Welcome to Mechanical Engineering

Whether you're just starting your journey with us, or you're returning for your next year of study, these Welcome pages will provide you with all the information you need to start the new academic year. We look forward to seeing you in the Department this autumn.

During Welcome 2020 there will be a range of online sessions for you to book that will help you take the next steps in your academic career. All of these events can be found by navigating to the page relevant to your level of study via the links below.

We know this year's Welcome events are a little different from usual, but we have done everything we can to ensure you still get the information you need, while giving you the chance to interact with your course leaders and socialise with your coursemates. Don't forget that there are also a range of excellent societies you can join - they are a great way to boost your CV and make new friends!

Over the course of Welcome, you can expect to find sessions covering how you will be taught this year, what it means to be back at university in such unusual circumstances, and the new measures put in place for if you do have any on-campus elements of teaching. Throughout all of this, we want to reassure you that we will deliver a great blended learning experience so that we can welcome you safely back onto campus.

We are here to help and support you every step of the way, so if you have any questions, please do get in touch with us.

We look forward to seeing you very soon!

What does blended learning look like?

This year we will be using blended learning to deliver your course. This means that we will offer lab-based and small group teaching on campus wherever safely possible, but will be delivering lectures and other larger taught components online. We are using blended learning best practice to design and deliver your course in a way that can be adapted to your preferred learning style. We are also developing a new timetable to optimise your learning and ensure a safe campus experience.

To support teaching, we will be using Blackboard as our web-based virtual learning system, supported by Microsoft Teams and Zoom for face-to-face online teaching. Our academics are preparing lecture content in a variety of formats such as videos, podcasts, and presentations so that you can access teaching content in a way that suits you. We know your interactions with our academics and other students on your course form an incredibly important component of your learning, so we will use a variety of tools, including discussion boards, interactive online sessions with academics and fellow students, as well as tutorial sessions to support this.

We will monitor your progress regularly using online tests and quizzes. However, as our courses are accredited, we will need to assess at least some of your learning formally using different examination methods. You will also have contact with your academic advisor who can help guide your learning, as well as being your first point of contact for any questions or concerns you may have.