Program Overview

MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management

The MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management (ISMM) is a unique program that combines traditional academic teaching with industrial experience. The aim of ISMM is to equip numerate graduates with the academic skills, personal development, and industrial experience to be immediately effective in their early careers in the industry.

Program Overview

ISMM is a very intensive program that gives direct experience of many different industries, cultures, and working environments. The program is structured around taught modules, company visits, and in-company projects solving live business or technical problems. An intense industrial study tour offers a broader industry context, and the individual research dissertation allows for greater depth of study in a specific area of manufacturing.

Program Aims

The program aims to:

• Provide industry with highly motivated and effective potential managers capable of accelerated promotion
• Provide course members with the skills and knowledge to be immediately effective in their industrial careers

Learning Outcomes

Students will follow a reinforcement learning-cycle of lectures, company visits, and in-company projects. They will be supported and mentored by both academics and industrial tutors and encouraged to reflect on their activities, seek new ways of thinking and working, and put them into practice. The learning outcomes include:

• Knowledge of manufacturing disciplines, including:
  • Manufacturing processes
  • Manufacturing operations and supply chain management
  • Data and modeling
  • Innovation and intellectual property
  • New business development
  • Strategic management
  • Research methods
• Context of industrial systems within a wide range of business/industrial sectors
• Understanding different types of enterprise from start-up through SME to national and international enterprise

Skills Acquired

The skills acquired during the course include:

Intellectual Skills

• Critical analysis
• Creativity - generating a variety of innovative solutions
• Evaluation - evaluating designs, processes, and products using information from a variety of sources and justifying recommendations
• Balance theory and practice

Practical Skills

• Undertake problem identification and definition
• Research appropriate background information and theories
• Determine appropriate methodology for problem solution
• Identify, gather, analyze, and evaluate appropriate data
• Prepare a business and finance case to justify a recommendation

Transferable Skills

• Communicate effectively (in writing, verbally, and graphically)
• Presentations
• Written reports
• Project management
• Working with others
• Networking

Continuing to PhD

The MPhil combines professional engagement with a strong theoretical underpinning. Exceptional students seeking to apply for continuation to a PhD in Engineering at Cambridge would normally be expected to attain an overall mark of at least 70 percent.

Program Details

• Duration: 11 months full-time
• Study Mode: Taught
• Degree: Master of Philosophy
• Department: Department of Engineering and Institute for Manufacturing

Key Dates

• Applications Open: September 3, 2025
• Application Deadline: May 14, 2026
• Course Starts: October 1, 2026
• Funding Deadlines:
  • Course Funding Deadline: December 3, 2025
  • Gates Cambridge US round only: October 15, 2025

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