New 5 year engineering course??

augmented reality

I have engineering in UCD down as my number 1 on the CAO. Will my course be a 5 year one(3 years Bsc and 2 year ME) or just the normal 4 year BE?
On the qualifax website it says one OR the other, like there's a choice, is there?
Also, is there any advantages of one over the other? Would I have to pay for the 2 year masters?

Thanks!

pljudge321

Right I'm going to assume your not interested in the structural engineering with architecture degree.

First year will be a common year for everyone with one option module out of three to pick plus 2 elective modules in whatever you choose. You can pick some more engineering electives with your electives if you choose,a lot of people do this and they have a few interesting engineering modules for people who want to do this, stuff like roborugby or energy challenges. Some of the option modules are a requirement for getting into some of the 4 year BE programmes, i.e, to do electronic & electrical engineering you have to have done the computer science for engineers I module.

At the end of first year you will have a choice to either enter one of the eight 4 year BE programmes or to do the 'flexible' option, what used to be engineering science, where your module choices are less fixed. This option leads to a BSci after 3 years. After this you can then enroll in one of the 2 year masters programmes. You defer your BSci degree for one year of this masters so you get free fees for the first year but have to pay full fees for the second. Your choice of masters is determined by what modules you pick as part of your BSci degree, if you do lots of chem and mech courses you wouldnt be able to do the electronic & computer engineering masters for example.

Personally I'd go for one of the 4 year BE programmes. You'll get a more structured and comprehensive degree and have the option of doing a lot of the available masters in 1 years afterwards anyway or going somewhere else for your masters can be a good idea. Plus you can always go leave and do some work and then do a masters later when you have a real idea of the area you'd like to work in.

A lot of the push to do 3+2 degrees seems to come from the Bologna agreement whereby you can't become a chartered engineering without a level 9 degree. Being an Engineer isn't a protected title in Ireland so the issue of chartership can be quite irrelevant in a lot of disciplines. From what I gather its the most important at the civil/structural end of the spectrum and then less so in electronic/mechanical/electrical. Not sure about the chem.

Hope this helps.

augmented reality

Thanks a million! Thats made it much more clear. Just as long as I don't have to decide before I'm doing the course.
Thanks again!

pljudge321

augmented reality wrote: »

Thanks a million! Thats made it much more clear. Just as long as I don't have to decide before I'm doing the course.
Thanks again!

Yeah anyone considering engineering should really do an omnibus degree.