Renewable Energy Master in UCC or UU

shakeydude

Hi,

I have been offered a part time Master at UCC or UU in Renewable Energy and I am unsure of which to choose. At the University of Ulster it is all via distance learning whereas I would be able to attend the lectures in UCC.

If anyone has information on the reputation of the courses at UCC or Univesity of Ulster or distance learning over the web I would really appreciate it!!!

Cheers,

Shakeydude

elfanch

Hi,

I read your post, and I wonder which master did you finally choose?

I'm working as an electronics engineer, and I would like to follow next year a part-time of full-time master in Renewable Energy . I heard of UU and UCC masters, and also one in Dundalk.

Would you have advises or more information now? What was your background? Are places very limited?


thanks,

pauln

Hi, I know this thread is a bit old but I am going to apply to start the taught MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technologies part-time/distance leaning course by Loughborough University in the UK (http://crestdl.lboro.ac.uk/outside/index.php).
The course is pretty much the same one that Dundalk IT are providing as they licensed their material from Loughborough. Loughborough's version doesn't require attendance at lectures, it's all on-line, which is why I'm choosing them over Dundalk IT as I'll have work commitments to fit in too.

long_boy

All,
I'm interested in taking up one of these this year (Loughborough, Dundalk, UU or possibly UCC) and I'm keen to know how your guys found your respective choices and what career prospects look like?
Any info would be much appreciated

Ral

Hi, I'm in the same boat as yourself. I'm a Mechanical Engineer of 12 years in project roles. I'm looking into these courses as well. The one in UU seems to be more for building and industrial design which I'd say is the big growth area. The loughborough and dundalk one are the same coruse except the loughborough is distance learning. The UCC is kind of stuck between the both.
Have any of you found anything else to compare these to?
Cheers,
R

long_boy wrote: »

All,
I'm interested in taking up one of these this year (Loughborough, Dundalk, UU or possibly UCC) and I'm keen to know how your guys found your respective choices and what career prospects look like?
Any info would be much appreciated

holdfast

I did the UU course, just finished second year. I found the course a pain, I am from a engineering background and the course is very theroy based, writing essays on each module with headings such as social, encomic rather than getting stuck in to maths. It was very fluff and I dont what I would do with the PGD as I dont want to the MSC. (sorry wrote this in a rush)

itsm2

Hi,

Which if any of the postgrad courses mentioned offer industry experience as part of the course?
I am a Mech Eng graduate, with 17 years IT experience and am investigating new career options.

PGL

this is quite an old thread but is very relevant to current times. i am a chartered civil engineer with 9 nine years experience in the civil consultancy sector who is in the process of making the transition to electrical engineering consulting in the context of grid connections for generators (predominantly renewable sources).

i would like to get some sort of formal qualification which is generally relevant to either electrical engineering or renewable energy on a part time basis, and preferably in the form of distance learning due to work and family commitments.

i have not yet found anything suitable in terms of electrical engineering - can anyone advise?

in terms of renewable energy, the only relevant one i can seem to find is the part time distance learning MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technology (http://crestdl.lboro.ac.uk/outside/index.php) in Loughborough University. has anyone got an opinion on this course? can anyone recommend anything else suitable to my needs?

cheers

pauln

Hi PGL,
I went for the Loughborough course in the end and have 2 x modules + 1 thesis left to do, hopefully finished by September.

Regarding electrical engineering in particular that has been all gathered together into one of the 8 modules called Integration of renewables and goes into the generator-grid interactions.

The other modules focus on the various renewable sources, solar, wind bio etc and concentrate on the resource itself (how much available, location, maths of assessing a locations potential) and then the design-operation of the technologies available to capture the resource.

The Loughborough course content varies in its math content depending on the module but all of the exams are very technical with only Biomass having a essay type question on it, it very much a engineering course. Afterwards you would be able to go work in the area of any of the renewable resources covered and not have a problem understanding the material.

Overall my assessment of the course has been that they pretty much land you with a load of notes and past papers and you turn up for the exam a few months later, that may be a good or bad thing depending on your study style, for me it was ok but one thing that really helps is making contact with others on the course over skype to talk things through.

It's pricey enough to about £390/module totalling around £8000-£9000, You can take up to 8 years to complete it if you wanted, I arranged it into 2 years.

It's not for the faint hearted and the less of a mech/elec background you have the harder it will be, I'm a mech so alot of the introductory modules were ok but it does get pretty tough as you move on. There are people from non-engineering backgrounds doing the course, a few that are even non-science so it is a doable course once you're willing to put in the time.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

P.S. I heard that there might be a 2 year waiting list for the course now so might want to get in touch with them to see what the story is.

StrucMech

Hey Guys, i`m very interested to hear ye`re opinion! I`m a final year structural engineering student in Cork and as you can imagine I haven`t a notion what to do when I`m finished... I`m interested in the masters in Renewable Energy in UCC and I see a lot of the modules are building related...
There is a masters in civil in Trinity which is another option! Anybody have any ideas what one should do?? Maybe I should hit for the UK and try and get some experience??