Aerospace Engineering with an Industrial Placement Year

This degree is all about maximising your employability. You’ll follow the same academic programme as our standard aerospace engineering course, but you may have the opportunity to spend a year working in a graduate-level role in an engineering company.

Launch your career with this four-year exploration of aerospace engineering theory and get hands-on practice building and flying aircraft.

From a solid base of essential theories, you’ll explore propulsion, instrumentation, the computation and design of aerodynamics and aircraft control. As you progress, you’ll tailor the degree to match your career path - choosing to focus on either avionic systems or aeromechanics, and completing an investigative project of your choice.

By taking an industrial placement year, you'll spend a year working in a placement, in which you earn a salary and have reduced fees. While placements are not guaranteed and are your responsibility to source, you’ll receive plenty of advice and support from our dedicated Industrial Placement Year team.

Links with companies such as Rolls-Royce, Boeing and BAE make Sheffield the right choice if you want to do a placement year - and mean we have world-famous companies joining us on campus for employability fairs and networking sessions.

We’ll teach you how to manage a project from start to finish, and how to communicate with people from a wide range of engineering disciplines. In your final year, you'll work on a research project led by one of our world leading academics.

Along the way, you’ll have the opportunity to fly and build aircraft, take part in national and international competitions, and ultimately graduate with the hands-on experience you need to progress in the aerospace industry.

This course is accredited by the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Why study this course?

Project-based learning: Our system of project-based learning integrates engineering science with practical projects. Throughout the programme you will design, build and fly complex air systems such as drones, rockets and quad planes. These realistic, open-ended problems will make you a better engineer and prepare you for industry.

Personalised, tailored education: As a large faculty with many academics, we offer a diverse selection of optional modules that cover the world-leading research we undertake, empowering you to shape your degree by selecting subjects aligned with your interests.

State-of-the-art facilities: Access a high quality laboratory education in a unique and state-of-the-art facility, including the opportunity to operate and examine jet engine technologies.

Personal tutorials: From day one, your personal tutor will be your regular point of contact for both pastoral and academic support throughout your studies. The small group academic tutorial system strengthens the student-tutor bond and helps you to develop as an independent learner.

Vibrant student and staff community: Our excellent ‘student voice’ is consistently recognised and rated highly in the National Student Survey (NSS). Students are encouraged to be involved and have a say in their own education and to work together with staff to improve their aerospace engineering programmes.