This programme will provide you with advanced chemical engineering and process technology skills for exciting and challenging careers in the chemical and process industries. This programme also prepares graduates for a PhD study.
If you’ve studied chemical engineering before, you’ll develop your knowledge in key areas such as reaction engineering, process modelling and simulation, pharmaceutical formulation, and fuel processing. If your degree is in chemistry or another related science or engineering discipline, you’ll build your knowledge and skills to convert to a specialisation in chemical engineering.
The course has been designed to provide a greater depth of knowledge in aspects of advanced chemical engineering and a range of up-to-date process technologies. These will enable you to design, operate and manage processes and associated manufacturing plants and to provide leadership in innovation, research and development, and technology transfer.
Specialist facilities
Your Research Project module gives you the chance to study in cutting-edge facilities where our researchers are pushing the boundaries of chemical engineering.
We have world-class facilities for carrying out research in manufacturing (including crystallisation), processing and characterising particulate systems for a wide range of technological materials, as well as facilities for nanotechnology and colloid science/technology.
We also have high performance computing facilities and state-of-the-art computer software, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), for modelling and simulation of a wide range of processes. This will provide a strong background knowledge in industrial process and equipment design and optimisation.
This course is accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) under licence from the UK regulator, the Engineering Council. This adheres to the requirements of further learning for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.
The path you take through this programme will depend on your background. If your degree is in Chemical Engineering, you’ll take a suite of compulsory modules on advanced topics such as recent advances in chemical engineering, reaction engineering, multi-scale modelling (including CFD), pharmaceutical formulation and fuel processing. If your degree is not in Chemical Engineering, you’ll build the knowledge you need to succeed in this area with modules such as Separation Processes, Reaction Engineering and Chemical Process Technology and Design.
You’ll then complement this with a choice of optional modules, allowing you to gain specialist knowledge in a topic that suits your career plans or personal interests. Different modules will be available to you depending on your background – for example, if your degree is in Chemical Engineering you could study Process Optimisation and Control, while if your degree is in another subject you might want to gain an understanding of energy management.
Every student undertakes a research project that runs throughout the year. You’ll focus on a topic of your choice that fits within one of the School’s research areas and produce an independent study, reflecting the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired. This will enable you to gain experience of planning, executing and reporting a research work of the type you will undertake in an industrial/academic environment.
Want to find out more about your modules?
Take a look at the Chemical Engineering module descriptions for more detail on what you will study.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
For more information on typical modules, read Chemical Engineering MSc in the course catalogue
We use a variety of teaching and learning methods including lectures, practicals, tutorials and seminars. Independent study is also an important element of the programme, as you develop your problem-solving and research skills as well as your subject knowledge.
You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including problem sheets, technical reports, presentations, in-class tests, assignments and exams. Optional modules may also use alternative assessments.
The research project is one of the most satisfying elements of this course. It allows you to apply what you’ve learned to a piece of research focusing on a real-world problem, and it can be used to explore and develop your specific interests.
Recent projects by students in MSc Chemical Engineering have included:
A proportion of projects are formally linked to industry, and may include spending time at the collaborator’s site over the summer
Career prospects are excellent. There is a wide range of career opportunities in the chemical and allied industries in process engineering, process design and research and development as well as in finance and management.
Graduates have gone on to work in a variety of roles at companies like National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement, the National Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation, Invensys Operations Management, Worley Parsons, Hollister-Stier Laboratories, BOC, ASM Technologies and more.
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Chemical Engineering at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
The MSc Chemical Engineering course is built upon the wide range of research in chemical engineering at Swansea University. This includes engineering applications of nanotechnology, bioengineering, biomedical engineering, cell and tissue engineering, chemical engineering, colloid science and engineering, desalination, pharmaceutical engineering, polymer engineering, rheology, separation processes, transport processes, and water and wastewater engineering.
The MSc Chemical Engineering research project provides an opportunity to work with a member of academic staff in one of the above, or related, area of research. The project may also involve collaboration with industry.
