A Foundation Year with ARU College is a two trimester course that takes place before your degree at ARU.  This means that your degree will take 4 years to complete in total.

Foundation Year in Engineering, Computing and Technology

Students in these disciplines will find it necessary to work confidently in multi-disciplinary teams throughout their careers. A foundation in Engineering, Computing and Technology is structured around projects working with others from different degree programmes, enabling them to begin to develop this extremely important transferable skill.

Develop the knowledge and skills you need to create technologies and applications that will change the world. During your Foundation, you will have opportunities for practical work and experimentation across a range of elements, including engineering design tasks centred on developing simple robots, in order to introduce the challenges and benefits of realising theoretical ideas. There’ll be lectures and seminars combined with work-based learning and plenty of course options to personalise your studies.

BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineers design, manufacture, repair or operate the things we need in everyday life. Based in Chelmsford, studying our Mechanical Engineering BEng (Hons) you’ll use simulation software to come up with solutions to real world engineering problems. Take up an option for a placement year and benefit from our links with local industry to gain experience and a head start in your career. Our Mechanical Engineering degree is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and can ultimately lead to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.
Mechanical engineers solve problems through innovation, helping society to become more advanced and adventurous.

Our newly redesigned Mechanical Engineering BEng degree course focusses on project based-learning, meaning you’ll apply your theoretical learning from class to a project-based module that runs throughout Year 1. You will gain experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team with other students from mechanical engineering courses, helping to prepare you for working in competitive commercial and industrial environments. Skills in teamwork, management and leadership – along with an integrated approach to engineering – are highly valued by employers.

While studying Mechanical Engineering at ARU, you will develop both your academic and practical skills, becoming an analytical and creative problem-solver, exploring how engineering works in the business context, and how to achieve results within financial constraints. You’ll use testing and measurement equipment, learn how to specify and design electronics subsystems and understand how to use computer-based and mathematical methods to model and analyse mechanical-engineering problems.

As well as the hands-on experience, you’ll benefit from lectures given by visiting engineers, ensuring you’re up-to-date with current methods in industry. You also have the option of doing a year-long placement in industry between years 2 and 3.

Our facilities at ARU include a CAD/CAM centre, industrial-scale CNC milling machine, CNC lathe, rapid prototyping machine, scanning electronic microscope, Instron bi-axial fatigue-testing machine, tensile-testing machine, material-preparation facilities, welding equipment and electronic testing and measuring equipment such as oscilloscopes and signal generating and testing facilities.

Like our Mechanical Engineering BEng course, our MEng is accredited by both the IMechE and IET, meaning it's been approved by a professional body as meeting their level of requirements.

What is the difference between a BEng and an MEng course
A BEng course will enable to you apply for Incorporated Engineer (IEng) status at the end of your course. To apply for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status you will also need to complete a Masters degree.

A four-year Mechanical Engineering MEng course is a thee-year undergraduate degree with a one-year Masters degree in one course. On completing an MEng course you are able to apply directly for CEng status.

Our three-year degree programme is CEng accredited and fulfils the educational requirements for Chartered Engineer when presented with an accredited MSc. In addition, the programme meets the educational requirements for registration as an Incorporated Engineer. Students completing an IMechE accredited degree are deemed to have met, part or all, of the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer and are in a strong position to move on to achieve professional engineering status after a period of initial professional development in industry.