Space Engineering MSc – 2023 entry

The night sky presents us with the idea of infinity, and advances in space engineering lead the way in giving us the opportunity to go further and explore more than ever before.

At Surrey, we pioneered sophisticated ‘micro-satellites’ in the 1980s. Since then, we’ve maintained a programme of building entire satellites, performing mission planning, working with international launch agencies and providing in-orbit operations. This activity keeps us at the forefront of the space revolution.

With Surrey Space Centre on our campus, and our strategic partnership agreements with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Airbus, we continue to be part of the lifeblood in the UK’s industrial space sector.

Our MSc is designed to give you the specialist multidisciplinary knowledge and skills required for a career working with space technologies. You’ll have access to all aspects of the design and delivery of spacecraft and payloads.

We’re the only UK academic institution that develops and executes complete space missions – from initial concept to hardware design, manufacturing and testing, to in-orbit operations. All this is controlled by our own spacecraft mission operation ground station at Surrey Space Centre. Because of this, you’ll have the chance to gain first-hand experience of real space missions.

Please be aware: the course content and modules listed for this course are subject to change for the 2023/24 academic year, whilst we undertake a curriculum design review. Please contact the programme leader if you have any queries about the course.

If you’re studying this course full-time, you’ll study eight modules across the year – four in each semester. You will work on your project full time during the summer period for approximately two and a half months, whilst prior to that during semester time you will work on the initial stages of the project part time and complete an interim report. This means that if you begin your course in February, you will complete your project in between the two semesters, while if you begin your course in September, you will complete your project after the two semesters.

You can also study this course part-time, taking between two and five years. The length depends on how many modules you study each year. You can study between two and six modules each year. We recommend part-time students work on their project in their final year of study when all eight modules have either been completed or are near completion.

Modules listed are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that modules may be subject to teaching availability, student demand and/or class size caps.

The University operates a credit framework for all taught programmes based on a 15-credit tariff. Modules can be either 15, 30, 45, 75 and 120 credits, and additionally for some masters dissertations, 90 credits.

The structure of our programmes follows clear educational aims that are tailored to each programme. These are all outlined in the programme specifications which include further details such as the learning outcomes:

Timetable

Course timetables are normally available one month before the start of the semester. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week (Monday – Friday). Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities. Part-time classes are normally scheduled on one or two days per week, details of which can be obtained from the Academic Hive. View our Code of practice for the scheduling of teaching and assessment (PDF).

Contact hours can vary across our modules. Full details of the contact hours for each module are available from the University of Surrey's module catalogue. See the modules section for more information.