Materials Science and Engineering MSc
Leeds, United Kingdom
DURATION
12 Months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
GBP 28,000 **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international applicants: 30 July 2023 – UK applicants: 10 September 2023
** UK: £13,000 – international: £28,000
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Introduction
Materials science is at the forefront of providing innovative solutions for many global challenges — from creating new materials for energy generation to developing storage that helps reduce carbon emissions.
Our Materials Science and Engineering MSc has been designed to meet the present needs and future challenges of advanced materials and manufacturing. Whether you’ve got a background in science, mathematics, technology or other engineering disciplines, studying this course will give you the specialist skills and knowledge you’ll need to pursue a career in this growing and fast-moving field.
Taught by leading researchers in world-class facilities, you’ll study topics such as materials structures, processing-structure-property relationships, characterisation and failure analysis. This MSc also allows you to choose optional modules to focus your specialism to suit your own career plans and interests.
Accreditation
This degree is accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) on behalf of the Engineering Council as meeting the requirements for Further Learning for registration as a Chartered Engineer. To hold accredited qualifications for CEng registration, candidates must also hold a CEng-accredited Bachelor's (Hons) undergraduate degree.
Academic accreditation relates to individual programmes (not departments or institutions), which are accredited to ensure they meet the high standards set by the profession. Graduates from an accredited degree programme will have achieved part or all of the underpinning knowledge for later professional registration.
Learning and teaching
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching, and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of the discipline. You’ll learn through lectures, laboratory work, seminars, tutorials, small group work and project meetings. Independent study is also an important part of the course, as you’ll develop your problem-solving and research skills as well as your subject knowledge.
Specialist facilities
You’ll benefit from the chance to study in cutting-edge facilities where our researchers are pushing the boundaries of materials science, engineering and metallurgy. We have state-of-the-art preparative facilities for making and characterising a wide range of materials, as well as equipment and instrumentation for carrying out more fundamental studies into their process-microstructure-property relationships.
Our labs are equipped with the latest technology, including scanning electron microscopes, X-ray diffractometers, chemical processing unit operations and more.
Our Virtual Learning Environment will help to support your studies: it’s a central place where you can find all the information and resources for the School, your programme and modules.
You can also benefit from support to develop your academic skills, within the curriculum and through online resources, workshops, one-to-one appointments and drop-in sessions.
Programme team
The Programme Leader, Dr Andrew Scott, is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds who has extensive experience in a range of theoretical and experimental materials science techniques. His research interests primarily include functional materials, nuclear graphite, electron energy loss spectroscopy and crystallisation.
The wider programme team has a broad and extensive experience across a range of chemical and process engineering disciplines.
In this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.
Program Outcome
Why study at Leeds:
- Graduate with an MSc in Materials Science and Engineering that has been accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).
- Tailor the course to specialise in your career interests through an extensive, individual research project in an area of your choice.
- Advance your knowledge surrounding the needs and challenges relevant to critical areas such as transportation, bioengineering, energy, electronics and information technology, sport and sustainable development.
- Conduct your own individual research project as part of your course and gain industry and academic experience in developing and executing an innovative research plan, whilst building professional skills in project management, teamwork and decision-making.
- Access research-grade equipment, specialist facilities for making and characterising a wide range of materials and labs equipped with the latest technology.
- Experience excellent practical and theoretical teaching delivered by a programme team with a wealth of expertise and experience across many relevant areas such as experimental materials science techniques.
- Our courses are shaped by our world-leading research. You’ll interact with academic staff who are members of the Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials and the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, giving you the opportunity to develop professional relationships with researchers at the forefront of the industry.
Curriculum
In the first semester, you'll study four compulsory modules that teach you the foundations of materials science. You’ll learn about processing-structure-property relationships, which lie at the heart of the discipline, as well as examine topics such as mechanical, physical and chemical behaviour, phase transformations and how the structure and local chemistry of materials may be characterised. You’ll also cover materials and process selection and their role in the design, and extend this into the principles and practice of failure analysis.
In the second semester, you’ll participate in an industry-focused interdisciplinary design project and also study advanced materials modelling methods. Further semester 2 modules will cover advanced materials science such as novel alloys, composites, functional materials and nanomaterials.
Project work
Every student undertakes an extensive research project that runs throughout the year. This project allows you to apply what you’ve learned to a piece of research focusing on a real-world problem, and it can be used to explore and develop your specific interests.
Throughout the research project, you’ll produce an independent study, reflecting the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired. This will enable you to gain experience in planning, executing and reporting research work of the type you'll undertake in an industrial or academic environment. You’ll also have access to some of the outstanding facilities in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering.
You’ll choose your topic – normally related to one of our world-class research areas – and work closely with your supervisor and their research group to apply what you’ve learned to a real-life problem. Examples of past project topics include:
- Temperature variable X-ray diffraction of high-temperature piezoelectric material
- Fabrication of glass waveguide devices by femtosecond laser inscription
- Microstructure development in drop-tube processed cast iron
- Validation of cooling rate models of drop-tube processing
- Characterisation of graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) produced by solvent exfoliation of graphite
- Studies of the effect of milling variables in the production of nanoparticles
- Microstructural investigation of spray atomized powders
Course structure
The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time.
Year 1
Compulsory modules
- Research Project (MSc) 60 credits
- Interdisciplinary Design Project 15 credits
- Phase Transformations and Microstructural Control 15 credits
- Materials Modelling 15 credits
- Structure-Property Relationships 15 credits
- Materials Selection and Failure Analysis 15 credits
- Materials Structures and Characterisation 15 credits
Optional modules (selection of typical options shown below)
- Metals and Alloys 15 credits
- Materials for Electronic Applications 15 credits
- Ceramics, Polymers and Composites 15 credits
- Nanomaterials 15 credits
- Extractive Metallurgy 15 credits
- Soft Matter Physics: Polymers, Colloids and Glasses 15 credits
- Physics of Biological Systems 15 credits
- Nanomagnetism 15 credits
Admissions
Career Opportunities
There is an increasingly high demand for qualified materials scientists, materials engineers and metallurgists. Career prospects are excellent and cover a wide range of industries concerned with the research and development of new and improved materials, materials synthesis and commercial production, and materials exploitation in cutting-edge applications in engineering and technology.
Plus, the University of Leeds is in the top five most targeted universities in the UK by graduate recruiters, according to High Fliers’ The Graduate Market in 2022 report.
Our graduates who studied materials science and engineering with us have secured positions at companies such as:
- Lead Engineer, Jaguar Land Rover
- Project Leader, Saint-Gobain
- Materials Engineer, Jaguar Land Rover
- Junior Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
- Scientist, Hexcel Corporation
- Materials Engineer, Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants
Student Testimonials
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Program Admission Requirements
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