You will study the same courses in the first three years whether you are on the BEng or MEng degree programme.

Year 1

Your first year of study will include courses in electronics and electrical engineering, mathematics, computing and physics.

Years 2 and 3

The following two years will contain a core of compulsory subjects which will give you a firm grounding in the knowledge and skills required of any professional electronics or electrical engineer.

In the second year you will take a specialised course in audio and visual perception. You will study the psychology of perception and its applications to lighting, filming, sound recording and audio/video compression such as MPEG.

In the third year, working together with fellow students from Film & Television Studies, you will produce two short films, one documentary and one fictional.

Years 4 and 5

The main route to becoming a fully chartered engineer is through the MEng degree, which usually takes five years. The BEng degree remains popular and can normally be completed in four years. To become a fully chartered engineer with a BEng degree requires further study after graduation, which can be done part-time from work. Your selection for BEng or MEng depends on your progress record in your first three years.

BEng students complete their studies with a substantial individual project, under the one-to-one supervision of academic staff: for example, three-dimensional reconstruction of scenes for special effects, investigating LED lighting for film or turning video footage into images which look like film.

If you are admitted into the MEng route you will carry out a team project combined with a course in project management instead of the fourth year individual project.

In the fourth year you will take at least two specialist technical options from real-time computer systems, acoustics and audio technology, digital signal processing, image and data processing, and computer and digital communications. In addition, a range of specialist options from micro-, opto- to bio-electronics, is also open to you.

MEng students take additional management, technical (and possibly language) courses, and carry out an extensive six-month industrial placement abroad in the fifth year.

A highlight of this degree is the production of two short films, one documentary and one fictional. The production of the films will be supervised by professionals from the broadcast industry and you will be working in interdisciplinary teams together with fellow students from Film & Television Studies. Besides learning the basics of professional film production you will learn how to manage such teams and how to manage the legal and organisational aspects of a film production.

There is a final-year degree option to concentrate on a comprehensive management course supported by many manufacturing companies in Scotland.

As an MEng student, in fifth year you will complete a six-month research and development project in an international company or research lab. If you have chosen to study a European language you may be assigned to a host organisation in Europe: students choosing this option are considerably prized by future employers.

The particular skills you will gain in this degree programme will be of particular advantage in companies specialising in internet technologies and mobile communications, and in the AV and broadcast industries.