Are you interested in automation, robotics, cars or even medical engineering? A career in mechanical engineering (M.E.) will open up a huge number of opportunities to you.

While many Mechanical Engineers love the hands of experience of a vocational qualification most mechanical engineers will have a Bachelor of Engineering BE or BEng or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering BSE or BSc(Eng) degree is often the first step for a mechanical engineer that on that journey.

Changes in mechanical engineering technology

In 2022 Mechanical Engineers expected to benefit from the shift towards the 4th industrial revolution. New changes in mechanical engineering technology mean there has never been a better time to consider M.E as a career.

Mechanical engineering careers have always been focused on creating technologies to meet human needs and as the world has become more complex new Engineering Technology has emerged to meet these needs. Today Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, investigate equipment failures and test mechanical and thermal sensors and devices, including tools, engines, and machines that simply didn’t exist 100 year ago.

As mechanical engineering technology has shifted, how mechanical engineers work has changed and the suite of tools available to them have grown. While at its core Mechanical engineering is all about mechanical systems, todays students will study modules that touch on everything from medical devices, Fluid mechanics, and electric generators or electrical systems to Robotics Structural analysis Technology, finite element analysis.

There is going to be a robot revolution in manufacturing, and at the forefront of that are the Engineers needed to oversee how new advanced manufacturing technologies into British industry to enhance existing capabilities. That means a career as a mechanical engineer is going to set you up to have a really wide variety of career opportunities.

What can you do with a Mechanical Engineering degree?

Having a Mechanical degree means employers understand you have a comprehensive education grounded in STEM principles and can work collaboratively on learning project.

In 2022 the job prospects for Mechanical Engineers are really good. Mechanical engineers typically are well suited to quickly get to grips with new technological developments in fields like nanotechnology and biomedical engineering as they have a strong foundation on engineering principles.

If Mechanical Engineers can show you have a understanding of emerging Engineering Technology, the latest software tools, particularly in computational design and simulation, you are going to be in a strong position to take on roles in not only well established Engineering disciplines but new emerging fields

What career paths do Mechanical Engineers take?

Traditionally a mechanical engineer might go on to work as:

• Mechanical Engineering Technicians
• Associate Mechanical Engineers
• Mechanical Engineers, Senior Mechanical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering Manager roles
• Biomedical Engineers
• Manufacturing Engineers
• Senior Applications Engineer
• Research and Development Roles

Required skills for a degree in mechanical engineering

It is important to keep in mind that courses can be competitive so you will need also stand out from other would be Mechanical Engineers to get a place at a top institution.

You will need top grades in Maths, Science, Design and Technology subjects at A-level, IB or Scottish Higher’s level but need to stand out against students with the same qualifications

Soft skills to demonstrate before applying for a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering.

When applying to a degree in mechanical engineering a future Mechanical Engineers will need not only the right qualifications but also demonstrate soft skills that Mechanical Engineers need day to day such as:

• Project management skills
• Creativity
• Technical expertise
• Broad intellectual and technical skills
• Practical problem solving skills
• Good maths and numeracy skills
• Strong IT skills (skills in computer aided design are also useful)
• Oral and written communication skills
• Organisational skills.

Think about how you can use any extra-circular activities to demonstrate these University admission teams.

What are the best Mechanical Engineering Degrees in the UK 2022

University of Bristol

The Faculty of Engineering at Bristol is one of the best in the country for would be Mechanical Engineers. In September 2017 Bristol opened a multitude of new spaces to support hands-on teaching, learning and Engineering Technology research for their Engineering students.

This saw a substantial £22 million+ investment and a major new extension and refit of their Engineering facilities. The department offers the following courses for Mechanical Engineers:

• BEng (hons) aerospace engineering
• BEng (hons) M.E.
• MEng (hons) M.E. with study abroad in a modern language (or study abroad)
• MEng (hons) aerospace engineering
• MEng (hons) aerospace with study abroad in a modern language (or study abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E.
• MEng (hons) mechanical & electrical engineering
• BEng (hons) mechanical & electrical engineering
• MEng (hons) aerospace with a year in industry
• MEng (hons) M.E. with a year in industry
• MEng (hons) mechanical and electrical engineering with a year in industry

Imperial College London

Imperial College is known for its links with industry which they use to ensure that their courses are relevant for students looking to quickly get a mechanical engineering jobs once they graduate.

They offer two four year core courses for Mechanical engineers

• MEng (hons) M.E.
• MEng (hons) aeronautical engineering

Requirements for Imperial College London

The course is highly competitive and Mechanical Engineers who want to study at Bristol typically require a Three A-level offer with A* A* A or a four A-level offer with A* A A A.

However, a would be mechanical engineer can transfer within the department to different courses as they progress. During the second or third year students can switch to MEng Mechanical with Nuclear Engineering or MEng M.E. with Nuclear Engineering and a Year in Industry

At the end of their third year Mechanical Engineers can also transfer to MEng M.E. with a Year Abroad. At the end of their fourth year they can participate in MEng M.E. with a Year in Industry or MEng M.E. with a Year in Industry and a Year Abroad.

