Summary

The Tripos regulations state that: ‘to obtain honours in Part IB of the Engineering Tripos a candidate must satisfy the Examiners that he or she has such workshop or equivalent experience as shall be determined by the Faculty Board of Engineering, and to obtain honours in Part IIA of the Engineering Tripos or the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, a candidate must satisfy the Examiners that he or she has such industrial or equivalent experience as shall be determined by the Faculty Board’.

The Faculty Board have approved the following requirements, which apply to all current undergraduate students:

• Part IB of the Engineering Tripos: four weeks of relevant industrial experience [by the end of the second year];
• Part IIA of the Engineering or Manufacturing Engineering Triposes: four additional weeks of relevant industrial experience or, for a student who has not been a candidate for Part IB of the Engineering Tripos, four weeks of relevant industrial experience [by the end of the third year].

Change in requirements for students who join the Department in October 2016 or thereafter

The Faculty Board of Engineering have agreed that students who join the Department in October 2016 or thereafter should be required to complete a minimum of six weeks of relevant industrial experience by the end of Part IIA of the Engineering or Manufacturing Engineering Triposes [by the end of the third year].

Definition of relevant industrial experience

Relevant industrial experience is defined as work of a technical nature that is related to the subjects studied in the Engineering Tripos and the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos.  It may involve design, development, testing, manufacturing, construction or research work, and should include interaction with the work of others who are likely to be professionally qualified.

Although students do not have to undertake any industrial experience before starting the course, it may be possible to count time spent working between school and university towards this requirement.

Any dispute concerning the interpretation of these requirements will be determined by appeal to the Head of the Department of Engineering, whose decision will be final.

Advice

CUED has an Industrial Experience Coordinator, Mr I. Wowk, who advises students and employers on matters relating to industrial experience and assists ‘deferred entrants’ and undergraduate Engineering students to find suitable work experience and meet the course requirements. Mr Wowk holds a comprehensive database of suitable companies which may be accessed at any time in working hours and will supply a CUED pro-forma log book on request so that the industrial experience can be recorded effectively. 

Mr Wowk has an office in the Upper Centre Wing of the Baker Building, Room BC3-07.  He may be contacted on 01223 332778 or iw@eng.cam.ac.uk.  Further information is online at to.eng.cam.ac.uk/teaching/indexp/.

Documentation

Confirmation is required from an authorised officer of the company or institution that the industrial experience has been obtained.  This should preferably be in the form of a signed log book, though a letter from the company would suffice.  This written confirmation of the work should be presented by the student to the Industrial Experience Coordinator.