Mechanical and Construction Engineering

Mechanical and Construction Engineering at Northumbria University encompasses all of our work in Mechanical, Civil, Automotive, Construction and Architectural Engineering, as well as project management.

• Ranked 25th in the UK for research power in engineering in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, with 90% of our research outputs rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.
• Ranked in the world top-250 for Engineering and Technology in the Times Higher Education's World University subject rankings 2022.
• Ranked 8th in the UK for Civil Engineering in The Guardian League Table 2024
• Key research strengths in Automotive Engineering and Aerodynamics, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Civil Engineering Heritage, Energy Systems and Materials Engineering, with financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), The Royal Society, Innovate UK, and European Union.
• Extensive professional body accreditations including the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE), Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE).
• Sectoral Employer Advisory Board includes Akzo Nobel, Balfour Beatty, Caterpillar, BAE Systems, British Engines, Laing O’Rourke, Mott MacDonald, Nissan, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Wilmott Dixon.
• Students have access to industry-standard software. Northumbria is a longstanding member of the AVL Advanced Simulation Technologies University Partnership Program and provides students with access to this and other software including Powerproject, Ansys, CATIA V5, OpenFOAM and SIMULIA.
• Excellent relationships with international partner universities and researchers, and our strong on-campus internationalisation attracts students from a wide range of countries, including China, India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
• Major multimillion pound investments including a bespoke Engine Test Cell facility, wind tunnel, automotive laboratory, geotechnics laboratory, 50-tonne structures test frame and actuator, 5 axis state-of-the-art CNC machine, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and state-of-the-art 3D printing facilities.
• An excellent record of securing and delivering Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), Research and Development collaborative bids, contract research, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
• Established the concept of the ‘flying faculty’, delivering on-site post-graduate taught courses (i.e. MSc in Pipeline Engineering) for major clients (i.e. Saudi Aramco) around the world. 
• Our academics are key founders of the Times Higher Education (2017) “most innovative Business-University collaboration” award-winning BIM Academy Enterprises (Ltd), a unique joint venture with Ryder Architecture Ltd for construction digital services with commissions in the UK and Europe, Middle East, Far East and Australasia. Its high-profile projects include the Sydney Opera House and the M+ Museum in Kowloon, Hong Kong.