MEng Electronic Engineering with Industrial Experience / Course details

Turn on your career in electronic engineering at Manchester, a university with a prestigious history in the subject and a bright focus on the future. We're home to one of the largest departments dedicated to the subject in the UK, have fantastic links with industry, and have taught the discipline here since 1905.

Both today and in years to come we look to electronics to provide answers for complex problems. Take the mobile phone: a very sophisticated computer and communications system that links to a worldwide network of antennas allowing it to connect to any other mobile or landline, as well as the internet. Or the digital camera, at the heart of which is a sophisticated electronic device containing millions of individual light level detectors.

We live in an information age. Complex systems require digital signal processing (for images, audio and other signals), and technological developments in communications include concurrent processing (to allow the manipulation of the massive amounts of data), data networking and digital communication systems for both local distribution and across the internet. Explore these themes and acquire the skills to take them forward at Manchester.

Spending a year in industry will not only develop your business, team working and transferable skills - all highly sought-after by employers - it will also highlight the broad range of careers on offer to you and guide your choice of subject options. You'll place yourself in a great position to move your career forward.

In the final year you will complete a team project directly funded by industry or inspired by industrial needs. Past projects have included developing an instrumented training wheelchair for para-athletes, creating a haptic glove for remote handling, and developing a cyber-secure electricity management system in smart cities, and many more.

• You will learn to design, build, and operate analogue and digital circuits to create smart devices, autonomous systems, and a new generation of electronic devices.
• You will be taught by academics working on the cutting-edge of research, helping to solve the world's biggest challenges.
• We will provide ample opportunity for practical application and project work. These are strong themes throughout our course.
• You will gain first-hand industrial experience at a recognised company, acquiring the knowledge and skills to take your learning to the next level.
• In the final year you will undertake a team project either directly funded by industry or based on industrial needs.

Paid industrial placement opportunity

The paid industrial placement will increase your depth and breadth of electronic engineering knowledge, and provide valuable practical work experience strengthening your expertise and your CV .

Industry-inspired team project

In the final year you will undertake a team project that is either directly funded by industry or inspired by industrial needs - providing the experience and skills you need before taking your next career step.

Regular, close support

In addition to regularly meeting your academic advisor, you will also enjoy a close relationship with your project tutor, meeting on a weekly basis to supplement your learning in lectures and lab sessions.

Excellent facilities

With access to an extensive range of leading facilities , you will get hands-on with industry-standard equipment - improving your knowledge and skills, and preparing you for work post-graduation. Our flagship facilities include a new High Voltage Lab , Photon Science Institute , and the brand new teaching and research engineering  buildings .

Options and flexibility

The first three semesters of our undergraduate courses share the same fundamental engineering contents. This gives you the opportunity to transfer between electrical and electronic, electronic and mechatronic engineering up until halfway through your second year. The third year syllabus is flexible to suit your specialism interests.

At Manchester you will be taught by academic staff who are leading experts in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, in a diverse and inclusive learning environment. Teaching and Learning will be delivered using a variety of methods, including: 

• Lectures  
• Pre-recorded videos
• Tutorial classes  
• Practical work sessions  
• PASS sessions and peer mentoring 

Some activities will be delivered face-to-face and others online, following a blended learning approach.  The course material is delivered by a mixture of live lectures and pre-recorded videos, with additional examples provided to consolidate your knowledge and answer technical questions.

Tutorial and practical work sessions facilitate an interactive learning experience as well as allowing you to develop critically important practical engineering skills. All these activities enable you to interact with us and have the best possible student experience. A typical week in your first year of study will comprise of approximately 40 hours of activity, of which approximately 19 hours will be timetabled study and 21 hours will be independent or self-directed study. Given the strong practical elements in this course, a typical week will include 4 to 6 hours of hands-on practical work.

The course contains strong practical elements: a year-long practical build project of an electronic device in Year 1, a year-long practical build project of an embedded system in Year 2, a year long individual project in Year 3 and an industrially related year-long engineering team project in Year 4. The industrial placement year can take place either between Year 2 and Year 3, or Year 3 and Year 4 of the degree programme.

As you progress from Year 1 to Year 4, you will gradually develop into an independent learner and we will facilitate this progression by increasing the amount of self-directed study time, during which you will have opportunity to work on the project work as well as having the freedom to decide what aspects of the course you want or need to focus more on.

In your third year of study, between 25 and 30 hours each week will typically be independent study. In your fourth year of study, between 30 and 39 hours each week will typically be independent study, with the latter for the project-only weeks. You will be supported by staff through all of your independent study, and this transition to being able to explore your own ideas through project work is an important attribute of a graduate engineer.

PASS (Peer Assisted Study Sessions) and Peer Mentoring

We're proud of our innovative PASS (Peer Assisted Study Sessions) and Peer Mentoring scheme. The PASS scheme provides additional support around the current week's tutorial. It's entirely voluntary and consists of second, third and fourth-year current students helping first years to tackle problems defined by the content of the current tutorial. The emphasis is on showing students how to think about the problems, how to develop problem-solving skills and how to get the most from the educational resources available.

More about blended learning  

Some of your activities will be synchronous, where you learn live with your lecturer / peers and can interact as appropriate - helping you get support and feel part of a community. At other times it will be asynchronous, where you access materials like presentations, video content, online discussion boards or collaborative documents in your own time (within a framework provided by your programme).

We believe this blended approach will help each individual study in a way that works best for them and will ensure students receive the best student-experience. 

The course is assessed by a variety of methods, each appropriate to the topic being assessed. These methods include coursework exercises, laboratory reports, written examinations, online tests and examinations, presentations and practical demonstrations. You will also have many opportunities to self-assess your progress using online quizzes and tutorial exercises.

Find out what it's like to study at Manchester by visiting the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering blog .

Our strong, ever-growing links with industry not only help to inform our courses, but also boost our excellent teaching and research facilities which include:

• National Instruments Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory
• High Voltage Lab
• Manchester Engineering Campus
• Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre
• Oxford Instruments VG Semicon Molecular Beam Epitaxy facility
• National Graphene Institute
• Dalton Nuclear Institute