The taught component of the MSc Chemical Engineering course covers specific areas of advanced chemical engineering as well as the complex regulations that are found in the engineering workplace. It also provides an opportunity for the development of personal and transferable skills such as project planning, communication skills, and entrepreneurship.
As a student on the Master's course in Chemical Engineering, you will advance your technical knowledge, which can lead to further research or a career in chemical engineering.
Modules on the MSc Chemical Engineering course typically include:
Complex Fluids and Rheology
Entrepreneurship for Engineers
Colloid and Interface Science
Communication Skills for Research Engineers
Water and Wastewater Engineering
Membrane Technology
Environmental Analysis and Legislation
Optimisation
Desalination
Polymers: Properties and Design
Principles of Nanomedicine
Nanoscale Structures and Devices
Pollutant Transport by Groundwater Flows
MSc Research Practice
MSc Dissertation - Chemical Engineering
The MSc Chemical Engineering at Swansea University is accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
The MSc Chemical Engineering degree is accredited as meeting the requirements for Further Learning for a Chartered Engineer (CEng) for candidates who have already acquired an Accredited CEng (Partial) BEng(Hons) or an Accredited IEng (Full) BEng/BSc (Hons) undergraduate first degree.
Accreditation is a mark of assurance that the degree meets the standards set by the Engineering Council in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). An accredited degree will provide you with some or all of the underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills for eventual registration as an Incorporated (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng). Some employers recruit preferentially from accredited degrees, and an accredited degree is likely to be recognised by other countries that are signatories to international accords.
One of the major strengths of Chemical Engineering at Swansea University is the close and extensive involvement with local, national and international engineering companies. The companies include:
Acordis
Astra Zeneca
Avecia
BP Chemicals
Bulmers
Dow Corning
GlaxoSmithKline
Nestle
Murco
Phillips 66
Unilever
Valero
Swansea staff have research links with local, national, and international companies. An industrial advisory board, consisting of eight industrialists from a range of chemical engineering backgrounds, ensure our courses maintain their industrial relevance.
Our new home at the innovative Bay Campus provides some of the best university facilities in the UK, in an outstanding location.
The demand for Chemical Engineering graduates remains excellent with the highest starting salaries out of all engineering disciplines.
Chemical engineers find employment in a variety of public and private sector industries, applying the principles of chemical engineering to health, energy, food, the environment, medicine, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 ranks Engineering at Swansea as 10th in the UK for the combined score in research quality across the Engineering disciplines.
The REF assesses the quality of research in the UK Higher Education sector, assuring us of the standards we strive for.
World-Leading Research
The REF shows that 94% of research produced by our academic staff is of World-Leading (4*) or Internationally Excellent (3*) quality. This has increased from 73% in the 2008 RAE.
Research pioneered at the College of Engineering harnesses the expertise of academic staff within the department. This ground-breaking multidisciplinary research informs our world-class teaching with several of our staff leaders in their fields.
Chemical biology is the application of chemical tools and ideas to biological and medical problems. This programme is designed to build on an existing knowledge of chemical structure and reactivity to give you a thorough grounding in contemporary chemical biology and drug discovery as well as introducing you to topics from the research frontier.
You’ll be taught by experts from across the Astbury Centre in chemical biology, biophysics and medicinal chemistry using a "problem-based" approach. Visiting lecturers from the pharmaceutical industry will share their expertise in industrially-relevant applications of chemical biology and drug design with you.
Bridging the gap between your undergraduate degree in a core subject, and interdisciplinary research in chemical biology, you’ll develop the skills to solve real-life research problems, benefitting from a multi-million pound investment in fantastic research facilities. Rather than focusing on a single discipline, you’ll learn to use either chemical or biological approaches to tackle the problem in hand.
Royal Society of Chemistry Accreditation
The University of Leeds launched the first taught MSc degree in Chemical Biology in the UK. The course was one of the first two MSc courses in the UK to receive accreditation from the Royal Society of Chemistry; graduates from the programme with an appropriate first degree in chemistry satisfy the academic requirements for the award of Chartered Chemist (CChem) status.
