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Materials Engineering
Materials at Swansea ranked 1st in the UK for student satisfaction
National Student Survey (NSS)
Materials Science and Engineering at Swansea University
Swansea is one of the UK’s leading centres for materials teaching and research. In the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), Materials Engineering ranked joint 8th in the UK.
The internationally leading materials research conducted at Swansea is funded by prestigious organisations.These industrial research links provide excellent opportunities for our students to undertake vacation and year-out placements, as well as giving good research and employment opportunities.
Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate degrees
BEng Materials Science and Engineering / UCAS code J500
MEng Materials Science and Engineering / UCAS code J504
BEng Materials Science and Engineering (with a Year in Industry) / UCAS code J502
MEng Materials Science and Engineering (with a Year in Industry) / UCAS code J503
BEng Materials Science and Engineering (with a Year Abroad) / UCAS code J510
BEng Sports Materials / UCAS code J400
These courses are accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).
Materials Science and Engineering Foundation Year / UCAS code J505
Industry links and funding
Through our excellent long-term links with major companies, we receive funding from our main collaborators:
Rolls-Royce
The Institute of Structural Materials at Swansea is a core member of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Materials.
This is part of a global initiative, with regular liaison with Rolls-Royce centres based in the USA, Germany and Singapore.
This venture supports a wide ranging research portfolio with a rolling value of £6.5 million per annum addressing longer term materials issues, plus a newly incorporated commercial company (Swansea Materials Research and Testing Ltd – SMaRT) to address shorter term investigations with an annual turnover in business to the value of £1 million.
Tim Rudd, BEng Materials Science and Engineering (with a year in industry)
“I was lucky enough to gain sponsorship towards my degree from Chevron (a major oil company) so I spent my university holidays working at a refinery to gain industrial experience.
I also spent a sandwich year at the refinery between the second and third year of my degree which gave me a lot of relevant experience and helped in the third year of the course – for example, I’d seen firsthand a lot of the corrosion and metal failure modes we were learning about.
A sandwich year teaches you so much and gives you a huge amount of transferable skills. I graduated with a 1st class degree and was offered an immediate position with Chevron, so the placement experience definitely proved worthwhile.”
Materials Science and Engineering postgraduate degrees
MRes Steel Technology (STRIP)
MRes Steel Process and Product Development (Part-time)
MPhil Materials Engineering
PhD Materials Engineering
The MSc, MRes's and EngD's taught modules are accredited by Institutes depending on the area of research, such as the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS).
Airbus
Over £1m funding has been received from Airbus and the Welsh Government in the last three years to support structural composites research and development in the aerospace industry and to support composites activity across Wales.
Tata Steel
Funding of over £6 million to continue our very successful postgraduate programmes with Tata Steel.
This has led to new developments in areas of novel steels for automotive applications, environmentally-friendly coatings for corrosion protection and photovoltaic materials for low cost energy generation.
After finishing my BEng Materials Engineering, I continued to study on the MRes Steel Technology (STRIP) as it is a fantastic chance to do industry-led research.
Chris Melvin, MRes Steel Technology (STRIP)