Mechanical Engineering including a Foundation Year

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and most fundamental branches of engineering, concerned with the design, analysis, and manufacture of systems that involve forces, motion, and energy. Mechanical engineers work on everything from the components inside a smartphone to the turbines that generate electricity, the vehicles that transport people and goods, and the robots that are increasingly taking on tasks in factories and hospitals. The discipline asks you to be both imaginative in solving problems and precise in evaluating whether your solutions will work.

At the University of Kent, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, making it accessible to students who need to build their mathematical and scientific grounding before entering the main degree. From there you will study engineering mechanics, thermodynamics, materials science, manufacturing processes, control systems, and design, developing both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills that employers and professional bodies expect. You will work on design projects that require you to bring different areas of knowledge together, and you will develop the ability to use industry-standard software for modelling and simulation.

Mechanical engineering graduates are among the most employable engineering graduates in the UK, with career paths spanning automotive and aerospace manufacturing, energy production including renewables, robotics and automation, biomedical devices, and consulting engineering. With a qualifying degree and appropriate work experience, graduates can work towards chartership with professional bodies such as the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which is a marker of professional status recognised internationally. Postgraduate study in specific areas of mechanical engineering, materials, and manufacturing is also pursued by graduates who wish to specialise or move into research.