Five reasons to study automotive engineering at Surrey
What makes our automotive engineering degrees different and what’s the secret behind our graduates’ success? Here we reveal five reasons why you should choose the University of Surrey for your automotive engineering degree.
A team of students working on Surrey's Formula Student car.
1. Fantastic work placement opportunities
Surrey won Best University Careers/Employability Service in the UK in 2022. On our renowned Professional Training placement programme you can gain a year’s valuable work experience with a company like:
- McLaren Automotive
- Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited
- Jaguar Land Rover
- Mercedes HPP
- Nissan.
We also have superb graduate employability, with 93 per cent of our undergraduate students going on to employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2023, HESA)
2. First-hand experience in designing and building an electric racing car
Learning at Surrey isn’t just about lecture theatres and labs. As a central part of your course you’ll get involved in Formula Student (the world’s largest student motorsport competition), and help to design, build and race a single seater electric car, giving you invaluable hands-on experience and a chance to showcase your skills to potential employers.
In 2019 our team was ranked as the top UK EV (electric vehicle) team overall, and won the awards for 'Class 1 Most Efficient Car' and 'Mercedes-AMG HPP Best High Voltage Powertrain Implementation', while in 2020 they claimed first place in the Formula Student Virtual Dynamic event.
3. Flexibility with common first year
Whether you opt for our Automotive Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or Biomedical Engineering courses, you’ll study a common first year, which means you can swap to a different pathway, if you decide it’s a better fit, up until the end of your first year.
4. Industry-standard facilities
At Surrey you’ll benefit from state-of-the-art facilities including our:
- Design Centre with the latest design software and computer-numerical-control (CNC) machine tooling equipment
- Dedicated Formula Student lab with state-of-the-art tools and equipment for electric vehicle development
- Centre for Aerodynamics and Environmental Flow laboratories, which host the EnFlo atmospheric wind tunnel - the only environmental wind tunnel in the UK.
5. Professionally accredited courses
Our automotive engineering degrees are accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which means you’ll be well on the way towards chartered status after studying at Surrey. Our MEng courses fully meet the academic requirements to become a Chartered Engineer, while our BEng programmes partially meet the academic requirement and can be supplemented by further study.
Discover more about our programmes in automotive engineering.