Get inspired - study BEng Mechanical Engineering

Ranked Top 5 in the UK for Teaching Quality in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020, University of Bolton Mechanical Engineering students can take advantage of our award-winning student services and a dedicated Employability Team that will support you through your degree and into a career you’ll love.

In simple terms, mechanical engineers design and build the machines that make our lives easier. Humans have been building machines for thousands of years, starting with relatively simple contraptions that performed basic tasks, ranging to the incredibly complex and intelligent devices of today that completely outpace our own capabilities.

Throughout this history of machine building, several names stand out as almost legendary figures. From as early as Ancient Greece, Archimedes was innovating some of the things that still form the foundations of how we work now. The Archimedes’ Screw was one of the first ways we were able to pump water uphill in an efficient manner.

Leonardo DaVinci may sometimes be better known for his extraordinary works of art, but some of his most creative designs applied to what were in the 1500s impossibly futuristic works of imagination. Some of his wilder sketches included designs for hand gliders and even a very prototypic helicopter.

Moving rapidly forward in time, the greater pace of technological advance really opened the door for even more incredible feats of engineering, and the 18th and 19th Centuries saw explosions of invention. The Wright Brothers needed mechanical engineering to build the first working aeroplane, the same as Henry Ford when he pioneered the first mass production automobile.

In the more modern world, as technology becomes even more complex, we can look to people like Elon Musk and his groundbreaking work in battery powered cars, a critical move away from internal combustion engines.

Essentially, mechanical engineers and their inventions have been at the heart of progress throughout time, and for every single problem that still confronts us, there is a solution waiting to be discovered through engineering.

Could you be the next pioneer of technology? Just think of a problem. Our oceans are filling with microplastics. Our climate is changing in worrying and uncontrollable ways. Famines still happen every year where droughts are hard. Any one of these challenges could be solved with a clever engineering fix. And you could be the one to do it.

With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, you could follow in the footsteps of the greatest inventors and make a real positive impact on the world in a career that matters.

Studying Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Bolton will give you access to our dedicated engineering laboratories, where you will gain regular practical experience using modern equipment and software. Your skill-set will be further developed as you work on live engineering projects, attend industry visits and participate in competitions.

Learn more about BEng Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bolton and find out how you can apply now.