In the first half of the year you’ll cover a core range of modules designed to build on an existing knowledge of chemical structure and reactivity to give you a thorough understanding of chemical biology and the techniques required for drug design. In the second half of the year you’ll spend the majority of your time working on an interdisciplinary research project which will allow you to work with and gain advice from two supervisors with complementary expertise.
This project will contribute 50% of the mark for your degree. The School will help you to select the project that is right for you, in an area that interests and motivates you. The project will provide you with key research experience to take your career forward. With the core modules behind you, you’ll be ideally positioned to choose an exciting problem to investigate.
The breadth of expertise available at Leeds means that you will be able to combine a wide range of techniques from computational ligand design to synthesis, protein engineering and laser spectroscopy. These techniques might span one of more of the following general areas;
You’ll receive training in the generic skills that are required for the module, including scientific writing and giving oral presentations. You’ll select your project at the start of the second semester,undertaking a programme of directed reading before writing an initial report. You’ll then spend over four months in your supervisors' research laboratories working alongside PhD students and experienced postdoctoral researchers. During the research project, you’ll have access to the outstanding research facilities in chemical biology that are available in Leeds.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You will be taught by experts across the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, meaning you’ll learn from both chemists and biologists to gain the skills and knowledge to work in a multidisciplinary environment. You’ll be taught through a series of lectures, small group workshops and practical lab sessions. You will also get involved in student led activities such as literature presentations.
The wide range of continual assessment formats will allow you to improve your generic skills, and to hone your ability to solve problems. As part of the continual assessment of modules, you will give a wide range of oral presentations; prepare short articles, essays and research reports; perform computational exercises; and undertake group-based problem solving activities. Your research project will be assessed through your practical work and a written research report.
On graduation, you’ll be ideally placed to undertake interdisciplinary research in academia and the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry. You’ll also be in a strong position to pursue a science-related career, such as patent work, scientific publishing or scientific administration.
In addition, this course will leave you well-placed to forge a career at companies working at the interface between chemistry and biology. The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are increasingly seeking researchers with a strong interdisciplinary background.
Further study
Many of our graduates have secured positions on Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry PhD programmes in the UK and internationally. The Astbury Centre hosts a wide range of PhD programmes incorporating Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, offering many opportunities for students graduating from the MSc course. The MSc provides tailored training at the interface between chemistry and the biological sciences, and will enhance your prospects of securing a place on one of these highly competitive postgraduate programmes.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.
This one-year programme at the University of Edinburgh will immerse you in the most current developments in chemical engineering, through a combination of taught modules, workshops, a research dissertation, and a number of supporting activities delivered by the key experts in the field.
The programme will develop from fundamental topics, including modern approaches to understanding properties of the systems on a molecular scale and advanced numerical methods, to the actual processes, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency, to the summer dissertation projects where the acquired skills in various areas are put into practice, in application to actual chemical engineering problems.
The programme develops from compulsory courses, emphasizing modern computational techniques and research methods, to a range of options. It is complemented by a strong management and economics component.
Compulsory Courses
In addition to the compulsory courses you will take a range of optional courses, please review the "Degree Structure" portion the MSc website listed below to find further information on available courses and course descriptions:
On completion of the research dissertation, the students will be able to:
Our graduates enjoy diverse career opportunities in oil and gas, pharmaceutical, food and drink, consumer products, banking and consulting industries. Examples of the recent employers of our graduates include BP, P&G, Mondelēz International, Doosan Babcock, Atkins, Safetec, Xodus Group, Diageo, Wood Group, GSK, Gilead Sciences, ExxonMobil, Jacobs, Halliburton, Cavendish Nuclear to name a few. This wide range of potential employers means that our graduates are exceptionally well placed to find rewarding and lucrative careers. According to the Complete University Guide, the chemical engineering programme at the University of Edinburgh is ranked one of the top in the UK in terms of graduates prospects.
