Engineering graduates for industry - Royal Academy of Engineering

company. Students keep a log book of their
activities and prepare a dissertation related to
their work. Assessment is made by both the
visiting academic and company staff. With very
few exceptions, DIS placements are salaried
and placement students can expect to earn
somewhere in the range of £12.5K to £20K.
Perceived benefits
Staff at Loughborough believe that placement
students return with greater motivation which
in turn leads to improved final year marks.
Placements also appear to aid retention within
the engineering sector. An engineering
placement student is much more likely to
embark upon an engineering and technology
related career than a non-placement student. From the 2006/07 graduate cohort, the first career destination data 6
months after graduating revealed that retention within the sector was over 85% for students who had been on a
placement, compared with just over 60% for other students. For companies, placements are often regarded as an
extended assessment process for graduate recruitment purposes.
The student’s log book can contribute towards the achievement of Chartered Engineer (CEng) status. For Mechanical
and Manufacturing Engineering, this recognition happens automatically through the IMechE, whose Professional
Development Standards Committee views the DIS scheme as: “an exemplary university thick sandwich course which is
admirably linked to the Monitored Professional Development Scheme process.”
Challenges
Despite average uptake of 57%, the main challenge faced is to increase DIS enrolments. This problem is exacerbated by
the introduction of fees so that some students prefer to finish their degree as quickly as possible and move into a
permanent job. Other deterrents include issues with accommodation and personal relationships.
The departments have no desire to make placements compulsory. Emphasis is always placed on students convincing
the employer to recruit them, so such a move could prove difficult to implement. In addition, students are occasionally
made redundant while on placement although the University will seek alternative opportunities for them.
Loughborough’s preference is to convince students of the merits of the scheme.
Effective practice exemplar 13: the Teaching Contract Scheme at Loughborough
The Teaching Contract Scheme in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is an example of collaboration with
multiple companies to provide industry-based group design projects. Currently, 14 companies and over 200 students
are involved in the scheme, which operates with second and fourth year students who complete projects set by the
collaborating company in cooperation with the University. In the second year module, Application of Engineering Design:
Industry-Based Project, all Mechanical Engineering students complete projects in teams of up to four. In the final year of
both Mechanical and Product Design MEng programmes, students tackle bigger projects and are organised into multidisciplinary
teams. In addition, MEng finalists act as mentors to second year groups.
At the start of the scheme, students visit their company and projects are negotiated and defined. Companies tend to
have open-ended problems that need a solution and negotiation is often required to establish reasonable parameters
for the project. Accompanying lecture programmes give structure to the project work. The industrialists visit
Loughborough at specific times during the year for progress reports on the projects and to take part in tutorials. The
students submit a final report and give an oral presentation to the company engineers. For final year projects there is
also a major exhibition of all the work to which the companies and external examiners are invited.
The scheme is directed by one member of academic staff, with the part-time support of one member of administrative
staff. They receive the full backing of the Head of School. The companies pay a small fee to the University which funds
the necessary industrial visits, hospitality, basic project costs and maintains a high report presentation standard.
36 The Royal Academy of Engineering