University of Bath

The University of Bath excels in Engineering and is known for its specialism in vehicle design, performance, analysis and systems. It has especially great links for those Mechanical Engineers looking at a career in automotive and motorsport industries.

Alternatives to a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering

Alongside these M.E. courses the University also offers degrees in architecture & civil engineering, chemical engineering and electronic & electrical engineering.

It offers 14 degree courses aimed at Mechanical Engineers

• MEng (hons) mechanical with automotive engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering
• MEng (hons) M.E. (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical with automotive engineering
• MEng (hons) aerospace engineering
• MEng (hons) aerospace (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with manufacturing & management (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with manufacturing & management
• MEng (hons) robotics engineering
• MEng (hons) integrated mechanical & electrical engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) integrated mechanical & electrical engineering
• MEng (hons) robotics engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) integrated design engineering
• MEng (hons) integrated design engineering (sandwich year)

Leeds

Leeds offers 10 M.E. courses with a range of specialities.

It gives Mechanical Engineers the opportunity to study engineering ethics throughout the courses, with lectures and/or seminars every year. This allows a mechanical engineering graduate to understand the ethical dimensions of their decisions as an Engineer.

• MEng (hons) M.E. (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) M.E. (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) automotive engineering (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) automotive engineering (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) aeronautical & aerospace (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) aeronautical & aerospace (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MDes (hons) product design (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) medical engineering (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) aviation technology with pilot studies & management (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BSc (hons) product design (optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)

Loughborough

Loughborough is a powerhouse of Engineering in the UK University sector and offers 44 Engineering courses for up and coming Mechanical Engineers.

The University has nabbed an impressive collection of awards for its Engineering Department including 1st for Building Engineering in 2020 The Complete University Guide and 2nd for Materials and Mining Engineering in the Guardian league table in 2020 making it a much sought after institution for any would be mechanical engineer.

First University to admit women for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering

However, the University is probably best known for being one of the first to admit female Mechanical Engineers into its courses. In 1919, four female mechanical engineering students were allowed onto the entirely male dominated engineering programmes at, the then named, Loughborough Technical College.

• BEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering
• BEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) automotive engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) automotive engineering
• BEng (hons) aeronautical engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) aeronautical engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) aeronautical engineering
• BEng (hons) aeronautical engineering
• BEng (hons) robotics, mechatronics, & control engineering
• BEng (hons) automotive engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) sports technology
• BEng (hons) M.E.
• BEng (hons) M.E. (sandwich year)
• BSc (hons) engineering management with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) M.E. with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) automotive engineering with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• MEng (hons) M.E. (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) M.E.
• BEng (hons) M.E. (foundation year)
• MEng (hons) sports technology
• BEng (hons) aeronautical engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) aeronautical engineering with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• MEng (hons) sports technology (sandwich year)
• BEng (hons) robotics, mechatronics, & control engineering (sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) robotics, mechatronics, & control engineering
• MEng (hons) robotics, mechatronics, & control engineering (sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) manufacturing engineering (foundation year)
• MEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering
• MEng (hons) manufacturing engineering (sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) manufacturing engineering
• BEng (hons) product design engineering (sandwich year)
• BEng (hons) product design engineering with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) manufacturing engineering with an international foundation year (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) sports technology (sandwich year)
• BEng (hons) product design engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) product design engineering
• BEng (hons) manufacturing engineering (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) product design engineering
• MEng (hons) product design engineering (sandwich year)
• BSc (hons) product design & technology (sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BSc (hons) product design & technology
• BSc (hons) engineering management (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in engineering management
• BEng (hons) engineering management (sandwich year, optional year abroad)

Southampton

Southampton boasts a huge 77 programmes for Mechanical Engineers. These allow a mechanical engineer student graduate with specialisations in:

• Acoustics
• Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics
• Astronautics
• Bioengineering Science
• Computational Engineering and Design
• Computational and Systems Biology
• Dynamics
• Energy and Climate Change
• Energy Technology
• Engineering Materials and Surface Engineering
• Infrastructure
• Institute of Sound and Vibration Research
• Maritime Engineering
• Mechatronics
• µ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre
• National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton
• Signal Processing, Audio and Hearing
• Transportation
• Water and Environmental Engineering

Strathclyde

Strathclyde offers 25 Mechanical engineering programs. The Faculty of Engineering is one of the four primary faculties comprise the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Undergraduate to a doctorate in mechanical engineering

The Engineering faculty contains multiple departments offering different undergraduate and postgraduate courses at BEng, MEng and MSc levels through to doctorates for their Mechanical Engineers students.

