General Engineering BEng

Engineers are innovators who bring about change through their ingenuity, experience and curiosity to improve the quality of life for people throughout the world. Their work is central to thriving economies and competitive industries. It is equally important in developing countries where engineers provide appropriate technologies during difficult times of change.

Professional engineers have a high degree of specialist knowledge but increasingly they use a broad approach to problem-solving across a range of engineering disciplines. This is coupled with an awareness of environmental, social, legal, economic and regulatory aspects of the problem at hand.

Whether you study for the BEng or the MEng, your General Engineering degree will equip you for a career in modern industry and commerce where a broad understanding of the subject is paramount.

Unlike some other universities, Engineering at Leicester has always been viewed as a unified subject and all engineering research and teaching staff belong to a single School. This has significant advantages for our graduates who leave here familiar with a broad range of topics and techniques in electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering. While this is an advantage to all our courses it provides a special quality to our General Engineering degrees.

You will take business, control, design, engineering mathematics, experimentation, management courses and specialist electrical and mechanical options. These are carefully selected to provide overall coherence and balance, ensuring a good foundation for interdisciplinary projects in a wide range of professions. General Engineering graduates are highly sought-after by engineering employers, due to their broad skill set and adaptability. They are also able to move into specialist areas such as biomedical engineering, systems engineering or patenting.

Successful engineers must be able to analyse and solve complex problems in the industrial context, communicate ideas to others, work effectively in teams and exercise leadership skills. This is why all our Engineering degrees include business, integrated design, management and professional development activities throughout. Topics covered include business finance, project planning and management, intellectual property, health and safety, motivation theory, marketing, total quality management, ethics and professionalism.

What's the difference?

Each of our Engineering subjects is available in six forms:

• BEng (3 years), BEng with Industry (4 years), BEng with Year Abroad (4 years)
• MEng (4 years), MEng with Industry (5 years), MEng with Year Abroad (5 years)

The MEng places greater emphasis on industrially-related project work, advanced technical content and leadership, and automatically meets the academic requirements for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status. The MEng shares its first three years with the corresponding BEng.