Overview
Career boost
If you have a HND in Mechanical Engineering and are looking to extend your technical and application skills, then this one-year Top-up course is for you. Design and develop engineering systems for a variety of fields in today's fast-changing marketplace, focusing on manufacturing. Expect to gain industry-critical skills in team work and leadership, and learn to communicate effectively and exchange ideas with specialist professionals and a wider audience.
Why study Mechanical Engineering and Design at LSBU?
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- Newly accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers as meeting the further learning requirement for IEng registration.
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- Make use of our stand-out facilities, like our virtual engineering lab and 3D printing.
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- Top 10 in the UK for Engineering teaching (National Student Survey 2023)
- 3rd in London for Mechanical Engineering (Guardian League Tables by subject 2024)
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- 3rd in London for student satisfaction in Mechanical Engineering (Complete University Guide 2025)
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- From AI machine learning boot camp to silent film processing, there is a range of extracurricular activities for Engineering students to get involved in.
| ModeFull-time | Duration1 year | Start dateSeptember | Application codeH301 | Application method UCAS |
Course Accreditations
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IMechE
Watch our video to see how you can make yourself at home studying at LSBU.
Location
London South Bank University student union is located at 103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA.
If you are visiting our Southwark Campus, you may wish to use our downloadable campus map (PNG File 466 KB). For information on accessibility, see our DisabledGo access guides. See our location page for more details.
Entry Level Requirements
Need further information? Call us on 0800 923 8888 to discuss entry requirements.
Entry requirements
- Higher National Diploma with at least 60 credits at Merit in second-year modules, or
- other equivalents - Higher Education qualification in a relevant area
The course director will ensure that all applicants meet and exceed the required pre-requisites on a case by case basis where a pre-inspection of the L5 or equivalent curriculum has not been performed.
- We welcome applicants with qualifications from around the world. English language qualifications for international students: IELTS score of 6.0, TOFEL-550 (print-based), TOFEL-80 (internet-based), Cambridge Proficiency or Advanced Grade C.
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Missing English and Maths qualifications?
If you do not have the required English and Maths qualifications needed to satisfy the entry requirements for this programme, we have courses available at our partner College that you can take to upskill in these areas. Find out more at South Bank College.
Advanced entry
If you have already completed some studies at another university, we may be able to consider you for advanced entry. Please see our advanced entry page for more information.
Course status
Accreditation and Course validation status
This course is validated by London South Bank University. Applications are being accepted.
United Kingdom
£9535
Tuition fees for home students
International
£15500
Tuition fees for international students
Tuition fees are subject to annual inflationary increases. Find out more about tuition fees for Undergraduate or Postgraduate courses.
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Full-time
full-time
BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering and Design (Top Up) (FT) - Year 1
UK fee: £9535 International fee: £15500 AOS/LSBU code: 5095 Session code: 1FS00
For more information, including how and when to pay, see our fees and funding section for undergraduate students.
Please check your fee status and whether you are considered a Home, EU or International student for fee-paying purposes and for our regulatory returns, by reading the UKCISA regulations.
See our Tuition Fees Regulations (PDF File 391 KB) and Refund Policy (PDF File 775 KB).
Possible fee changes
The University reserves the right to increase its fees in line with changes to legislation, regulation and any government guidance or decisions.
The fees for international students are reviewed annually and the University reserves the right to increase the tuition fees in line with the RPIX measure of inflation up to 4 per cent.
Scholarships
We offer several types of fee reduction through our scholarships and bursaries. Find the full list and other useful information on our scholarships page.
International students
The course is not currently open to international students.
International (non Home) applicants should follow our international how to apply guide.
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| Mode Full-time | Duration 1 year | Start date September | Application code H301 | Application method UCAS |
Accommodation
Once we have made you an offer, you can apply for accommodation. You can rent from LSBU and you’ll deal directly with the university, not third party providers. That means we can guarantee you options to suit all budgets, with clear tenancy agreements and all-inclusive rents that include insurance for your personal belongings, internet access in each bedroom and on-site laundry facilities.
