General Engineering

General engineering is an approach to engineering education that deliberately defers specialisation, giving students a broad and integrated foundation across multiple engineering disciplines before they focus on a particular field. It is rooted in the conviction that the most important engineering challenges of the present century, from climate change and energy transition to healthcare technology and sustainable infrastructure, require engineers who can think across disciplinary boundaries, collaborate with specialists in other fields, and bring flexible analytical skills to novel problems.

At Durham University, this four-year full-time programme is designed with intellectual breadth and rigour at its centre. You will study engineering science, mathematics, thermodynamics, mechanics, electrical and electronic systems, materials, and systems thinking, developing a genuinely cross-disciplinary technical foundation. The programme includes a sandwich year with a work placement and a year abroad, providing exceptional scope for professional and international experience.

The placement year takes you into an engineering organisation where you gain real professional exposure, and the year abroad allows you to study at a partner university and encounter engineering practice in a different academic and professional culture.

Graduates of general engineering programmes are valued precisely for their flexibility and breadth, and move into careers across aerospace, civil, mechanical, electrical, energy, and systems engineering, as well as in management consulting, technology finance, and roles that require technical literacy alongside strategic thinking. Durham's reputation and the programme's combination of rigour, international experience, and practical placement makes graduates strongly competitive in the graduate market. Many continue to postgraduate study in a specific engineering discipline or in engineering management, using the broad undergraduate foundation to specialise at a higher level.