Chemical Engineering with Placement Year

Chemical engineers design, develop and validate the processes behind today’s most useful materials and products. Think electric car batteries, antibiotics, biodegradable plastics and even food production. They are critical to sustainable solutions, global innovation and economic growth. Chemical Engineers frequently work across teams of engineers from other branches of the discipline, so it’s crucial to have a broad understanding of general engineering and its applications. At Lancaster, your first year is dedicated to exactly this, and you’ll share this experience with all our School of Engineering students, regardless of their specialisation. We think this makes you a well-rounded graduate, with excellent teamwork and communications skills, prepared for a career pioneering the materials, technologies and processes of the future.

What to expect

Our five-year MEng Hons Chemical Engineering with Placement Year degree starts with your general engineering first year and includes core themes of design, materials, thermodynamics and heat transfer, along with mathematics.

You’ll specialise in chemical engineering from Year 2, developing your core skills as an engineer. Get ready to use team working, creativity and technical skills in your project work as you design to solve real-world problems. You’ll do it all in state-of-the-art facilities across our two engineering buildings.

One of the highlights of Year 3 is solving a whole plant design project over the course of the year. Working in a group, you’ll be taking on conceptual design and evaluating the economic, safety, legislative and ethical assessment standards. It’s a fantastic opportunity to develop project management, team working and technical writing skills as well as studying industrially relevant processes. You’ll also learn about the business and entrepreneurship side of industry too.

Your placement

In Year 4, you will undertake a year in industry that will enable you to apply the knowledge and skills learnt so far and gain invaluable experience. We have extensive links built through our leadership in research and have students undergoing placements with multinational corporate companies to smaller specialist SMEs. Once you have completed your placement, you will write an extended reflective piece about your time spent with the company.

Master’s-level training

In your final year of study, you will gain a strong understanding of real-world engineering and hands-on experience in the profession through an industry-linked project, further building your confidence and preparing you for the workforce. You will also complete a comprehensive individual research project alongside specialist technical modules, allowing you to explore your interests and align them with your future career goals. This year will solidify your knowledge, placing you in an excellent position to launch your engineering career and progress toward achieving Chartered Engineer status.

Personal development

You will develop valuable transferable skills that make you highly desirable to future employers, such as working in collaboration, communication, and using modern computer programs as part of the design and manufacturing process. You will grow skills in analytical thinking, logic and reasoning, digital proficiencies and the ability to consider and maintain work safety practices in a range of environments. With a year’s experience added to your CV, you will be a standout graduate.