Or, if you’d rather rent privately, we can give you a list of landlords – just ask our Accommodation Service.
Read more about applying for accommodation at LSBU.
Finance
You don't need to wait for a confirmed place on a course to start applying for student finance. Read how to pay your fees as an undergraduate student.
Prepare to start
Applicant events
After you’ve received your offer we’ll send you emails about events we run to help you prepare for your course.
Enrolment
Before you start your course we’ll send you information on what you’ll need to do before you arrive and during your first few days on campus. You can read about the process on our Enrolment pages.
We’ll help you to gain the expertise to solve complex and challenging problems, the very knowledge that enables you to make a positive difference in mechanical engineering. With practical skills including basic manufacturing and measurement, the know-how to set up projects and manage them and the ability to approach design problems in a creative way.
Every decision a professional engineer takes has wider social, environmental, ethical, economic and commercial considerations – we’ll teach you about this too. You can be sure of one thing – that you’ll graduate confident in your ability to take your next career step.
- Innovations and enterprise
In the rapidly changing world around us, it is imperative that you're to think dynamically to create advantage for themselves (entrepreneurial) and for the businesses you may work for (intrapreneurial). This module encourages you to question what you see and experience around you and in your prospective engineering fields with an aim to enhance your creativity to discover new and improved ways of doing things. This module will equip you with methods and processes to recognise opportunities and to plan on harnessing commercially viable benefits that may exist from exploiting those opportunities in a sustainable fashion. This might be a product or a service (such as consultancy or contract management). The application of project management principles will help to define the critical path of a proposed business and how the many processes involved (planning, market research, market placement, finance, operations, human resources etc.) are interlinked throughout the initial planning exercise and how they can change over time. Assessment: 100% coursework made up of two team assignments. Team Assignment 1: To develop an idea for a service or a product with an aim to make it into a viable commercial proposition. Team Assignment 2: Investigation of an existing company presented as a Business Model Canvas and a supporting report. - Portfolio engineering projects
This module will develop your professional skills and portfolio in preparation for a career as a Design Engineer. You'll apply knowledge and understanding of a range of engineering design principles and techniques, using appropriate theoretical and practical methods to the analysis and solution of engineering design problems, exploring design alternatives and understanding the implications of trade-offs in the design process. You'll learn how to prototype and implement your proposed solutions using appropriate digital manufacturing technologies. In addition to this, there will be significant content relating to management of the design process, presentation of ideas, and working in teams. Assessment method: 100% coursework. - Manufacturing systems
This module introduces the core concepts of manufacturing systems and computer integrated manufacturing in the contemporary product realisation process. This module will develop your understanding of (and ability to use) commercial CAD/CAM/CAE tools and processes in engineering design projects. And your awareness of quality issues and their application to continuous improvement, including inspection technologies and methods. Covering: manufacturing and operations strategies, manufacturing automation,manufacturing process planning, quality control and inspection, material handling control and retrieval, robotics applications in manufacturing and operations management. Assessment: 100% coursework, made up of two elements: Element 1: 30% This is based the lecture series and will take the form of a set problem relating to that content. Element 2: 70% Practical application and use of the skills developed in mould tool design and CAD/CAM through a design project. - Thermofluids and turbomachinery
This module provides an opportunity to study heat transfer, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics exploring in-depth internal combustion engines, fluid-mechanics governing equations, performance of various types of pumps and turbines, and application of heat transfer to extended surfaces and heat exchangers. Covering: Internal combustion engine – comparison between air-standard cycle and real indicated cycle, performance characteristics, gas exchange process, combustion systems; Navier Stokes equations, and their application to fundamentalfluid mechanics problems; Rotodynamic machines – comparison to positive displacement machines, output characteristics matching to demand characteristics, practical examples of pumps/fans/turbines; Rotodynamic machines – Eulers equation, inlet and outlet velocity diagrams, application to Pelton wheel; Heat transfer – Extended surfaces (fins), Ficks Law, Heat Ex, condensers and evaporators. Assessment: a two-hour examination (70%) and a Workshop log book and a formal report assignment (30%). - Individual BEng project
The individual major project requires students to plan, execute, review and report upon a major piece of technical work directly related to your degree discipline. It provides you with the opportunity to develop a high degree of subject specific expertise. This module differentiates from others on the course taken due to the high degree of autonomous study expected. This flexibility should be seen as an opportunity to explore new areas of interest and to acquire new and often unexpected skills. Assessment: 1.Project Arrangement form (no mark but compulsory submission); 2.Project Progression Report (5%); 3.Interim report (10%) 4.Final project report Comprising: i.Technical quality (literature review and understanding of the necessary background, results & outcomes, analysis, evaluation of the findings, quality of abstract and conclusions) 45% ii.Quality of referencing 5% iii.Report presentation (structure and organisation, standard of English, quality of diagrams and graphs) 10% iv. Evidence and quality of project planning and management 5% v. logbook 10%; 5. Project oral presentation and demonstration with questions 10%.
