Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Materials Engineering at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
This MRes degree includes modules covering a range of areas within the Materials discipline, which are linked to the College of Engineering’s main research strengths of aerospace materials, environmental materials and steel technology.
Through this course in Materials Engineering, you will be provided with training and experience in a broad range of topic areas, including metallurgy and materials selection, aerospace materials, recycling techniques, and modern business management issues and techniques.
The Materials Engineering course will provide you with the depth of knowledge and breadth of abilities to meet the demands of the international materials industry.
Combination of taught modules (60 credits) and a research thesis, which presents the outcome of a significant research project (120 credits) over 12 months full-time study. An MRes (Master of Research) provides relevant training to acquire the knowledge, techniques and skills required for a career in industry or for further research.
Modules on the Materials Engineering programme can vary each year but you could expect to study:
Strategic Project Planning
Communication Skills for Research Engineers
Aerospace Materials Engineering
Materials Recycling Techniques
Environmental Analysis and Legislation
Physical Metallurgy of Steel
MSc Research Thesis
This degree is accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).
This 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.
Our new home at the innovative Bay Campus provides some of the best university facilities in the UK, in an outstanding location.
Engineering at Swansea University provides state-of-the-art facilities specific to Materials Engineering.
- Comprehensive computer systems for specialist and general purposes.
- World-leading equipment for characterisation of the mechanical properties of metallic, ceramic, polymeric and composite materials.
- Extensive range of laboratories housing scanning electron microscopes with full microanalysis and electron backscatter diffraction capabilities.
Through this Materials Engineering scheme, you will be provided with the detailed technical knowledge and experience required for a successful career at a technical or management level within the modern steel industry.
At the end of the course, you will have a higher level qualification along with crucial experience of industry allowing you to more quickly enter into the world of work and contribute fully to this important sector.
The internationally leading materials research conducted at Swansea is funded by prestigious organisations including:
Rolls-Royce
Airbus
Tata Steel
Rolls-Royce
The Institute of Structural Materials at Swansea is a core member of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Materials.
This venture supports a wide ranging research portfolio with a rolling value of £6.5 million per annum addressing longer term materials issues.
Airbus
Over £1m funding has been received from Airbus and the Welsh Government in the last three years to support structural composites research and development in the aerospace industry and to support composites activity across Wales.
Tata Steel
Funding of over £6 million to continue our very successful postgraduate programmes with Tata Steel.
Other companies sponsoring research projects include Akzo Nobel, Axion Recycling, BAE Systems, Bayer, Cognet, Ford, HBM nCode, Jaguar Land Rover, Novelis, QinetiQ, RWE Innogy, Timet, TWI (Wales), as well as many smaller companies across the UK.
These industrial research links provide excellent opportunities for great research and employment opportunities.
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.
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.
Highlights of the Engineering results according to the General Engineering Unit of Assessment:
Research Environment at Swansea ranked 2nd in the UK
Research Impact ranked 10th in the UK
Research Power (3*/4* Equivalent staff) ranked 10th in the UK
If you’re a graduate from a science, mathematics, technology or another engineering discipline, this programme provides the knowledge and skills to convert to a specialism in materials science and engineering or metallurgy to meet the present needs and future challenges of advanced materials and manufacturing in areas such as transportation, bioengineering, energy, electronics and information technology, sport and sustainable development.
Alternatively, if you’re already a professional engineer in the materials sector, you’ll have the chance to expand your expertise to enhance your career prospects.
Core modules cover key topics such as materials structures, processing-structure-property relationships, characterisation and failure analysis. You’ll also choose one from three groups of optional modules to focus your specialism to suit your own career plans and interests. Taught by experts in world-class facilities, you’ll gain the skills to thrive in a growing and fast-changing field.
Specialist facilities
You’ll benefit from the chance to study in cutting-edge facilities where our researchers are pushing the boundaries of materials science and engineering and metallurgy. We have state-of-the-art preparative facilities for making and characterising a wide range of materials, as well as equipment and instrumentation for carrying out more fundamental studies into their process-microstructure-property relationships.
The course is designed to provide graduates with the educational base required for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status. Accreditation is currently being sought from IoM3
Compulsory modules at the beginning of the programme lay the foundations of your studies in materials science or metallurgy. You’ll learn about processing-structure-property relationships, which lie at the heart of the discipline, as well as examining topics such as mechanical, physical and chemical behaviour, phase transformations and how the structure and local chemistry of materials may be characterised. You’ll cover materials and process selection and their role in design, and extend this into the principles and practice of failure analysis.
This prepares the way for three sets of specialist modules: you can decide to specialise in metallurgy, functional and nanomaterials or take a broader materials science approach covering metals, ceramics, polymers, composites and biomaterials. You’ll complete your taught modules either by studying a module in materials modelling (if you already hold an accredited Engineering degree) or participating in an industry-focused interdisciplinary design project.
You will complete your programme with a major individual research project of your own. With guidance from your supervisor, you will work on a topic related to the internationally-leading materials and metallurgical research carried out in the University, or you could propose a topic of your own related to your own professional work or that of an industrial sponsor.
Want to find out more about your modules?
Take a look at the Materials Science and Engineering module descriptions for more detail on what you will study.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching, and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of the discipline through lectures, seminars, tutorials, small group work and project meetings. Independent study is also important to 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 case studies, technical reports, presentations, in-class tests, assignments, vivas and projects.
