Chemical and Petroleum Engineering BEng (Hons) or MEng – 2019 entry

Why choose this course

Developed in consultation with industry, our BEng and MEng Chemical and Petroleum Engineering courses will enable you to apply your knowledge and skills to real-world challenges.

Combining exceptional facilities with teaching from research-active academics, this course will prepare you for a fulfilling career in the chemical, pharmaceutical, water or food industries.

Surrey is one of the few universities in the world offering you the chance to experience the complete chemical engineering process. Our new £1.7m chemical engineering facility includes a fully operational pilot process plant, allowing you to use the kind of state-of-the-art equipment you will find in industry.

We are ranked 4th for overall satisfaction in the Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering category of the National Student Survey (NSS) 2018.

What you will study

Our BEng and MEng Chemical and Petroleum Engineering courses combine general chemical engineering principles with specialist modules, design projects, equipment design and research projects relating to energy and petrochemicals. 

You’ll be taught by prize-winning academics and former industrialists with extensive experience, and gain specific knowledge in petroleum related processing and operations. 

You’ll also benefit from practical experience working on a small chemicals plant in our newly refurbished laboratory facilities which, combined with your academic studies, will prepare you for a wide range of fulfilling careers in the global energy sector.

You can apply to study for either a BEng or MEng (Masters of Engineering). The MEng builds on the BEng programme with a masters year, and is a direct route to a masters qualification. Depending on your progress, you may have the option to switch to a BEng or MEng during your studies.

Professional Training placements

As part of this course you have the option to complete a Professional Training placement. These will give you the opportunity to develop your professional, academic and personal potential, equipping you to be adaptable, resilient, globally minded, confident, entrepreneurial and digitally savvy in the workplace. These qualities are widely recognised by employers and a significant proportion of placement students at Surrey are offered graduate-level jobs or go onto postgraduate study.

Find out more about Professional Training placements and discover how these have transformed our students’ lives and career choices.

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering placements

Our academic work in all areas is enhanced by strong industrial links, both in the UK and overseas. These links have enabled us to arrange Professional Training placements in which we have built up considerable experience and expertise.

Placements provide the opportunity for you to gain invaluable first-­hand experience of how industry operates, and to apply your theoretical knowledge to real­-life technical problems. 

Many of our students take a Professional Training placement, which provides an outstanding opportunity to gain practical experience, giving you a head start in your future career. Companies that have participated in our scheme include: 

• ExxonMobil
• Grace
• Fluor Corporation
• Thames Water
• GlaxoSmithKline
• AkzoNobel
• EDF Energy.

Applying for placements

Professional Training placements are usually applied for and secured via an open and free-to-all process, within which students can select and apply for numerous opportunities. Placement providers use their own recruitment and selection procedures and the majority of students will secure their placement in this way. However, support is also provided to students wishing to source their own placement, subject to university requirements being met.

Students are generally not placed by the University, however they are given thorough support and guidance alongside access to a vacancy portal representing thousands of placement opportunities each year. Please be aware there may be travel costs incurred when attending interviews and assessment centres at the placement provider’s premises.

Professional recognition

BEng (Hons) - Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
Accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.

MEng - Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
Accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for the purpose of fully meeting the educational requirement for Chartered Chemical Engineer.

Careers and graduate prospects

We offer careers information, advice and guidance to all students whilst studying with us, which is extended to our alumni for three years after leaving the University.

Chemical engineers work across a range of sectors in the UK and overseas, and are increasingly sought by speciality chemical industries that manufacture high­-value-­added products.

Chemical engineers on average earn more than any other engineering discipline and graduates are consistently paid more than chemists and other scientists. The high salaries paid reflect the level of responsibility and importance which chemical engineering graduates quickly attain. 

At Surrey, our graduate employment record is excellent. This demonstrates the strength of our programmes in preparing you for the world of work and the substantial benefits of undertaking our Professional Training placement programme.

Our Personal and Professional Skills programme is undoubtedly another factor in the exceptional employment record of our graduates.

Demand for graduates with the specific skills and knowledge gained on our specialised programmes is expected to be high, especially within modern, high­-growth sectors including:

• Pharmaceuticals
• Healthcare
• Cosmetics
• Energy
• Land remediation
• Water and waste management
• Oil
• Chemicals.

We have worked closely with industrial organisations to design these programmes around their needs, to ensure that there will be excellent opportunities available to you upon graduation.

Recent graduates have entered employment in roles such as:

• Associate Process Engineer, Fluor Corporation
• Process Engineer, Procter and Gamble
• Process and Workflow Analyst, BOC
• Graduate Process Engineer, United Utilities
• Chemical Engineer, Saudi Aramco
• Utilities Shift Supervisor, Qatar Petroleum
• Reporting Finance Graduate, AkzoNobel.

Study and work abroad

We give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities or by completing a Professional Training placement abroad. In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV. Visit our global exchanges pages to check where you can go.

The international exchange programme offers undergraduate students the opportunity to study abroad at a partner university for either one semester or a full academic year as part of their degree. Currently, for students on the BEng and MEng Chemical Engineering programmes this is possible in your second year at one of the partner institutions:

• North Carolina State University, US
• Texas Tech University, US
• University of Cincinnati, US
• Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
• University of Queensland, Australia
• University of Sydney, Australia
• Seoul National University, South Korea
• University of Malaya, Malaysia
• Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The exchange programme enables you to study and live in another country without paying additional tuition fees to the partner. In doing so you will broaden your horizons, meet other students from around the world and experience student life in some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Studying abroad also enables you to become more independent, teaching you how to adapt and adjust to the culture and climate of another country.

Students have worked at Grace in Germany, Oiltech Engineering in Sri Lanka, Avery Dennison in the Netherlands and Bidco Africa in Kenya. If you work in another part of Europe you may be eligible for an Erasmus+ grant. This is an excellent opportunity not only to acquire valuable work experience but also to improve or learn another language. 

Facilities

We are one of the very few chemical engineering departments in the world able to offer you the chance to learn on a complete chemical process, and not just pilot scale individual operations such as distillation.

In Year 3, you undertake a realistic exercise in operating the process and taking responsibility for factors such as safety, profitability and environmental impact.

Other laboratory experiments are a centrifugal pump test, a heat exchanger and the mysterious tank investigation (thinking inside the box). You also receive 24-­hour access to our computer rooms.

Personal and professional skills

We recognise that in order for chemical engineers to perform to the highest level, they need a wide range of skills in addition to technical proficiency. We also recognise that experience is the principal driving force in development of these skills.

Chemical engineers often work in teams to solve problems, they adopt leadership roles and are required to be effective communicators. Our Personal and Professional Skills programme is designed to give you a head start in developing your skills in these areas.

Employers will see the personal development skills which our programmes provide as giving you ‘something extra’, in addition to your technical competence.

Prizes

In addition to general University scholarships and bursaries, our extensive contacts in industry have resulted in prizes being awarded to undergraduates by Atkins, Halliburton KBR, Air Products, UOP, IChemE and the Worshipful Company of Engineers.