These include courses aimed at Mechanical Engineers in:

• BEng (hons) sports engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E. (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) M.E. with international study (year abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with international study (year abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with aeronautics (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with materials engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) M.E. with financial management (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) M.E. (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) aero-M.E. (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) aero-M.E. (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) naval architecture with ocean engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) naval architecture with ocean engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) electrical & M.E. with international study (year abroad)
• MEng (hons) naval architecture with high performance marine vehicles (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) product design engineering (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) product design engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) sports engineering (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) electrical & M.E. (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) electrical & M.E. (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) naval architecture & marine engineering (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) production engineering & management (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) production engineering & management (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) naval architecture & marine engineering (optional year abroad)
• BSc (hons) product design & innovation (optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) naval architecture with high performance marine vehicles (optional year abroad)

Trinity Saint David

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is a University with its three main campuses spread across locations in Lampeter, Carmarthen and Swansea.

The Engineering faculty is a popular choice for Mechanical Engineers. Trinity Saint David promotes analytical engineering skills and practical ‘hands-on’ experience for Mechanical Engineers studying there.

They offer 28 courses aimed at Mechanical Engineers. These Mechanical engineering programs are:

• BEng (hons) automotive engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) energy & environmental engineering
• BEng (hons) energy & environmental engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (hons) motorcycle engineering
• BEng (hons) motorcycle engineering (foundation year)
• MEng energy & environmental engineering
• BEng (hons) automotive engineering
• HND motorsport engineering

Heriot-Watt

Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh, has consistently proven itself one of the top Universities in Scotland and is a favourite for Mechanical Engineers.

Mechanical Engineers have been attracted to the University as it has been ranked 1st in Scotland in Building, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Engineering and General Engineering in the The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

It offers 4 courses developed for a would be mechanical engineer

• BEng (hons) mechanical engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering (optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering & energy engineering
• BEng (hons) mechanical engineering & energy engineering

Sheffield

The University of Sheffield has one of the biggest engineering research outputs in the UK and boasts 6,700 Engineering students and an annual research income of over £150m.

It has 15 M.E. courses aimed at Mechanical Engineers:

• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year)
• BEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (sandwich year).
• BEng (hons) mechanical engineering (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, year abroad)
• MEng (hons) aerospace (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• BEng (hons) bachelor’s degree in aerospace (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) aerospace with a year in north America (optional foundation year, year abroad)
• BEng (hons) aerospace (private pilot instruction) (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with Spanish (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, year abroad)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with a semester in China
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with biomechanics (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with biomechanics (sandwich year)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with French (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, year abroad)
• MEng (hons) aerospace (private pilot instruction) (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, optional year abroad)
• MEng (hons) mechanical engineering with German (optional foundation year, optional sandwich year, year abroad)

Other top Mechanical Engineering Institutions

Our 2022 list of M.E. Degrees is by no means exhaustive and if you are serious about becoming a Mechanical Engineer you will want to explore the different options in detail.

Mechanical engineering technology programs

There are hundreds of high education institutions within the UK that offer excellent Mechanical engineering technology programs for would be Mechanical Engineers and as mechanical engineers work across a broad range of fields it is also worth considering courses in Civil Engineering that might have an option to transfer in your second or third year.

Other fantastic institution offering Institutions that we didn’t include in this years list include:

• Greenwich
• Coventry
• UWE Bristol
• Nottingham
• London South Bank
• Exeter
• Swansea
• Bradford
• UCL
• Lancaster
• Solent
• Edinburgh
• Huddersfield
• Manchester
• Glasgow
• Wolverhampton
• Oxford Brookes
• Robert Gordon
• East London
• Hull

It is worth exploring how these courses stack up in the league tables, how student satisfaction surveys rate a University and of course, visit the University on an open day to talk to the existing cohorts of Mechanical engineers on campus.

After graduation – how can I advance my career in Mechanical Engineering?

An undergraduate degree is often the first step for any Mechanical Engineer takes on their career but many mechanical engineering graduates return to University for either further education to advance their careers or to push our collective understanding of Engineering forward in academic research and development programs by taking on engineering faculty positions.

Mechanical engineers research

Engineering research programmes at Universities are critical to driving forward how we tackle emerging engineering problems in the modern world, scientific research and development and some M.E students go on to take up full time engineering faculty positions. These Mechanical Engineers might develop new techniques and act as centres that can combine the expertise of existing engineers to come up with novel solutions to new problems.

The same applies to those Mechanical Engineers who work as professional engineers in businesses that specialise in the development of new technologies like nanotechnologies and alternatives energy.

Further education for a working mechanical engineer

Most mechanical engineers who returning to education typically obtain specialization certificates in their industries like aerospace, machine intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and information technology.

Professional Engineering (PE) license

In some countries, licenses are required to oversee the work of other engineers, sign off on projects, and provide services directly to the public. For example in the USA licensed engineers are called professional engineers (PEs) and they will have returned to education after working under an existing professional engineer to gain a Professional Engineering (PE) license. Working as a professional engineer allows for higher levels of leadership and independence.

Other Master’s Degree Programs

Alongside advancing professional engineers understanding of the subject Mechanical engineers often return to University to get a higher level Mechanical Engineering Degree with a focus on engineering or business administration, business management or administration to allow them to progress to senior management roles.