Engineering Year Zero Foundation

About the course

This full -time, one year course is ideal if you want to become a professional Engineer, but do not have the relevant subject grades to study Engineering at degree level. The course gives you the core skills in science, mathematics, design and IT that are required to study engineering at undergraduate level.

On completion of the Engineering Year Zero course, you can progress to one of our BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering|, Mechatronics| or Electronic Engineering| courses.

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Key facts

UCAS course code: H108

Duration: One year full-time

Institution code: D26

Entry and admission criteria

Entry requirements for 2014

• Normally 120 UCAS Points from at least two A Levels or equivalent (Subject specific requirements may apply), plus five GCSEs at grade C or above, including Maths and English
• BTEC requirements: Pass Pass Pass (PPP) at National Diploma Level.
• Additional qualifications can contribute towards the points score such as a third A level or AS Levels.
• International Baccalaureate: 24+ Points

If you are unsure about the amount of UCAS points your qualifications may attract you can use our UCAS Tariff Chart|.

We welcome applications from mature students with non-standard qualifications and recognise all other equivalent and international qualifications.

If English is not your first language, an IELTS score of 6.0 or equivalent when you start the course is essential. English language tuition| is available at DMU both before and during the course if required.

Teaching and assessment

A variety of teaching techniques are used, including lectures, tutorials and laboratory classes. The course is taught by expert staff with many years of experience in teaching students who may find maths and physics difficult. Help and support is always available and there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions and understand new concepts.

Continuous assessment forms a major part of the course. You will normally attend around 12–16 hours of timetabled taught sessions each week, and are expected to undertake at least 14–18 further hours of independent study. This time could be used to complete assignments and to review the material you have been taught in classes.

Course modules

• Quantitative Methods
• Engineering Applications
• ICT and Business Practice
• Design and Technology

Graduate careers

Upon successful completion of Engineering Year Zero you can progress to the first year of De Montfort University's BEng (Hons) degrees in Mechanical Engineering|, Mechatronics| or Electronic Engineering|. After completing your choice of the full BEng (Hons) engineering course you can pursue a career in your preferred field of engineering.

Fees and funding

UK/EU Full-time £9,000 Placement year £650 Part-time (Where available) 4 year course £5,925 per year 6 year course £3,950 per year Per module £988 per 15 credits International
Full-time £12,250 Placement year £750

For more information please take a look at our Fees and Funding| section.

Facilities

Mechanical Engineering Lab

The main mechanical lab is a large open-plan space designed to accommodate the study of thermo-fluids, solid mechanics and dynamics. It also has an area with machine tools for manufacture of student designs.

There is a purpose built engine testing facility with full instrumentation to measure engine performance and emissions. This facility is normally used by our final year engineering and research students. Typical student projects include running the engine with alternative fuels such as bio-fuels and water-in-diesel emulsified fuels to improve performance and emission characteristics.

Electronics Engineering Lab

Electrical and Electronic experimental facilities are divided into five main areas: general electronics and assembly, digital electronics and microprocessor engineering, power electronics, control systems and communications engineering. Each facility is equipped with state of the art experimental equipment appropriate to the corresponding areas of study and research. An additional CAD design suite shared with the Mechanical and Design programmes provides access to computing facilities with specialist electronics CAD tools including Microsoft Office, OrCAD and PSpice.

A specialised area incorporating a spacious radio frequency reverberation chamber and Faraday cage allows for experimentation in radio frequency engineering and electromagnetics, while our digital design suite is equipped with the latest 8 and 32-bit embedded microprocessor platforms together with high speed programmable logic development environments. Power generation and conversion, industrial process control and embedded drives is provided for while our communications laboratory is additionally equipped for R.F. engineering.

Facility tour

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