familiar with differences between all the "electrical and mechanical", "aero-mech", mech-with... etc. It's all simply marketing to get you to choose their course. You are the product that the university is consuming here, not necessarily making you a product palatable to employers.

Mechatronics not as good as I thought - Is unistats wrong?

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