Program Overview

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Electronic and Communication Engineering (Top-up) BEng(Hons)

Overview

Communications technology is a crucial part of the world economy, with advances in electronics and communications making a measurable impact on the modern world. It is a growing industry, too – and we all have an innate need and desire to communicate.

As communications technology advances, the demand for new devices and environmentally sustainable solutions increases to improve the quality of the society we live in.

This course aims to prepare you for this fast-paced world, giving you the skills and knowledge to get ahead. EngineeringUK projections suggest net growth in engineering roles of 2.8% compared to 2.3% in all occupations. Growth at that level would lead to 173,000 new engineering and technology jobs by 2030.

Why study Electronic and Communication Engineering (Top-Up) BEng (Hons) at Huddersfield?

For those with good knowledge of engineering, this top-up course could help you build on your existing skills. A one-year degree, you will be expected to have completed prior university or higher education study in a related subject.

The course covers a broad range of topics, including, digital and analogue system integration, digital signal processing, AM and FM detectors, and aerials and satellite communications.

You will work on a selected individual research/design project with the support of your academic supervisor. It is possible to align this with one of the Master's team projects, which involve the design, build and friendly competitive testing of either a road, airborne or rail vehicle, for example, Team HARE, Team Hawk or HudRail.

Key Information

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are considered on an individual basis and are normally one of the following:

• HND at Merit, or equivalent, in a Science/Engineering/Technology subject.
• Foundation Degree in a Science/Engineering/Technology subject.
• Completion of two years of a Degree course in a related Science/Engineering/Technology subject.

Your previous studies should be in a physics or engineering science related area. Other sciences may not be acceptable as they may not contain the relevant mathematical components that are an essential requirement for this course.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent.

Start dates

22 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time

Course Detail

• Core modules
• Teaching and assessment
• Teaching excellence
• Global Professional Award

Core modules

• Final Year Project
• Digital System Integration
• Analogue System Integration
• Digital Signal Processing Applications
• Communication Systems

Final Year Project

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to study and investigate a specific engineering topic in-depth. The aim of this module is give you the skills and experience to carry out an engineering project and introduce you to the process that would typically take place in a professional engineering environment. You will undertake and execute a project on a topic appropriate to your study pathway. You will be allocated a project supervisor(s) who will direct you through the process of project planning, undertaking background research and carrying out the technical aspects of the project to a satisfactory conclusion. Your project will be an in-depth study of an engineering problem and may be either academic or industry-based. You will have the opportunity to either select a project defined by a tutor, or to propose your own project idea. The project work will extend your knowledge and capabilities in the specific field associated with the project topic and allow you to demonstrate your initiative, commitment, and engineering capability to a professional standard.

Digital System Integration

Digital System Integration is becoming increasingly important in modern electronics. In this module, you will be introduced to system design, circuit design, modelling, layout, and fabrication techniques for CMOS and Bipolar (minimal) integrated circuits. You will investigate various stages of design: from integration, transistor, and circuit to system; decomposition from Hardware Description Language (HDL) whilst emphasising the Register Transfer Level RTL/gate level decisions. You will also learn about the design trade-offs required to achieve an optimum design solution.

Analogue System Integration

Analogue circuit and system design today is more essential than ever before. With the growth of digital systems, wireless communications, complex industrial and automotive systems, designers are being challenged to develop sophisticated analogue solutions. In this module, you will be introduced to both discrete and integrated analogue circuit design and analysis. You will investigate module in-depth application examples to gain insight into analogue circuit design and application solutions that you can apply in today’s demanding designs.

Digital Signal Processing Applications

The module combines the theory of signal processing and analysis of discrete time systems, with practical aspects of digital signal processing (DSP) applied to the design of digital filters. We will focus on signal processing operations and analysis in time and frequency domain and digital filter (FIR and IIR) design and simulation using MATLAB. You’ll be supported in implementing your digital filter design using DSP software and hardware development systems. A range of DSP design case studies (for example audio filters and two-dimensional filters for image processing), will be used to illustrate typical DSP applications through practical laboratory work.

Communication Systems

The module provides you an overview of modern communication systems. You will develop an understanding of the operation of radio systems, and develop skills in associated system-level design and analysis methods and practical design, build and test.

Throughout your studies, you will have the opportunity to get continual feedback through weekly SAIL (Score as I Learn) assignments so you will feel confident in your studies and be able to access support when you need it.

A variety of assessment strategies will be used depending on the type and nature of the module. These can include reports or logbooks on laboratory work, presentations and formal examinations. An average of 14%* of the study time on this course is spent with your tutors (either face to face or online) in lectures, seminars, tutorials etc. Your module specification/course handbook will provide full details of the assessment criteria applying to your course.

Feedback is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks – unless the submission was made towards the end of the session in which case feedback would be available on request after the formal publication of results. Feedback on exam performance/final coursework is available on request after the publication of results.

*based on the course structure for 2025 entry as at December 2023.

Your Career

Discover the job roles our graduates are working in now.

Inspiring Graduate

Get inspired by real students and their careers.

Previous graduates from courses in this subject area have gone on to work in a variety of roles such as Head of OT security, Senior Systems engineer, Electronic Design Engineer, Senior Electronic engineer and Senior Metrology Engineer in organisations including Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Mercedes and HMC.

Additionally, you may gain skills that are transferable to other industries and may be able to pursue a career that requires a good honours degree. You could go on to further study and the University has many options available for postgraduate study and research which may interest you.

Fees and Finance

• Tuition Fees - full-time

The maximum fees we will charge for UK based students on undergraduate courses in 2025/26 will be £9,535 per year for full-time students (subject to parliamentary approval). We review and revise fee levels in line with inflation (RPI-X) and regulatory permissions.

Tuition fees will cover the cost of your study at the University as well as charges for registration, tuition, supervision and examinations. For more information about funding, fees and finance for UK students, including what your tuition fee covers, please see Fees and finance.

If you are an EU or international student coming to study at the University of Huddersfield, please visit the International Fees and Finance pages for full details of tuition fees and support available.

From September 2026 the UK government is launching a new student funding system for people starting university education. Read more about the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE).

Important information

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons:

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and if you are unhappy with the change we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff being unable to teach due to illness, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to pandemics, other disasters (such as fire, flood or war) or changes made by the government.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will consult with affected groups of students and any changes would only be made in accordance with our regulations. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you let us know before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for any additional tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so and you may be eligible for an exit award depending on how far through your course you are.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.