My son is interested in taking a colleage or university course that involves car design/construction etc. Does anyone know of or have taken part in this type of course (i.e. location, course name etc.) . Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Arnie.

Take a look at the courses offered at the university of Kent at Canterbury.
I believe this is the uni that has the best reputation for this sort of course.

i have been looking into this and 2 me it seams like there lots of different areas, ie motorsport, body disign(ie what art studants think) etc

Brunel do a motorsport degree (a good one at that, and a university with a name synonomous with engineering)

I also believe Warwick are starting one up in the near future...

The best thing you can do is get on the UCAS website and use their course search to look for courses in vehichle aerodynamics, automotive engineering and the like.


I would warn you/your son that motorsport engineering is a limited feild, and one that jobs are not easy to come by in. I am not trying to put you off, just be aware of the risk of doing a very specialist degree from the ouset, rather than taking on the specialism as a set of postgraduate studies after completeing a generic degree such as mechanical or manufacturing engineering.

David

Coventry uni do a lot of automotive courses as far as i know, a mate has done one - he loved it - very hands on apparently, but i havent spoken to him for a while, so cant really say how he got on.

all the best

Tom

Chris' dad here as clbarclay aka Chris has just gone to Harper Adams University College in deepest Shropshire doing a degree in "Off Road Engineering". It used to be an Agricultural college when I was there in the early 70's, but it now does a lot of engineering courses.

As the students are a mix of Agriculture and Engineering the is a high degree of specialization in partying/alcohol abuse. No, no, I'm sure they don't abuse it, just consume vast quantities of it.

As a down side I now have a farm workshop with a half completed Locost taking pride of place in the middle of the floor. As Chris has taken my old Range Rover to college I've no farm runabout, so eldest son suggest I finish the Locost so I've got something to get about in. Does anybody know how many 1/2 tonne bags of seed you can get in a Locost along with several drums of diesel and a dog?

Was just about to mention Coventry.

Bolton also do (10 years ago) a very good course. At the time Jag would only sponsor two uni's. They choose Coventry and Bolton giving them both cars to play with.

Bath is also a great engineering uni hard to get into with top a level grades needed ....

do automotive design and engineering in a range of styles ....

Hi mate,

Clydebank college used to do a course. Not sure if its still running at the moment but they built a locost from the book. might be worth a look. think it was only a NVQ but these guys in there are certanly worth a call. if you want drop me a line and i will give you the right names and numbers of the people that you are looking for.

Cheers

Brian

Thanks very much for all the info and help it is really appreciated.

Regards,

Arnie.

quote:

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Originally posted by clbarclay
Chris' dad here as clbarclay aka Chris has just gone to Harper Adams University College in deepest Shropshire doing a degree in "Off Road Engineering". It used to be an Agricultural college when I was there in the early 70's, but it now does a lot of engineering courses.

As the students are a mix of Agriculture and Engineering the is a high degree of specialization in partying/alcohol abuse. No, no, I'm sure they don't abuse it, just consume vast quantities of it.

As a down side I now have a farm workshop with a half completed Locost taking pride of place in the middle of the floor. As Chris has taken my old Range Rover to college I've no farm runabout, so eldest son suggest I finish the Locost so I've got something to get about in. Does anybody know how many 1/2 tonne bags of seed you can get in a Locost along with several drums of diesel and a dog?

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Im currently doing a BEng in Automotive Engineering at Oxford Brookes, its not very hands on except for one module in the first year and the formula student project in the final year. There is alot of maths and physics, but that is an engineering degree these days. The BSc are usually not so theory heavy and a bit more hands on such as motorsport technology and you can still take part in formula student.

I think most automotive university courses concentrate on the theory behind the design of the car and don't worry about how the car will actually be built, which i think is the most interesting part. I wish they taught us alot more about manufacture and general engineering techniques as they are something we will use in the real world, even from my placement at Nissan (where i sat at a computer all day) I learnt that.

Suspect that If some of the current car designers actually had any hands on experience then modern cars would be a lot easier to work on , Best of luck , hope he finds what he's looking for.

Guys you have left out Loughborough one of the best engineering unis in the country and has been running auto eng degrees since the 70's.

Of course its not been the same since the let the jocks in but then I supose the women will be fit

i went to loughborough

but only to the college to do the HND motor vehicle , that and coventry are where most people get recruited from .

the only other one that has a good reputation i think is imperial college london - have a wind tunnel etc - other than that southampton .

i personally did my degree at swansea institute , it was actually acredited by the university of the west of england - BATH

i went to swansea because they were involved in the BRDC GT series , i got lots of experience from that - and ended up working for Darrian cars - even more experience .

and i wont forget living in a cold caravan on a farm in the middle of wales either !!!

The important thing not to forget is that engineering is engineering, not matter what shape or form. Regardless of the place or exact modual its all the same stuff. Of all my lectures at the moment, just 2 a week are specific to off road vehicles.

By the way, I do appolagise now for any daft or obseen posts left by this user name, whalst the cat is away the mouse will play (At least he hasen't started building my car yet).