Uni’s the place for degrees of success
Students rate UWS tops for teaching quality
Paisley graduates are benefiting from the University of the West of Scotland’s hands- on degrees in engineering and computing.
UWS is top- rated in Scotland for teaching quality and student experience in engineering and computing.
And it offers a range of careerfocused programmes at its Paisley Campus relating to Computing, Creative Technologies, Engineering and Physics.
Katie Duff, 25, graduated from the University’s Civil Engineering course in 2014.
She is now an engineer at AECOM, a US construction firm which has the contract for the Network Rail infrastructure inspection and assessment project.
Her work as an engineer goes back to her days as a student at UWS when she spent her summer placement with Amey, a UK and international consulting and infrastructure support business, which was surveying railway bridges for Network Rail.
Katie said: “The sandwich degree course meant I had the opportunity to undertake a 36week work placement. It also included a 5,000-word report that was validated by my tutor. I believe this work experience was essential in helping me find a job so quickly.”
Meanwhile, Katie Waddell, 23, left UWS with four awards for excellence, ranging from topperforming engineering student to best final-year engineering design project for her work on wingtip aerodynamics.
Katie graduated with a BEng ( Hons) in Aircraft Engineering in July, but she was already in a graduate role in April working with Orbital Access Limited, which is developing a horizontal launch system to send satellites into space.
She said: “I really enjoyed my studies. The Aircraft Engineering course was very interesting, with a mix of practical laboratories, demonstrations and theory.”
UWS says it is one of the leading players in computing and IT, professionally recognised engineering degrees and physics programmes with practical applications.
The uni says its engineering courses are designed to take into account and anticipate industry needs, saying its programmes are strongly aligned to industry, professional bodies and other institutions.
Computing courses at UWS are developed in line with industry needs, giving students a platform to launch or progress their career in this fast- changing industry, according to bosses. The university offers access to high- quality computing and state- of- the- art software systems as well as tried and tested in-demand technologies such as Oracle, CIW, Adobe, CISCO, SAP and Microsoft.
And as revealed recently in the Paisley Daily Express, Ashley Forrester, 25, who graduated with a first- class honours degree in Business Technology began her first job with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
She’s already pushing herself into new challenges by becoming part of the leadership team at the company’s women’s network.
Ashley said: “The fact that the course covered both business and technology has helped me develop a broader understanding of the issues that our business clients are facing, and the solutions to them.”
For more information on the university’s engineering and computing options, visit www.uws. ac.uk/ug