Railway Engineering BEng (Hons)

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

Select year

Degree

UCAS code: H233

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 3/4 years
  • Pound 9250 per year

Degree

UCAS code: H231112 UCAS points

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 3/4 years
  • Pound 9535 per year

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, home applicant, part time

  • Home Applicant
  • Part time
  • pro-rata full time fee

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, international applicant, full time

  • International Applicant
  • Full time, 3/4 years
  • Pound 15560 per year

Degree with foundation year

UCAS code: H23264 UCAS points

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 4/5 years
  • TBC per year

BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering, international applicant, full time

  • International Applicant
  • Full time, 4/5 years
  • Pound 15560 per year

What makes this course different

1st In London

Our Civil Engineering courses ranked 1st in London in 5 categories including “Teaching on my course” & “Learning Opportunities” in the 2024 National Student Survey

(National Student Survey 2024, Results published 10 July 2024)

Superb facilities

Use cutting-edge equipment like hydraulic compression testing machines, robotic arms, 3D printers, fluid dynamics channels, scanning electron microscopes, CNC machines, and plasma and laser cutters.

See more information

Hands-on skills

Prepare for the future of railways by gaining the practical skills needed for the Industry 4.0 revolution. Focus on improving your physical and mental abilities to excel in the railway field.

Course modules

In your first year you'll get a foundational understanding of engineering, as a basis to build on.

In your second year, you'll dive deeper into the engineering profession, learning about your role as a railway engineer. You'll play a vital role in shaping the future of transportation, contributing to economic growth, environmental sustainability, and improved connectivity.

In your final year you'll complete a capstone project, pulling together all your knowledge. You'll be able to combine your technical expertise with your passion for railways.

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

Railway engineering is a growth industry and currently, there is a shortage of quality railway engineers in the UK. Our railway engineering programme places a strong emphasis on professional life and employability skills, embedded throughout all aspects of your technical course with a focus on your enhanced key skills, such as communication, digital proficiency, social intelligence and teamwork. These skills will make you highly desirable for railway engineering jobs.

Industry links

You will be delivered guest sessions by railway industry specialists (e.g. Atkins, Costain Skanska, Siemens, Laing O'Rourke, HS2 project etc.) to strengthen your knowledge of real-world issues. You'll learn how they link to the concepts, theories, principles and hands-on practical elements taught during the course. This practical experience will be invaluable for your railway engineering career.

Graduate employers

Recent graduates with a railway engineering degree have gone on to work for Balfour Beatty, Transport for London, the Canary Wharf Group, Careys and Atkins. These are just a few examples of the opportunities available with a railway engineering degree.

Job roles

A railway engineering degree opens doors to various career paths. Typically, you could go on to become a rail systems engineer and progress on to become a rail engineering manager, for example working on the London Underground. Alternatively, you could transfer your skill set to roles in civil or structural engineering.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Further study

As you complete your railway engineering degree, you may choose to pursue further studies on our postgraduate courses such as:

Rema Khatun
As a university committed to your career growth, we've curated dedicated Career Zones across all of our campuses with practical services tailored to your success. From internships, personalised coaching, and employability workshops to volunteering, mentoring, placements, and enterprise opportunities, we offer a diverse range of support."
Rema Khatun

Career Zone

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated career support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and the rail industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities, vital for railway engineering jobs.

Career Zone

This digital platform provides you with careers and employability resources, including: 

  • Jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work 
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and railway engineering industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you've mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top:

  • Work-based projects
  • Networking and visits to leading railway organisations
  • Support in starting a new business
  • London railways on our doorstep

How you'll learn

Your academic team includes a dynamic mix of research-active industrial practitioners, renowned researchers, chartered professionals and technologists, whose combined knowledge ensures you leave with a comprehensive understanding of railway engineering practice and research.

You will be setting your own hands-on and research–based learning where you will evaluate and critique recent data, literature and case studies as well. You will be delivered guest sessions by industry specialists (e.g. Atkins, Costain Skanska, Siemens, Laing O'Rourke, HS2 project etc.) to strengthen your knowledge of real-world issues and how they link to the concepts, theories, principles and hands-on practical elements taught during the course.

You can take part in the IMechE Design Challenge, competing at the national level. Get a taste of the 'real world' of engineering, challenging you to design, create, present and run a device to a strict technical specification.

Guided independent study

When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. 

Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support.

Dedicated personal tutor

When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.

Workload

Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module. 

The approximate percentages for this course are: 

  • Year 1: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours. 
  • Year 2: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours. 
  • Year 3: scheduled teaching - 300 hours; guided independent study - 900 hours.

Your timetable

Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

Class sizes

The size of classes can vary depending on the nature of the course, module and activity. This can range from large groups in a lecture theatre setting, to smaller groups taking part in seminars and collaborative work. You will receive your personalised timetable at the beginning of the academic year depending on your course.

How you'll be assessed

All assessments are designed to ensure that our railway engineering course is equipping you with all of the skills required to get into the engineering sector giving you a major competitive edge. Apart from the coursework and exams, you will be assessed by using technology and other diverse modes. Your learning journey will be further supported by using technology-enhanced learning as you will also participate in learning the latest industry-standard software. 

Feedback is provided within 15 working days in line with UEL's assessment and feedback policy.

Campus and facilities

Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by the School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

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The banner below displays some key factual data about this course (including different course combinations or delivery modes of this course where relevant).

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Statistics for BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering Degree, Full Time

Statistics for BEng (Hons) Railway Engineering Degree, Full Time

What our students and staff say

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UEL was the only university that offered what I actually wanted to study. It was definitely the place to be and I am where I am today thanks to UEL. Studying there could not have been better. The staff are dedicated and the students hospitable and friendly."

Franklin Nubila

Surveying and Mapping Sciences, BSc (Hons)

Education Studies
I went from starting in September with a huge bout of imposter syndrome to finishing the year with tremendous confidence that I can actually go on and achieve a degree."

Nicholas Garbett

Graduate