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).
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
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).
Engineering at Swansea University has key research strengths in materials for aerospace applications and steel technology. As a student on the Master's course in Materials Engineering, you will be provided with the depth of knowledge and breadth of abilities to meet the demands of the international materials industry.
Through the MSc Materials Engineering course you will be provided with training and experience in a broad range of topic areas, including metallurgy and materials selection, modern methods used for engineering design and analysis, the relationship between structure, processing and properties for a wide range of materials, materials and advanced composite materials, structural factors that control the mechanical properties of materials, and modern business management issues and techniques.
The MSc Materials Engineering course is an excellent route for those who have a first degree in any scientific or technical subject and would like to become qualified in this field of materials engineering.
MSc in Materials Engineering programme is modular in structure. Students must obtain a total of 180 credits to qualify for the degree. This is made up of 120 credits in the taught element (Part One) and a project (Part Two) that is worth 60 credits and culminates in a written dissertation. Students must successfully complete Part One before being allowed to progress to Part Two.
The part-time scheme is a version of the full-time equivalent MSc scheme, and as such it means lectures are spread right across each week and you may have lectures across every day. Due to this timetabling format, the College advises that the scheme is likely to suit individuals who are looking to combine this with other commitments (typically family/caring) and who are looking for a less than full-time study option.
Those candidates seeking to combine the part-time option with full-time work are unlikely to find the timetable suitable, unless their job is extremely flexible and local to the Bay Campus.
Modules on the MSc Materials Engineering course can vary each year but you could expect to study:
Composite Materials
Polymer Processing
Environmental Analysis and Legislation
Communication Skills for Research Engineers
Simulation Based Product Design
Aerospace Materials Engineering
Structural Integrity of Aerospace Metals
Ceramics
Environmental Analysis and Legislation
Physical Metallurgy of Steels
The MSc Materials Engineering course at Swansea University 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.
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.
Materials engineering underpins almost all engineering applications and employment prospects are excellent.
Employment can be found in a very wide range of sectors, ranging from large-scale materials production through to R&D in highly specialised advanced materials in industries that include aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, sports, and energy generation, as well as consultancy and advanced research.
Materials engineering knowledge is vital in many fields and our graduates go on to successful careers in research and development, product design, production management, marketing, finance, teaching and the media, and entrepreneurship.
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.
The REF assesses the quality of research in the UK Higher Education sector, assuring us of the standards we strive for.
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.
Offered as part of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme.
Full-time and part-time students study a number of one-week short-course modules comprising lectures, laboratory sessions and tutorials.
The modules cover metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, nanomaterials, bonding, surfaces, corrosion, fracture, fatigue, analytical techniques and general research methods. Each module is followed by an open book assessment of approximately 120 hours.
There is also a materials-based research project, which is made up of the Research Project Planning and the Project modules.
The MSc in Advanced Materials is accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) when a Project is undertaken.
This programme is studied full-time over one academic year and part-time over five academic years. It consists of eight taught modules and a compulsory Project.
Example module listing
The following modules are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that not all modules described are compulsory and may be subject to teaching availability and/or student demand.
The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas:
Knowledge and understanding
Intellectual / cognitive skills
Professional practical skills
Key / transferable skills
We often give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities.
In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV.
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Mechanical Engineering at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
Mechanical Engineering at Swansea maintains a high standard of teaching and research, set in a relaxed and sociable atmosphere. As a student on the Master's course in Mechanical Engineering, you will be provided with a high quality overview of the techniques of modern mechanical engineering, presenting examples of use from a wide range of disciplines and industries.
The MSc Mechanical Engineering course is stimulating and our graduates are rewarded with excellent job prospects. It will equip you with the ability to make informed judgements on the most appropriate approach to a range of mechanical engineering problems.
The MSc Mechanical Engineering course covers the development of mechanical engineering tools, methods and techniques for problem solving, the ability to formulate an adequate representation of sets of experimental data, the use of these tools and techniques for real world applications, the ability to formulate an accurate representation of sets of experimental data, and business and management methods and their application in the field of engineering.
The research project undertaken as part of the MSc Mechanical Engineering course is industrially relevant and the topics of the course are of high industrial relevance.
Mechanical Engineering at Swansea University is recognised as one of the top 200 departments in the world (QS World Subject Rankings).
MSc programmes are modular in structure. Students must obtain a total of 180 credits to qualify for the degree. This is made up of 120 credits in the taught element (Part One) and a project (Part Two) that is worth 60 credits and culminates in a written dissertation. Students must successfully complete Part One before being allowed to progress to Part Two.
Modules on the MSc Mechanical Engineering course can vary each year but you could expect to study:
Strategic Project Planning
Additive Manufacturing
Entrepreneurship for Engineers
Optimisation
Composite Materials
Simulation Based Product Design
Advanced Thermo Fluid Mechanics
Advanced Solid Mechanics
Environmental Analysis and Legislation
Polymer Processing
Systems Monitoring, Control, Reliability, Survivability, Integrity and Maintenance
Process Metallurgy and Optimisation
Power Generation Systems
The MSc Mechanical Engineering course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
The MSc Mechanical 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.
Our new home at the innovative Bay Campus provides some of the best university facilities in the UK, in an outstanding location.
Mechanical Engineering at Swansea University has extensive laboratory and computing facilities for both teaching and research purposes.
In the mechanical laboratories are two large rotating rigs. One is used to study the dynamics of high speed machinery whilst the other is devoted to the analysis of heat transfer in turbine blade.
The modules on the MSc Mechanical Engineering course are of high industrial relevance and the benefits to employability are immediate in a wide range of industries.
Members of staff work closely with a range of industries through knowledge transfer projects, consultancy and strategic research, which informs the practical problems used in our teaching.
Within Wales we have close interaction with large companies such as Tata Steel and Ford, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Across the UK there is or has been recent work with companies such as Astra-Zeneca, British Aerospace, Qinetiq, GKN and Rolls-Royce whilst further afield there is close working with companies such as SKF (Netherlands), Freeport (USA), One Steel (Australia), Barrick Gold (USA) to name a few.
The modules on the MSc Mechanical Engineering course are of high industrial relevance and the benefits to employability are immediate in a wide range of industries.
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.
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.
“Every single day at the College of Engineering has been a learning process for me. The MSc in Mechanical Engineering involves leading world class professors, tutors and academics with whom we were lucky to be associated with. There is also a great peer group too.
I would like to pursue a PhD from Swansea University and become an entrepreneur. The College of Engineering has helped immensely with these ambitions.”
Arnab Dasgupta, MSc Mechanical Engineering
