Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Design Engineering

at Aston University United Kingdom

Our four year course, integrated with a placement year, will develop your IT knowledge and give you the skills needed to provide businesses with consultative support, strategic direction and technological insight. There is also an option to gain a double degree (two degrees for the price of one).

This degree will develop your understanding of the management and communication of information, as well as the human, managerial and technical considerations.

You will learn the role that information technology plays in modern business environments and societies, and how technology can be the key to solving some of their biggest challenges.

What you’ll learn
This course will provide you with theoretical knowledge and skills, including analysis and problem-solving, which can be applied to a broad range of career paths.

You will learn the relationship between technical knowledge and human design, the complex role of IT in business, and how technology can be used to drive competitive advantage. 

In your first year you will develop a general knowledge of business theories as well as computing and IT. Your second year is focused on building your IT and computing skills. This will help you as you apply for placement opportunities in your third year.

This exciting new course equips you with everything you need to take on design leadership roles.

What you'll learn

In this four-year program, you will achieve a Bachelors's degree and a Master's degree. If you choose to take a year in the industry the course length will be five years.

You will gain a grounding in the principles of design management in technology, manufacturing, and concept development, combining both theoretical and practical skills training alongside the relevant industrial experience. Plus, you’ll develop the skills necessary to stimulate design entrepreneurial activity, brought to life by our up-to-date and professionally focused curriculum.

Develop your specialist knowledge, build on your experience and become better equipped to contribute to entrepreneurial activity and develop your own fledgling enterprises.

If you choose to take a year in the industry, you’ll be able to develop your learning and showcase your skills, improving your employability through real work experience, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the roles and career paths that best suit your interests and skills.

The Aston MBA will encourage you to think like an entrepreneurial leader from the start, challenging you at every stage, to personally and professionally develop, through a highly practical, experiential approach to learning.

This is not just a course. This is a new perspective to enhance your future career.

You will approach complex challenges through real-world business problems that you will be tasked with solving. You will think like a business leader, working through challenges by understanding how different functions interact in order to identify solutions for both big and small organisations.

This means, you will cover a broad range of business topics through a hands-on learning experience, equipping yourself with an extensive understanding of how businesses operate in today’s fiercely competitive global commercial environment.

You will discover cutting-edge leadership concepts and frameworks, and put them into practice with applied exercises and real-life business projects. You will develop your ability to inspire and lead enterprises, and be a force for positive change within organisations.

Working independently as well as part of a team, you will identify where your skills need to develop in order for you to personally and professionally develop. You will be exposed to team coaching principles, developing your own personal development plan, as well as have plenty of opportunities to network with, and hear from, industry leaders.

Get a head start in business and examine the major issues facing governments across the world, from terrorism to climate change, with an inter-disciplinary Business and Politics BSc degree course from Aston University.

What you’ll learn
You’ll study the theories, principles, and underlying concepts of the main functions of management and develop a strong understanding of business models and processes. You’ll examine how strategic decision-making within organizations takes place, and develop the ability to recognize and analyze the economic, technical, financial, social, and organizational parameters within which modern managers make decisions, providing you with a solid starting point for your future career.

On the politics strand of the course, you will have the unique opportunity to explore political topics going beyond the UK and Europe, covering North America, South Asia, China, Japan, or the emerging global powers. You will not only study the traditional subjects of the discipline, such as security, political economy, or democratization but also have the chance to delve into ethics, sports, gender, protest, or religion.

If you want to build an exciting career in engineering management, this could be the course for you.

Engineers and engineering skills are in very high demand across a range of sectors around the world. Our Engineering Management masters course will give you the knowledge and skills you need to develop an exciting career in advanced technology.

We aim to equip you with the specialist strategic and operational knowledge you’ll need to become a future leader. We also develop your understanding of sustainability and environmental issues, important skills for any senior leader.

Our team has close links with businesses across the region and internationally, making Aston a great place to learn and develop the skills you’ll need.

What you’ll learn

You’ll gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of the theoretical and applied perspectives of engineering management and leadership. You'll also have the opportunity to develop your areas of interest through a range of specialist modules and completion of a major project.

You’ll undertake real-life projects throughout your course with modules taught using industry-related case studies and current research in the field. We're uniquely positioned, in the heart of UK engineering and manufacturing, to be able to welcome guest speakers from leading companies to share their experiences with you. Field trips to regional businesses will give you a real insight into industry.

A Business Management and English Language degree from Aston gives you the chance to combine in-demand commercial and leadership skills, alongside theoretical knowledge and understanding of the English language, how it works in business, and its role in the workplace.