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 MSc Materials Science and Engineering students have included:
There is currently an increasingly high demand for qualified materials scientists, materials engineers and metallurgists.
Career prospects are excellent and cover a wide range of industries concerned with the research and development of new and improved materials, materials synthesis and commercial production, and materials exploitation in cutting-edge applications in engineering and technology.
You’ll have access to the wide range of engineering and computing careers resources held by our Employability team in our dedicated Employability Suite. You’ll have the chance to attend industry presentations book appointments with qualified careers consultants and take part in employability workshops. Our annual Engineering and Computing Careers Fairs provide further opportunities to explore your career options with some of the UKs leading employers.
The University's Careers Centre also 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.
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Materials Engineering at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
With our main research strengths of aerospace materials, environmental materials and steel technology, Swansea University provides an excellent base for your research as a MSc by Research student in Materials Engineering.
Swansea is one of the UK’s leading centres for Materials Engineering in teaching and research. The internationally leading materials research conducted at Swansea is funded by prestigious organisations. These industrial research links provide excellent research opportunities.
Key research areas within Materials Engineering include:
Design against failure by creep, fatigue and environmental damage
Structural metals and ceramics for gas turbine applications
Grain boundary engineering
Recycling of polymers and composites
Corrosion mechanisms in new generation magnesium alloys
Development of novel strip steel grades (IF, HSLA, Dual Phase, TRIP)
Functional coatings for energy generation, storage and release
MSc by research in Materials 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.
Our new home at the innovative Bay Campus provides some of the best university facilities in the UK, in an outstanding location.
Within Engineering at Swansea University there are state-of-the-art facilities specific to Materials Engineering.
- Comprehensive computer systems for specialist and general purposes.
- World-leading equipment for characterisation of the mechanical properties of metallic, ceramic, polymeric and composite materials.
- Extensive range of laboratories housing scanning electron microscopes with full microanalysis and electron backscatter diffraction capabilities.
The internationally leading materials research conducted at Swansea is funded by prestigious organisations including:
Rolls-Royce
Airbus
Tata Steel
Rolls-Royce
The Institute of Structural Materials at Swansea is a core member of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Materials.
This venture supports a wide ranging research portfolio with a rolling value of £6.5 million per annum addressing longer term materials issues.
Airbus
Over £1m funding has been received from Airbus and the Welsh Government in the last three years to support structural composites research and development in the aerospace industry and to support composites activity across Wales.
Tata Steel
Funding of over £6 million to continue our very successful postgraduate programmes with Tata Steel.
Other companies sponsoring research projects include Akzo Nobel, Axion Recycling, BAE Systems, Bayer, Cognet, Ford, HBM nCode, Jaguar Land Rover, Novelis, QinetiQ, RWE Innogy, Timet, TWI (Wales), as well as many smaller companies across the UK.
These industrial research links provide excellent opportunities for great research and employment opportunities.
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.
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.
Highlights of the Engineering results according to the General Engineering Unit of Assessment:
Research Environment at Swansea ranked 2nd in the UK
Research Impact ranked 10th in the UK
Research Power (3*/4* Equivalent staff) ranked 10th in the UK
The structure of the program consists of a core of 60 credits, four options of 12 credits, three fixed elective packages of 12 credits, engineering and general interest electives of 12 credits and the Master's thesis of 24 credits. The four options focus on materials families or on application domains: Metals and Ceramics, Polymers and Composites, Materials for Nanotechnology, and Materials for Biomedical Applications. The three fixed elective packages have been designed to help the students in imagining themselves in their future professional environment and thus in developing a career profile: research, production and management. The two latter packages include industrial internships.
The programme is crowned with the 24 credits Master's thesis where the student will apply his/her knowledge to a research topic of choice. These topics are usually embedded in a cutting-edge research project in cooperation with other institutions and/or industrial companies.
This programme is an initial Master's programme and can be followed on a full-time of part-time basis.
Graduates have access to a wide range of engineering sectors. Prominent technical industries such as the automotive, aerospace, energy, microelectronics, and chemical industries and emerging sectors such as nanotechnology, biomaterials and recycling are keen to hire qualified and talented materials engineers. Materials engineers are also well suited for functions as process engineers, materials or product developers, design specialists, quality control engineers or consultants. Graduates with an interest in research can apply for an R&D position or start a PhD. Several alumni have also gone on to start their own companies.
Suitable for engineering, mathematics or physical science graduates, this course provides exposure to modern issues in advanced mechanical engineering science, with the opportunity to specialise in material properties, their limitations and engineering context. It offers a sound understanding of the relevant fundamental science, methods, analysis and engineering applications.
Compulsory modules: Introduction to Advanced Mechanical Engineering Science; Microstructural Engineering for Transport Applications; Surface Engineering; Failure of Materials and Components; microstructural and Surface Characterisation; MSc Research Project
Optional modules: Manufacturing and Materials; Biomaterials; Finite Element Analysis in Solid Mechanics; Composites Engineering Design and Mechanics; Experimental Mechanics; Aircraft Structural Design; Advanced Electrical Systems; Bio, Nano and Modelling Aspects of Tribology; Aircraft Propulsion; Fuel Cells and Photovoltaic Systems I; Fuel Cells and Photovoltaic Systems 2; Advanced Management
