How long did you study for to reach your level of expertise? And which Uni would you recommend for your individual

Question: How long did you study for to reach your level of expertise? And which Uni would you recommend for your individual courses? :) x
- Keywords:
  education,
  expertise,
  individual,
  level,
  reach,
  recommend,
  study,
  uni
Asked by hargrover to Amit, Emily, Joanne, Martin, Paige on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by shivani.
- Emily Bullen answered on 13 Mar 2012:
  
  I studied for 5 years, to get a Masters degree, but this included a year working in industry. You could also do a bachelors degree with one year less. I didn’t have to do the year in industry, but I found it really useful to get an idea of how I would be using the things I’d learnt (and to give me the motivation I needed to work really hard in my final year).
  Bath Uni is a good university for chemical engineering, as are Manchester, Loughborough, Imperial college and many others. To get up to date info about the best unis for any course have a look at this website
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/world-university-rankings
  There’s a section for chemical engineering… but don’t forget that you don’t need to go to the top unis to get a good job!
- Martin Wallace answered on 13 Mar 2012:
  
  I studied at the University of Leeds for a Mechanical Engineering degree. The options I had were to study for 3 years to get a Bachelor’s degree (BEng) or to study 4 years to get a Master’s degree (MEng). At the end of my course I got a 2:1 as my grade which I was pleased with (this is the second highest you can get, the highest is called a ‘First’).
  A lot of engineering jobs don’t require you to have a master’s degree so you may want to think about if you want to study that extra year, but it helps later if you want to become a ‘Chartered Engineer’.
  I’m not sure what the best universities are for individual areas of engineering. Leeds was quite good at Automotive and Biomedical Engineering, and I think Loughborough is quite good I think, but universities and their specialities change over the years. The best thing to do is to do some research on the internet to find out which universities specialise in an area you find interesting.
- Joanne Davies answered on 13 Mar 2012:
  
  Hello again hargrover. Another cool question!
  
  I studied for two years full time at UWIC (University of Wales Institute Cardiff) and afterwards I went back to learn a few more things on a part time basis while I was working.
  
  I would recommend a university offering a subject that interests you. That is the most important thing. Then there are loads of other things to consider like facilities, location, computer access, libraries, accommodation, transport, sport facilities, fees, grants, social amenities… many, many things!
  
  To reach any level of real expertise, you need industry experience as well and that can take a lifetime to achieve.
  
  🙂
- Amit Pujari answered on 14 Mar 2012:
  
  I studied for 4 years for my undergraduate. After working as a graduate engineer (2 years), I studied 2 years for my masters followed by 4 years for my PhD.
  
  But it completely depends on what you want to do. If you want to work in Industry, undergraduate is usually more than enough. If you want to work as a research engineer (usually at the university), you would need masters or PhD.
  
  For biomedical engineering in the UK following universities offer excellent courses:
  Imperial: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering
  Leeds: http://www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/mechanical/undergraduate/degree-medical-engineering/index.shtml
  Sheffield:http://www.shef.ac.uk/bioengineering/undergrad/courses/biomedeng
  Oxford: http://www.ibme.ox.ac.uk/research/study
- Paige Brown answered on 17 Mar 2012:
  
  hargrover,
  
  I have studied for 8 years now… 4 years in undergraduate (college in the US), 2 years in graduate school (Masters in biological engineering), 1 year in a PhD program (Biomedical Engineering), and 1 year under my belt as a graduate student in mass communications (at Louisiana State University). No matter which Uni you attend, it is more important to make the most of it than to have the best teachers or prestigious school name!