What you’ll learn
You will be taught by lecturers who are internationally recognized researchers in fields such as leadership communication, marketing, economic development, multi-national enterprises, forensic linguistics, language and gender, and TESOL.

With a professional placement year as one of its key features, the program is geared towards increasing your employability by providing you with the knowledge and skills required of professionals working in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

What you’ll learn
In the first year, you’ll get a grounding in product design principles and an understanding of how design can affect the profitability of a business.

In the second and final year, you will take a common core of design modules to support your projects, integrating your design specialism with the core aspects of product design. You’ll also continue to develop skills that are relevant to your future career, whichever path you choose to take, including presentations and team working. Your final year will culminate in the opportunity to showcase your project work at the Aston Inspired final year design show.

We teach using a hands-on framework called CDIO - Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate – supported by 50 of the world’s top technical institutions. This enables you to apply real-world skills as you learn, enabling you to maximize your learning. You’ll do your learning in our state-of-the-art facilities, which include advanced 3D printing facilitates and a dedicated design studio with specialist equipment designed just for you.

We’ll support you to find a paid, professional placement of direct relevance to your studies. This placement will give you invaluable practical experience in a real work environment and will further enhance your career prospects.

You’ll also have the opportunity to network with employers and showcase your work as part of the Mechanical Engineering and Design Industry Club, where you’ll be given opportunities to meet employers.

The course will help you enhance the skills required for assessing, developing and critically evaluating entrepreneurial strategies. You will develop the ability to make strategic decisions by advancing your understanding and application of how business analytics methods can support interventions in the decision-making process of organisations. 

You’ll learn about intellectual property, emerging economies, international entrepreneurship and understand how to develop and deliver entrepreneurial strategies in a range of settings.

You’ll also develop the skills to use statistical techniques to communicate key information, how to use decision models, data mining, web and performance analytics, all of which will build on your analytical skills and ability to problem solve. You’ll get hands-on experience using specialist software and experience in using a range of data sets.

Engineers are in demand and our Electrical and Electronic Engineering course will provide you with the analytical skills, design expertise and flexibility you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. Our courses are developed in collaboration with a wide range of industry sectors to give a broad but relevant degree so teaching won’t just be standard lectures and you’ll be encouraged to discover how science fiction becomes fact. Designing your own products and working with cutting-edge equipment will be a core part of the course.

What you’ll learn
You’ll begin by covering the fundamental principles of the field, such as digital and analogue electronics, computing, mathematics and project management.

In the second and final year, you’ll specialise by selecting from a broad range of career-focused options, including systems analysis, data acquisition and control, digital system design, telecommunications systems, optoelectronics and signal processing. In your final year you’ll undertake an in-depth project, based on your areas of specialism.

You’ll have access to an extensive network of computer facilities throughout your course, including high performance PCs for industrial standard ECAD, Unix workstations and a large number of embedded processors for lab work. These resources are complemented by specialist electronics, telecommunications and networked laboratories and research facilities.

You may choose to spend your third year in industry and we can support you to find a paid, professional placement of direct relevance to your studies. This placement will give you invaluable practical experience in a real work environment and further enhance your career prospects.

Digital electronics and computer systems are significant in commerce, industry and the home, and have an ever increasing impact on the way we work and live. To gain the competitive edge over its global rivals, British industry and commerce needs trained computer systems engineers with skills in both hardware and software who can assess, harness and influence the growth of information technology.

Our Electrical and Electronic Engineering MEng course is designed to stretch our top students and includes a 12 month industrial placement. It gives you the opportunity to study electronics and computer science more deeply than at BEng level while also gaining valuable industry experience.

Our courses are developed in collaboration with a wide range of industry sectors to give a broad but relevant degree so teaching won’t just be standard lectures and you’ll be encouraged to discover how science fiction becomes fact. Designing your own products and working with cutting-edge equipment will be a core part of the course. The design of this innovative course emphasises ‘doing’ as well as ‘knowing’, helping you to develop essential practical, intellectual, business and communication skills. This ‘real world’ approach, combined with the beneficial experience you will gain during your placement, will give you a clear competitive edge in the search for graduate employment.

What you’ll learn
The first two years of the MEng are taught alongside the BEng degree and you’ll gain a solid grounding in software engineering and computing systems, complemented by engineering expertise in digital electronics and telecommunications. To build a bridge between hardware and software specialists you’ll study computing and electronics with single honours students from the electronic engineering and computer science subject groups.

In the second and final year, you’ll be able to choose options that enable you to specialise in preparation for your future career. These options include digital system design, telecommunications systems, optoelectronics and signal processing.