Department of Materials

Full time students study for a Master of Science MSc. Part time students can also study for an MSc, but have the additional option to study for a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate.

All our Masters courses are accredited by the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (IOM³), making it more straight forward for our graduates to satisfy the requirements for the professional qualifications; Chartered Engineer or Chartered Scientist, once they have completed a period in graduate-level employment.

The courses are made up from modules that are each 15 credits. The credit rating roughly equates to the number of hours of student effort required to cover the module material in its entirety, with 150 credits equivalent to 150 hours.

MSc students study 180 credits made up of 120 credits from the modules and 60 credits from the masters project. To be awarded the MSc students must obtain at least 150 credits from the 180 credits studied and must exceed the minimum standard in the remainder.

A Postgraduate Diploma is awarded for the achievement of 120 credits and a Postgraduate Certificate for 60 credits.

Each new academic year commences in October and if you wish to apply and be registered in time to start in October as a full time student you should aim to have your application submitted before the end of July. Applications are still accepted up to the end of August, but if there are any complications or additional documents are required, this often does not leave sufficient time for processing.

Part time students are recommended to follow the same advice as full time students, although applications can be processed after the start of the academic year and part time students can start studying modules that are still available to them after the date they are accepted and registered.

The academic year runs from October to the following September and is made up of two semesters, each 15 weeks long, with 12 weeks of teaching followed by exams in Jan/Feb and June. MSc students also have an extended period beyond the second semester exams, throughout the summer period, to work on their projects.

All our MSc courses are available to students wishing to study part time and flexibility has been made a key feature for students choosing the part time route.

Part time students can attend any one week block taught modules listed within the modules available for their chosen course, but also have the added dimension of a range of distance learning modules to study at home in their own time. The majority of part time students will usually attend at least one or two of the one week modules and find this very beneficial and consequently we recommend it.

Part time students can study at their own pace varying the amount they study in any given year to suit their circumstances. Typically the MSc takes 3-4 years, the Postgraduate Diploma 2-3 years and the certificate takes 1-2 years.

Students can take longer than these typical figures and if their circumstances change or they need to take a break from study this is accommodated by the regulations which allow students up to eight years to complete the MSc, five years to complete the Diploma and three years to complete the certificate.

Distance learning modules comprise a comprehensive study booklet and recommended reading lists. The study booklets contain self assessment questions and this is supplemented in some cases by some online and video content available on the University’s “Learn” online learning environment. Distance learning modules are assessed by coursework and exams and students in remote locations are able to arrange their exams either at an approved local higher education establishment or a British Council office.

When first registering, part time students pay for their first 30 credits of study, once this has been completed, further modules are studied on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The Department of Materials has a thriving research community of about 80 PhD students and every year a small number of our highest achieving MSc students stay on to study for a PhD.

More on PhD study »