Universities work together to offer Microelectronics MSc

Universities work together to offer Microelectronics MSc

Keywords: Universities, Microelectronics industry

Professional engineers in the fast-moving world of microelectronics manufacturing can now update their skills through a new, flexible-learning,postgraduate MSc programme. Developed by a consortium of ten of the UK's foremost universities, with the support of the National Microelectronics Institute, the programme, co-ordinated by the University of Surrey, was launched in March. It enables engineers to study part-time at Master's level whilst staying in employment and drawing a full-time salary.

The MSc in Advanced Silicon Processing and Manufacturing Technologies is available throughout the UK with students able to register at universities in Scotland, England and Wales. The course is being funded with £435,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Integrated Graduate Development Scheme (IGDS) and with a commitment to at least £200,000 in course fees from the member companies of the National Microelectronics Institute.

The universities offering the programme include Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow,Heriot-Watt, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Southampton, Surrey, Swansea and UMIST. This is the first course of its kind to involve such a large number of universities working together on an equal status basis. This has been made possible by academic scrutiny of the programme being carried out by a single Validation Panel acting on behalf of all the individual universities.

Enquiries and applications for the course should be made to: IGDS Co-ordinator Sandy Peace at the University of Surrey. Tel: 01483 876138; E-mail: s.peace@ee.surrey.ac.uk

Further information is available at the following Web site: http://www.NMI.org.uk