The Philosophy of Design Education at the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester was created in 2004 through the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (VUM) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST). Both of the constituent universities had an undergraduate aerospace engineering program. The combination of the two undergraduate programs along with the development and initiation of a post-graduate Master of Science program required a reassessment of the design units at the university. As such the current aerospace engineering curriculum has evolved and is continuing to evolve from those of it predecessors and the development and inclusion of new course material. This evolution has included a restructuring of unit contents, an increased focus on defending design decisions and the breadth of the systems design process. The changes to date have focused on the 3rd and 4th years of the BEng and MEng programs respectively and the inclusion of MSc students. Future work will incorporate changes to the 1st and 2nd years along with further changes to the existing units.