Careers
LSBU Employability Services
LSBU is committed to supporting you develop your employability and succeed in getting a job after you have graduated. Your qualification will certainly help, but in a competitive market you also need to work on your employability, and on your career search. Our Employability Service will support you in developing your skills, finding a job, interview techniques, work experience or an internship, and will help you assess what you need to do to get the job you want at the end of your course. LSBU offers a comprehensive Employability Service, with a range of initiatives to complement your studies, including:
- direct engagement from employers who come in to interview and talk to students
- Job Shop and on-campus recruitment agencies to help your job search
- mentoring and work shadowing schemes.
Mechanical engineers work in almost every sector you can think of – energy, transport, aviation, robotics, pharmaceuticals and the motor or marine industries. As an engineer, you can be a problem-solver, a technical specialist, a manager...the types of projects you’ll work on are interesting and varied and there’ll always be something new to motivate and inspire you.
By completing this BEng (Hons) Top-up course successfully you open the door to a further postgraduate qualification and with it the option to become an Incorporated or Chartered Engineer.
Take a look at some potential careers, including mechanical engineer, on Prospects.
Our graduates work with world-class companies including Rolls-Royce, KBR and EDF in roles within research and development, design, manufacture, testing and installation.
We’ve been educating professional engineers for over 100 years and in that time we’ve made a lot of industry contacts. We have a panel of advisers from the industry to make sure that the course content is up-to-date and matches employers’ needs. This means our graduates are in demand!
You can expect opportunities to work on live briefs and enterprise projects with industry partners and to hear guest lectures from world-renowned companies, such as Rolls Royce.
Teaching and Assessment
Your lecturers are leading practitioners in their fields, so everything we do is industry relevant. You'll learn through lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical work. Taking on both group and individual projects, we assess your work through a mixture of coursework and exams, with project and laboratory work counting towards your final award.
We also teach you the life skills of effective communication, problem solving, project planning and team working that will set you apart and give you the best chance of getting the job you want after you graduate.
The amount of project-based learning that you'll do on an engineering degree varies from university to university. At LSBU we offer 'design-make-test' projects throughout the degree course rather than concentrating them all into your final year. This means that you'll adapt theoretical principles to solve real-world engineering problems very early on in your university career.
Your experience delivering innovation will make you attractive to employers. Innovation is at the very heart of what an engineer does on a day-to-day basis. Engineers look for practical ways of making things better, more efficient, cheaper, safer, stronger, more resilient, quicker, more integrated and more effective. Our engineering courses will teach you first-hand how to develop these crucial skills and traits.
Personal Tutoring
As an Engineering student, you will be allocated a named tutor during your first three weeks at LSBU. The role of your tutor is to be your primary contact for academic and professional development support.
Your tutor will support you to get the most of your time at LSBU, providing advice and signposting to other sources of support in the University.
They should be the first person at the university that you speak to if you are having any difficulties that are affecting your work. These could be academic, financial, health-related or another type of problem.
You will have appointments with your personal tutor at least twice a semester. Some meetings will be one-to-one and others will be in small groups. You can contact your tutor for additional support by email or in person.
People profiles
