MEng Mechanical Engineering
Saturday 30 September and 28 October.
Get a feel for undergraduate life and study at our Edinburgh campus. Attend subject talks, explore our facilities and speak to our friendly and knowledgeable students and staff.
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The course
- UCAS code
- H301
- Duration
- 5 years
- Location
- Edinburgh
- Delivery type
- Full-time
Contact
Got questions about this programme?
Contact our enquiries team.
Overview
Mechanical engineering is essential to addressing modern challenges that require advanced technical solutions and new, innovative ways of thinking. This MEng Mechanical Engineering degree is the extended version of the BEng Mechanical Engineering course.
We’re proud to have received a number of accreditations that rank us as one of the top universities for MEng Mechanical Engineering in the UK, including:
- Guardian University Guide 2020: 1st in Scotland and top 10 in the UK
- Complete University Guide 2021: Top 10 in the UK
- Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021: Top 10 in the UK
- Guardian University League Tables 2021: Top 10 in the UK
MEng Mechanical Engineering programme structure
You’ll receive a grounding in the core disciplines of mechanical engineering in the first two years of your MEng Mechanical Engineering degree. When you get to the point of taking optional degrees, this will help you make informed decisions.
In Year 1, students work alongside peers from other science and engineering disciplines and have access to mechanical labs, electrical engineering labs, chemical labs, and physics labs. This provides fundamental lab skills as well as multidisciplinary teamworking skills which will be crucial as the degree progresses and becomes increasingly specialised.
You’ll progress into practical workshop sessions in the lab in your second and third year. Here, you’ll learn about fluids, design and manufacturing, dynamics, and thermodynamics – all core principles of mechanical engineering.
Your fourth and fifth year in your MEng Mechanical Engineering course will include staff-supported individual and group projects, which will help you step into a career as a mechanical engineer. You’ll follow your own path through a wide range of optional courses designed to develop knowledge and skills in specialist engineering subjects.
This five-year MEng Mechanical Engineering degree is the standard route towards a Chartered Engineering professional qualification, so you can progress towards that with this degree.
As well as career-specific skills and knowledge, Heriot-Watt’s MEng Mechanical Engineering course will also equip you with vital soft skills, which employers place huge importance on. These important skills include teamworking alongside fellow mechanical engineers and students from other engineering disciplines, such as chemical and electrical engineering. You’ll gain skills for professional presentations and technical writing, and develop business awareness, covering issues such-as life-cycle sustainability and financial viability.
The UK’s sustainable future will be driven by mechanical engineers through their work on efficiency and working with cleaner energy sources.
Mechanical engineering principles such as fluid mechanics and thermodynamics are essential to our future of green energy. They play a huge role in gas boiler-alternatives, heat pumps, and power renewable energy sources including wind turbines. Other developments gained through mechanical engineering will increase the efficiency and performance of aircraft and transport, and improve medical engineering and nanotechnology.
Industry links
Our MEng Mechanical Engineering degree is a head and shoulders above other university courses thanks to our industrial connections. We work closely with an Industrial Advisory Board – a panel of engineers and business leaders – to ensure that our course content reflects the needs of industry and employers to provide graduates with the right blend of knowledge, practical skills, and soft skills.
Through this board, we ensure our curriculum is up to date and relevant to emerging needs and technological requirements. A recent example is the inclusion of the optional biomedical engineering course offered in Years 4 and 5.
As part of your practical project in Year 4, you’ll be challenged by the Industrial Advisory Board to come up with a solution to an engineering problem affecting a real business. Students will present their design project to the industrial panel, who will assess the work as clients would, providing professional feedback and advice.
MEng Mechanical Engineering facilities
Our new £19 million state-of-the-art Global Research Innovation and Discovery Centre (GRID) is now in place on our Edinburgh campus. The mechanical engineering discipline is one of the major stakeholders in this new building, utilising it to provide students with lab-based practical activities. Students have the chance to use the ‘Makers space’ with 3D printers and a laser cutter to rapidly prototype their own designs. In addition, our extensive teaching and research labs facilitate work in areas such as dynamics, materials engineering, and fluid mechanics.
Careers
With our MEng Mechanical Engineering degree, you have so many exciting career prospects ahead where you’ll be working with innovative technologies and infrastructure. Recent Heriot-Watt graduates have progressed to working for organisations such as Mercedes, Babcock Marine, McLaren, Shell UK, Halliburton, and QinetiQ.
You’ll design, develop, optimise, and operate a range of mechanical parts in your career as a mechanical engineer. All industrial sectors value mechanical engineers, including manufacturing, oil and gas, aerospace, and automotive, as well as emerging areas such as energy and renewable energy, medical engineering, and nanotechnology.
Mechanical Engineering Research
We were ranked 1st in Scotland and 3rd in the UK for engineering research through a joint submission with the University of Edinburgh in REF 2021 which classed 96% of our research output as ‘world-class’.
The Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering promotes excellence across its main research themes: Biomedical Engineering, Energy Harvesting and Conversion, Multiphase Flow and Digital Engineering. Heriot-Watt University is the leader amongst UK universities in promoting energy activities through its ‘Energy Academy’, a virtual centre which connects all energy-related research across the University.
Global College pathway for this degree
If you do not meet the entry requirements for this degree, have a look at Heriot-Watt Global College, where you can follow an accelerated pathway which will get you onto the second year of this degree.
Accreditation

This programme is accredited by IMechE.
