Queen Mary, University of London
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Teaching and Learning

Electrical, electronic and computer engineering is a learning profession. It requires graduates of the highest calibre who will be able to develop their knowledge and embrace new concepts continuously throughout their working lives. Our aim is therefore to give you a firm grounding in electrical science and computer software and to equip you with the intellectual skills and self-reliance to work confidently into the future.

The lecture courses at Queen Mary are traditional in nature and emphasise fundamental theory and physical principles, but use contemporary applications for illustration purposes. In the first year weekly assignments are set and marked, and many courses have special laboratory classes associated with them for which students are required to produce formal reports. Assessment for most courses is 75% by examination and 25% by coursework. All students have weekly meetings with a personal tutor who returns marked work and monitors progress, deals with problems and generally supports and encourages.

In each successive year of your studies you will be involved in practical project work that becomes increasingly demanding. Guided design-and-build projects in the first year, group design-and-build projects in the second, and substantial individual research and development projects in the final year. In the third and fourth years of the MEng programmes there is more group work, with projects, guided studies and weekly meetings with a member of staff who sets assignments. You will prepare reports and make presentations to your small study group. This is where you learn to make the transition to the real world of professional engineering, and develop your skills in information retrieval and technology evaluation. You will also take advanced Masters level technical courses and spend 25% of your time on your final year project.

Programmes of Study

Under the University of London Course Unit system the teaching year is divided into two semesters and all students register for four course units in each semester, making a total of eight for a full year's study. Exams for both semesters are held at the end of the teaching year. The University has been operating this system for over 25 years; it is extremely well developed, facilitating study flexibility and maintaining strict academic standards and parity between courses. All course units delivered at the same level have a similar academic value, but higher level courses carry a higher weighting in the final classification of honours.

Programmes of study are organised into three main groups, with each group having a set of core course units, as well as a variety of options available. The programme of study defines the specific options to be taken, comprising a wide range of technical course units offered by the Department, as well as some course units (at a similar level) from the Centre for Business Management. However it must be emphasised that this is not a "pick-and-mix" modular system. All students must follow approved programmes of study and most course units have strict prerequisites from previous years.

Students following the MEng programmes participate in a major group project in the third year and spend the fourth year on a substantial individual project, advanced Masters level lecture courses, management studies and other options. An important feature of all our MEng programmes is the fourth year emphasis on directed private study and weekly tutorial and seminar presentations. Transfer into the MEng programme from BEng is possible up to the end of the second year, subject to satisfactory exam performance.

Industrial Experience

At the moment we do not offer an integrated industrial experience programme, sometimes referred to as a sandwich course.* Applicants who are interested in applying for programmes with industrial experience should visit: http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/industrial/index.php

Although no formal programme is currently available, students do have the opportunity to take a year out of their studies to undertake a placement in industry. (Applicants who need a Visa to study in the UK will need to seek advice before undertaking any paid or unpaid work placement). Normally, students who do this take a work experience year between their second and third years of study (or third and fourth on the MEng programmes). After two years of study, you will have skills that can benefit an employer, and of course the experience is of considerable benefit to you, especially if the work can be registered as professional training.

Many students also undertake shorter periods of work experience, especially summer placements that are offered by a wide range of employers across the industry. The School of EECS has a number of links with industry within the UK and internationally developed through directly funded research and in collaborative European Union and UK research programmes and there may be opportunities for placements through these links. The School also has a dedicated Industrial Placement Manager who can assist you with identifying suitable placements and provide advice on writing CVs and applications.

*We hope to introduce "with a year in industry" EE programmes for students who commence their studies in EE in 2010.

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