About the course

Reasons to study

1. Industry experience: We’ll support you in securing a work placement in the UK or abroad. Previous students have spent their placement year at companies including AP Racing, Nissan and Aston Martin Lagonda.
2. Accredited: This course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which means it goes towards helping you get Incorporated Engineer status (IEng).
3. Gain teamwork at leadership skills: Study in small teams as part of EnABLE (Engineering in an Activity Based Learning Environment) and solve real automotive and motorsport problems.

Why Automotive and Motorsport Engineering?

The automotive industry is a hugely rewarding sector for a professional engineer and has a key part to play in the ever pressing drive toward a sustainable future. An effective transport system for people and goods is the lifeblood of national and global economic prosperity.

How You Could Impact The World

From hybrid and electric technologies to fuel cells and the challenges of vehicle autonomy, there are many ways in which you could play your part in a cleaner, safer, more sustainable future for us all. The careers open to you could allow you to make a real difference to the world.

Career Goals and Employability

Our research and consultancy with partners such as Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Jaguar, Cummins Turbo Technologies, Eaton Transmissions and BBA Friction, give us strong industrial relationships which help drive your employability and longer term career goals.

The Course

We’ve designed this course to give you the fundamental principles of mechanics, dynamics, heat transfer and fluid flow with manufacturing technologies. These are then related directly to your automotive specialism through the investigation of propulsion systems, power transfer and chassis dynamics. Project work on real world scenarios will then complete your preparation for a role in the automotive sector.

In our Mechanical Engineering subject area, all of our degree programmes share the same first year of study, which means you can leave your options open until the start of your second year. During your first and second year you'll take part in our initiative called EnABLE (Engineering in an Activity Based Learning Environment). This will give you the opportunity to work together in small teams solving real Automotive and Motorsport Engineering problems and testing your solutions against other groups in a supportive and friendly competitive environment.

In your third year you will have an option to take an industrial placement. We are always supportive and encouraging about having students spend this year in industry. This offers excellent real world engineering experience to help you stand out at graduate interviews. In the fourth year you will work on a selected individual research/design project with the support of your academic supervisor. It is possible to align this with one of the Master's team projects. These involve the design, build and friendly competitive testing of either a road, airborne or rail vehicle, for example, Team HARE, Team Hawk or HudRail.

This course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which means it goes toward helping you get Incorporated Engineer (IEng) status.

Entry requirements

BBB-BBCat A Level . A Levels must include A2 Mathematics (Use of Mathematics is not an acceptable A Level) and at least one other Science/Technology subject (or equivalent qualification) from the list of A Levels in Additional Information.

120-112UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications which must include the accepted qualifications as listed in Additional Information.

DDM-DMMin BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering. The BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Science is not acceptable without an additional A Level Maths at Grade C.

Access to Higher Education Diploma with 45 Level 3 credits at Merit or above in relevant Science/Technology subjects. 120-112 UCAS tariff points from International Baccalaureate qualifications which must include Higher Level Mathematics and another Higher Level Science/Technology subject as listed in Additional Information.

Additional Information

Entry is also possible from the Engineering Foundation Year. To progress onto this course from the Foundation Year you must pass all modules and achieve an average mark of 40% or above.

Progression to MEng from the BEng(Hons) course is possible if an average of above 60% is achieved and maintained on the first two years of the course.

In addition to A2 Mathematics, A Levels must include one of the following: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Further and Additional Mathematics, Computer Science, Design and Technology: Product Design or Statistics.

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diplomas Engineering - please note that we do not accept BTEC Computing and Operations as a qualification for entry to this course.

Please note that we do not accept T Levels for entry to this course for 2023.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our Where are you from information pages.

Other suitable experience or qualifications will be considered. For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.