Students completing an IMechE accredited degree are deemed to have met part or all of the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer and are in a strong position to move on to achieve professional engineering status after a period of initial professional development in industry. For more details, please refer to this webpage: IMechE Accreditation

I really enjoyed being able to apply the theoretical knowledge to the practical assignments in the labs. The lecturers are so supportive and their knowledge in their own fields is really inspiring.
Go Global
With Go Global, Heriot-Watt's global student programme, you can carry your studies to new places and experience new cultures, expanding your horizons on the way.
You'll discover what it means to be a true global citizen and emerge prepared for wherever your career journey will take you.
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European Exchange
This Exchange Programme enables you to study or work in Europe as part of your degree programme, usually for a full academic year.
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Non-European Exchange
This Exchange Programme enables you to study outside of Europe as part of your degree programme, usually for a full academic year.
Course content
Year 1
Emphasis is on developing basic mathematical, scientific and communication skills. Topics include Mechanical Engineering Science, Physics, Introduction to Electrical Engineering, Programming and Foundation Mathematics.
Year 2
Subjects include Strength of Materials; Machine Dynamics; Applied Thermodynamics; Fluid Dynamics; Materials Engineering; Design and Manufacture; Control Engineering; and Instrumentation.
Year 3
Subjects include Strength of Materials; Machine Dynamics; Applied Thermodynamics; Fluid Dynamics; Materials Engineering; Design and Manufacture; Control Engineering; and Instrumentation.
Year 4
Students choose specialist subjects from Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Strength of Materials and Machine Dynamics. Mandatory courses include a year-long individual project plus Engineering Design and Manufacture that includes an industrial project. Other options such as Petroleum Engineering and Automotive Technologies are available.
Year 5
Students may register from Level 1. Entry is offered to those whose performance at the end of Level 3 places them in the upper part of the class. Students study multi-disciplinary topics in Engineering and undertake a group project.
Discover Uni course data
Discover Uni provides data on each university's degree courses across a range of measures including student satisfaction, graduate jobs and salaries.
Employability
Work and study
This is what our MEng Mechanical Engineering students are doing 15 months after graduating:
- 80% are working
- 5% are studying
- 5% are working and studying.
Salary
- The average salary of students 15 months after graduating: £27000
- The average UK salary of students 15 months after graduating from a similar course: £28000
Potential career paths
- Engineering professionals
- Information Technology professionals
Entry requirements
Year 1
Standard entry requirements
- Highers AAAB (including Mathematics and Physics with one at A)
- A-Levels BBB - AAB (including Mathematics and Physics)
- Int. Baccalaureate 30 points (including Mathematics and Physics at Higher Level 5)
- BTEC DDM in Engineering
- HNC A in graded unit (in relevant HNC including Engineering Mathematics 1, 2 and 3)
Minimum entry requirements*
- Highers BBBC (including Mathematics and Physics or Engineering Science BB)
- A-Levels BCC (including Mathematics and Physics with one at B)
* Minimum: under our Fair Access Policy, we will relax our standard entry requirements for some Scottish students depending on their circumstances. Our minimum requirements will apply if you:
- live in an area within the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation lowest 20% (SIMD20), or
- are care experienced.
We can also make exceptions for some Scottish students with grades above minimum but below standard. Read more about our Minimum and standard entry requirements
Year 2
- Advanced Highers AB (including Mathematics and Physics plus Highers at AAAB)
- A-Levels AAB (including Mathematics and Physics with one at A)
- HND Pass with AA in Graded Units (Must be relevant subject and include SQA Engineering Maths 1, 2, 3 & 4)
- Int. Baccalaureate 34 points (including Mathematics and Physics at Higher Level 6)
- Global College Successful completion of our Engineering with Accelerator Programme
Year 3
Entry to Year 3 is only available via our associate student partnership college route.
Additional information
- This degree is also available through partnership routes with Edinburgh College and Forth Valley College. Contact studentrecruitment@hw.ac.uk for more details.
- For all years, applications are welcomed from holders of non-school qualifications, mature candidates and overseas students.
- If you do not see your qualifications here please contact us at studywithus@hw.ac.uk
- Please check that you meet our University-wide National 5/GCSE (or equivalent) English and Maths requirements.
English language requirements
- If English is not your first language, you have to show that your English is good enough to succeed on your course. Please see our English language requirements.
Fees
Status* | Scotland | England / Wales / N Ireland / Rep of Ireland | International** |
---|---|---|---|
Fee | Paid by SAAS | £9,250 | £24,048 |
* Your residency 'status' is usually defined as the country where you have been ordinarily resident for the three years before the start of your course. Find out more about tuition fees.
** 'International' includes applicants from European Union countries who do not hold Pre-Settled or Settled status in UK. (This does not include students from the Republic of Ireland - see above). Read more about the application process for EU nationals.
Additional costs
You may incur additional costs in the course of your studies at Heriot-Watt over and above tuition fees in an academic year. Depending on your programme of study, these may include: protective equipment, field trips, professional memberships, studio fees, required course texts or other study resources.
Scholarships and bursaries
Bursaries for students from England, Northern Ireland or Wales
In addition to government loans and grants towards the costs of fees and living costs, we are offering generous financial support to attract and support eligible undergraduate students from England, Northern Ireland or Wales:
- Heriot-Watt University Bursary (up to £3,100 per year)
View our full range of undergraduate scholarships.