BSc (Hons) Product Design and Technology with Placement Year drafted

Program Overview

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If you're interested in designing and developing products, Aston’s Product Design and Technology degree course could be for you.

Location: Aston University, Birmingham

To design is to create something new or different. When you look at a product, do you sometimes think ‘I could have designed that better’?

If you answered yes, would like to work in an innovative and enterprising sector and gain the skills necessary to create user-centred design, this could be the course for you.

You’ll benefit from practical, hands-on experience, learning from visiting designer practitioners, working on live projects, and ensuring your products are technically and commercially feasible, while also being environmentally responsible. We’ll support you to develop an underpinning skillset of engineering principles and technology and work with you to ensure you’re prepared for whatever future you have in mind, whether that’s in-house design or setting up your own business.

To achieve this and ensure you develop a range of industry-ready skills, we run multidisciplinary modules where designers and engineers work in collaboration to solve real challenges.

This course is a revised and updated version of our Industrial Product Design course, offering a combination of solid academic study with hands-on individual and team project work.

What you’ll learn

In the first year you’ll get a grounding in product design principles and the opportunity to begin to develop your design specialism.

In the second and final year you’ll take a common core of five design modules to support your projects, integrating your design specialism with the core aspects of product design. Your final year will culminate in the opportunity to display your work as part of the Aston Inspired final year design show.

We aim to provide you with knowledge of materials, production processes and technology as well as skills in aesthetics, ergonomics and management to enable you to develop a successful career in design.

We teach using a hands-on framework called CDIO - Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate – supported by 50 of the world’s top technical institutions. This enables you to apply real-world skills as you learn, enabling you to maximise your learning. You’ll do your learning in our state-of-the-art facilities, which include advanced 3D printing facilitates and a dedicated design studio with specialist equipment designed just for you.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science has strong links into industry and this will be beneficial to you if you choose to spend a year working during your degree.

We’ll support you to find a paid, professional placement of direct relevance to your studies. This placement will give you invaluable practical experience in a real work environment and will further enhance your career prospects.

You’ll also have the opportunity to network with employers and showcase your work as part of the Mechanical Engineering and Design Industry Club, where you’ll be given opportunities to meet employers.

• Introduction to Engineering and Design

• Prototyping & Development

• Design Fundamentals

• Engineering Principles 1

• Engineering Practice

Find out more about the Aston placement year.

• EPS Study Placement Year

• EPS Industrial Placement Year

• EPS Study/Work Placement Year

• Product Design Final Year Project

• Advanced Product Experience

• Professional Preparation for Industry

• Design Competitions

• Advanced Industrial Product Design

Aston University is a diverse, close community and welcomes international students on many of our undergraduate programmes. Students from over 120 countries choose to study with us every year and Aston is not only a great place to study, based in the centre of Birmingham, it’s also a great place to live. Aston’s professional work placements can improve your chance of securing a graduate job. Placements give you experience, confidence and opportunities and as an Aston student, you’ll be better prepared for your future career. One of the great things about Aston is our focus on employability and our close links with businesses, industries and professions make this possible.

Choosing to start your Aston journey with one of our foundation programmes will help you develop specialist knowledge to ensure that you are fully prepared to study your chosen undergraduate course. During your foundation year, you’ll have excellent support from academics and group projects will give you the chance to meet new people, make new friends and build a network of peers who will share your university journey.

We also have a Learning Development Centre that can provide additional support and offer pre-sessional English language programmes.

For International Students intending to do a foundation year, visit ONCAMPUS.