New Masters programmes to meet jobs demand in engineering

To meet a skills shortage in engineering students will be able to take conversion degrees at Kent following a nationwide government grant.

A total of 28 projects across the country will receive £1.7 million to develop a range of engineering and computer science conversion courses to meet the demand for jobs in these areas. These will allow those who have undertaken previous study in other subjects to transition to engineering careers.

The School of Engineering and Digital Arts will offer an MSc in Embedded Communications Engineering and, working with the University of Bath, an MSc in Integrated Circuit Design Engineering from the 2016-17 academic year.

There is huge demand across the communications sector for graduates with skills in embedded communications engineering which plays a vital role in the growth of interconnected devices expected for the Internet of Things and the goals of flexible, high speed wireless connections for 5G mobile networks and beyond.

There is also an increasing need for innovative design which can harness the power of integrated circuits, while taking into account constraints such as requirements for energy efficiency, for consumer products that are now more powerful than the supercomputers of the 1980s.

These new courses will open up careers in these areas to a wider range of graduates, benefiting both students and employers in key sectors such as ICT and telecommunications.

Electronic Engineering at Kent has consistently high rankings with 100% overall satisfaction in last year’s postgraduate student survey (PTES).