Find our more about career opportunities:
The MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering may also lead to further studies in a PhD programme. With the 94% of our research activity rated as world leading or internationally excellent (according to the most recent Research Excellence Framework 2014), Edinburgh is the UK powerhouse in Engineering. As an MSc student at Edinburgh you will be immersed in a research intensive, multidisciplinary environment and you will have plenty of opportunities to interact with PhD, MSc students and staff from other programmes, institutes and schools.
Find out more about our research:
Our Chemical Engineering MSc will equip you with a multidisciplinary knowledge of chemical engineering in areas such as fuel cells, control, intensification and sustainability. It is intended for honours graduates with a chemical engineering degree who wish to advance their knowledge in the chemical and process engineering design.
The course meets the industry’s growing need for chemical engineers and provides an understanding of theory and its application in an economic and environmentally suitable way. It gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to work with researchers in the fields of new energy technologies and new advanced materials.
You will gain specialist knowledge and understanding via lectures, seminars and personal supervision. You will develop an understanding of:
The course is delivered by the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials. Hear first-hand from our students about studying with us in our postgraduate video.
Accreditation:
We are seeking Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) accreditation, so you can be assured that you will graduate with a degree that meets the standards set out by the chemical engineering industry.
Facilities:
The School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials has a wide range of attractive facilities.
The School occupies five floors in Merz Court, and we provide a Student Common Room and a separate Student Study Space.
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Chemical Engineering at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
From authoring definitive text books on chemical engineering to finding solutions to the world's water shortages, Swansea University has a proud tradition of delivering pioneering innovative process engineering solutions. As we have a wide range of research in chemical engineering, Swansea University provides an excellent base for your research as an MSc by Research student in Chemical Engineering.
There is a wide range of research in chemical engineering at Swansea University. This includes:
Membrane separation
Biochemical engineering
Biomanufacturing
Engineering applications of nanotechnology
Bioengineering, biomedical engineering
Cell and tissue engineering
Colloid science and engineering
Desalination
Pharmaceutical engineering
Polymer engineering
Rheology
Separation processes
Transport processes
Water and wastewater engineering
The MSc by Research in Chemical Engineering at Swansea University provides an opportunity to work with a member of academic staff in one of the above, or related, area of research.
The MSc by Research in Chemical Engineering typically lasts one year full-time, two to three years part-time. This is an individual research project written up in a thesis of 30,000 words.
One of the major strengths of Chemical Engineering at Swansea University is the close and extensive involvement with local, national and international engineering companies. The companies include:
Acordis
Astra Zeneca
Avecia
BP Chemicals
Bulmers
Dow Corning
GlaxoSmithKline
Nestle
Murco
Phillips 66
Unilever
Valero
Our new home at the innovative Bay Campus provides some of the best university facilities in the UK, in an outstanding location.
Swansea University has resources specific to Chemical Engineering.
Research in Chemical Engineering at Swansea is located within the Systems and Process Engineering Research Centre which has a number of focused research groups including the Centre for Water Advanced Technologies and Environmental Research (CWATER), the Centre for Complex Fluids Processing and the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre.
The Centre for Water Advanced Technologies and Environmental Research (CWATER) is an internationally leading centre of excellence for the development of advanced technologies in water treatment. The Centre benefits from world-leading expertise in the areas of desalination and membrane technologies for water treatment.
The Centre for Complex Fluids Processing is internationally recognised for its leading and innovative research on the processing of complex fluids which is a major feature of modern industry. Such fluids are extremely diverse in origin and composition - ranging, for example, from fermentation broths and food products to inks and mineral slurries. However, underlying this diversity are certain properties that must be understood if the processing is to be effective and efficient. These include flow behaviour in process equipment, how the components of the fluid determine its overall properties and how individual components may be selectively separated.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 ranks Engineering at Swansea as 10th in the UK for the combined score in research quality across the Engineering disciplines.
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