Eng. postgrad education - comparison

[stel8]

I am trying to compare post grad education in engineering in different countries. I am familiar with the American/Canadian model of B.Eng (defined by ABET/CCPE and structured for large group of students) followed a M.Eng (specialized and individual). Is it an European or Japonez model? Any articles with comparison of different models?
Many thanks in advance.

 

[DrillerNic]

in the UK it's broadly similar to the US: a Masters degree in engineering is usually more specialised than a first degree in engineering (ie subjects like Safety & Risk Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Tribology etc), are 12 months full time, and are aimed at engineering/science graduates. However, they're not really aimed at those planning to do a PHd; in the UK it's usuall to straight to a PHd from a first degree.

You get an MSc, as opposed to an MEng, which is reserved for graduates of a 4 year first degree.

 

[arunmrao]

In India after a degree in Engineering a post graduation degre is of 18 months duration. The degree awarded is ME(Master of Engineering) or M Tech.

Normally after a post graduate degree, one can register for Ph.D program.

 

[MikeyP]

Adding to DrillerNic's comments, In the UK (or more specifically England and Wales - Scotland is a little different in higher eduaction terms) An MEng can be a taught course with an industrial placement and/or a research project, or it can be purely by research. In many universities, potential PhD students register for an MPhil initially and have to produce an end of 1st year report and undergo a viva before they are allowed to move up to a PhD. Note that PhD's in the UK are purely research based.

An increasing number of faculties are now taking part in the EngD program which is equivalent to a PhD. This is a 4 year programme. Students are associated with a company and work on a genuine R+D project. In their first 2 years 2/3 of the time is spent doing a management diploma (which they MUST pass). They write a thesis in the same way as a PhD but it must also contain some "management" content as well as research. Some of the research content must be original but not to the same degree as with a PhD. After graduation, the students are very close to achieving Chartered status.

Recent EngD's in our department have been

Cracking in nuclear reactor graphite bricks (for Her Magesty's Nuclear Inspectorate)
Aeroelastic modelling of a raceway wing (for Reynard. The student is now working for Ferrari F1)
Profile optimisation of paper mill rollers (now working for MSC software)
Human structure interaction in stadia (for Arup)
Effects of vibration on metal detectors for the food processing industry

M

--
Dr Michael F Platten

 

[DrillerNic]

The other thing to remember is that in the UK, a first degree (of almost any discipline) is more 'concentrated' than in the US: if you do mechanical engineering, you bascially study just mechanical engineering for three years. You may have a few hours a week of a secondary subject in the first year; and Scotland, with their 4 year BSc degrees has a slightly more varied timetable for the first 2 years before going into the the final 2 years doing only civil engineering or history or whatever.

So the majority of MSc courses in the UK are aimed at 'converting' an (already highly trained) engineering or science graduate into a specialised type of engineer: I was a BSc geologist who did an MSc in Subsea Engineering & become a pipeline engineer. Then a few years later I did an MSc in Petroleum Engineering, and others on this MSc Pet Eng course were recent graduates of mech eng, physics, chem eng, geology etc.