Admission Criteria

Candidates must be able to satisfy the general admission requirements of the University of the West of Scotland as specified in Chapter 2 of the University Regulatory Framework together with the following programme requirements:

Appropriate Undergraduate Qualification

Other Required Qualifications/Experience

Applicants may also be considered with other academic, vocational or professional qualifications deemed to be equivalent. We welcome applications from international students with equivalency of qualifications. Scholarships may be available on application.

Further desirable skills pre-application

Where English is not the first language, applicants must be able to satisfy the University of their competence in English. Either by having a TOEFL score of 550 or above or an IELTS score of 6 or above (5.5 in each component) or equivalent.

General Overview

The MSc in Mechanical Engineering is a unique UK postgraduate taught programme that draws upon the research and industrial experience strengths of the University of The West of Scotland in Mechanical Engineering and other engineering disciplines. It offers an advanced qualification to engineering graduates wishing to progress their career and develop an in-depth and practical understanding of Mechanical Engineering in the Design, Analysis , Manufacture, Testing for the Aerospace, Automotive, Off Shore, Chemical/Petrolium, Energy and Renewables Industry sectors. The content of the programme is both timely and is desired by industry both locally and globally. In terms of global influence, UWS is already engaged with Mechanical Engineering Departments in China at Changchung Institute of Technology, the University's of Applied Sciences at Mittwieda and Leipzig, Germany.

The MSc is intended to be completed in a 12 month period synchronised with the main undergraduate intake in September, but running through to the end of the summer break period. There is the opportunity for a February intake, however this will extend the length of the programme to 15 months.

Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma awards provide an exit award points from the Masters programme at the end of Terms 1 and 2 respectively. However, the main focus is on completion of the MSc.

Term one comprises of three compulsory taught units. These include Advanced Engineering Materials (20 credits), Advanced Fluid Mechanics & CFD (20 Credits), Advanced Heat Transfer (20 Credits).

Term two consists of three compulsory taught modules, Applied Finite Element Analysis (20 Credits), Structural Integrity (20 Credits), Research Design and Methods (10 Credits). Additionally students select from one of the two optional modules: Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems (10 credits) or Measurement and Instrumentation (10 credits).

The modules will be taught with an integrative flavour, that the modules are not taught in isolation, but whether its the CFD or FEA, modules will build on the many of the other taught modules.  It is a feature of this programme that the modules are taught around real problems from industry. Guest lectures from industrial experts will complement the delivery of the modules. The student will be able to study a particular topic in greater detail via the MSc Dissertation.

Student learning is through an arrangement of lectures, tutorials, case studies, laboratory work, research and independent learning. The units are continuously assessed (reports, projects, oral presentations, seminars), examined by a written exam, or a combination of these assessment methods.

The remaining balance of the overall calendar year is devoted to completion of each student’s individual MSc Dissertation, scheduled and started in early Term 3. A written Thesis on this work is submitted and an oral presentation of the work delivered, towards the end of the academic year. The MSc Dissertation is worth 60 credits and will support existing research programmes, industrially relevent projects wherever possible or a company-based research project (particularly beneficial to part-time students). Students will be educated using a range of practical tools within each module; in particular they will leave with knowledge of rigorous decision analysis to support the use of innovative Mechanical Engineering techniques. Most modules will contain a range of contributions from external guest lecturer (industrial experts). Industrial visits will also be incorporated into the programme wherever possible. The programme’s academic content reflects the desire to provide grounding in the core areas of Structural Design and Integrity, Fluid Mechancs and Heat Transfer, Composites and CFD and FEA.

Students, upon completion of the course, will have attained a Masters level qualification and may pursue additional postgraduate study or doctoral level both within the University and at other Higher Education Institutes. These may be either on a full time, part time or post experience basis.

Modules within the programme, with exception of the dissertation modules, typically share a standard delivery model based around five hours of contact time per module per week (20 Credits), three hours of which are face to face delivery in lectures and one hours' tutorial/lab time. Each module is supported by further online content hosted via the University's Moodle virtual learning environment. This will include access to directed readings, online discussion forums, wiki sites and embedded content from a variety of other settings. Exercises will be available online to complement the formal lecture/laboratory programme. Whilst directed readings and tasks will generally be provided via the Moodle VLE platform, students will be encouraged and expected to take responsibility for their own learning by contributing to the activities provided, making decisions about which additional content to access and uploading their own additional materials for distribution and discussion among the student body.

Graduate Attributes, Employability & Personal Development Planning

Upon completion of the course, students will have attained SCQF level 11 skills in relation to employment and PDP in the following areas: Knowledge and Understanding; Generic Cognative Skills; Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills; Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others.

UWS Graduate Attributes focus on academic, personal and professional skills and throughout the programmes that these skills develop students who are universally prepared, work-ready and successful. The MSc Mechanical Engineering programme provides opportunities with L11 modules to enable these skills to be developed and focussed appropriately.

Mechanical Engineering knowledge is given in depth and breadth throughout the programme and wherever possible digital literacy skills and ability to provide effective solutions is further enhanced utilising industry standard appropriate technologies such as MATLAB, CAD, FEA and CFD software.

Particularly in the Research Design and Methods and the MSc Dissertation modules of the programme, research, critical analytical and inquiry skills are developed and used to solve industry or research related problems.

Advanced structural and fluids design and analysis exercises are utilised where incisive and innovative solutions are required to be effectively presented as part of collaborative groups or as individual autonomous learning activities.

The programme promotes cultural awareness and emotional intelligence with group exercises developing resilient, ambitious and enterprising leadership qualities whilst ensuring that group members are emotionally and culturally aware and respectful communication and behaviours are the norm.

Commercial awareness is linked with activities during the programme ensuring that costs associated with staff, materials, manufacture, in-service and decommissioning are considered when developing transformational/innovative solutions with commercial potential.

Ethical awareness and social responsibility is developed throughout and is formalised especially as part of the MSc Dissertation activities where School/University ethical approval is sought if required.

Links to current University, School and programme research and knowledge exchange are promoted through the programme with opportunities for students to become involved in aspects of the research or knowledge exchange from the earliest opportunity either discretely or as part of an assessment.

Work Based Learning/Placement Details

Work Based Learning is not applicable to the MSc in Mechanical Engineering.

Engagement and Attendance

In line with the Academic Engagement and Attendance Procedure, Students are defined as academically engaged if they are regularly engaged with timetabled teaching sessions, course-related learning resources including those in the Library and on Moodle, and complete assessments and submit these on time.

For the purposes of this programme, this equates to the following:

Students are expected to attend all timetabled sessions and to engage with all formative and summative assessment elements of all the modules that are included in the programme specification as core modules as well as any optional module when applicable.

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Regulations of Assessment

Candidates will be bound by the general assessment regulations of the University as specified in the University Regulatory Framework .

An overview of the assessment details is provided in the Student Handbook and the assessment criteria for each module is provided in the module descriptor which forms part of the module pack issued to students. For further details on assessment please refer to Chapter 3 of the Regulatory Framework.

To qualify for an award of the University, students must complete all the programme requirements and must meet the credit minima detailed in Chapter 1 of the Regulatory Framework.