We also have an industrial advisory board that ensures that our course maintains relevance. The panel consists of 8 industrialists with a range of relevant chemical and biochemical engineering backgrounds. The individuals are regularly invited to participate in departmental activities, for example Prof. Adam Burbridge (Nestle Europe), who is one of the disciplines visiting professors recently spent a week in Swansea meeting with discipline staff to discuss research, training requirements and discipline direction. There is at least one meeting a year when the industrialists are invited to discuss the discipline. The panel’s discussion is used to guide the yearly review of the Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering discipline. 

Students who opt for schemes with a year in industry spend the third year on placement with one of our industrial partners. Recent placements have included:

• BP Chemicals
• Dow Corning
• Huntsman
• Imerys
• INCO
• Solutia

Major changes are taking place in the process engineering industries. A key feature is the rationalisation of large-scale petrochemicals, plastics and commodity chemicals industries. However, this is being balanced by a growth in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in fields such as food process engineering, biological process engineering, advanced equipment manufacture and environmental protection. The growth of these new enterprises has been especially strong in Wales, giving us the opportunity to lead the UK in developing courses matched to the rapidly changing employment opportunities for graduates in chemical and biochemical engineering.

Third year BEng students benefit from Industrial experience through placements with local companies on a 1 day per week basis for a semester. 'Process Plant Operations' includes site visits to large industry and SMEs in Industrial South Wales.

Our research is conducted through the Centre for Complex Fluids Processing. The Centre's commitment to the industrial implementation of research findings has earned the Centre recognition as a Centre of Excellence for Technology and Industrial Collaboration (CETIC).