Successful engineering course expands

Citation

(1999), "Successful engineering course expands", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771eab.028

Successful engineering course expands

Successful engineering course expands

Keywords: Engineering, Research, Training

Amid recent concern about graduate uptake of doctoral research studentships, one scheme has proved to be especially popular with students and employers. The scheme, EPSRC's engineering doctorate, has proved so successful that it has been enlarged to involve ten university-based centres.

An engineering doctorate provides business and technical expertise to complement doctoral level research skills. It takes the form of a four-year training programme leading to the award of Doctor of Engineering (EngD). About three-quarters of the training programme centres on an industrial research project carried out within a collaborating company. The remainder of the programme involves intensive course work in technical, business, managerial and personal skills training subjects.

Those taking EngD courses, who are known as research engineers (REs), receive a higher award than do students on other EPSRC schemes. A tax-free sum of »8,075 a year - £9,405 in London - is paid by EPSRC and this is further enhanced by at least »3,000 a year from the collaborating company.

The scheme started in 1992 and the first graduates have now entered the employment market. The initial evidence is that these graduates are receiving better job offers and starting salaries than those who have followed more traditional PhD or MSc programmes.

The expansion from five to ten centres takes place following a review of the scheme in 1997. This found that EngD graduates were valued by employers and that they had the skills to make them rapidly effective once appointed. It also suggested that the scheme should be enlarged to make available a wider range of engineering themes.

Each of the centres concentrates on a particular sector and between them they offer a range of subjects including aerospace, construction, environmental technology, manufacturing, metallurgy, bioengineering communications and information technology.

Further details are available from Dr Andy Rawlins of the Cross Programmes Group. Tel: +44 (0) 1793 444112; E-mail: a.rawlins@epsrc.ac.uk