Aeronautical Engineering including Foundation Year
Explore engineering and see how it impacts everyday life as you prepare for our double-accredited, full degree and an aeronautical career. Discover the aviation industry as you gain the expertise and skills for a career working with aircrafts.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
H41F
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Start Date
September
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Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,790*
International students
£17,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Take your first steps to becoming an aeronautical engineer on our Foundation Year which will prepare to study our full degree. Grow your confidence as you learn with the help of our expert staff and using cutting-edge facilities.
DESIGNED FOR
Our Foundation Year is perfect if you want to study our full Aeronautical Engineering degree, but you don’t have the grades. You’ll establish a strong foundation, including essential skills and knowledge, as you learn about different types of engineering and gain practical experience in our top facilities.
Accredited By
- This course is currently undergoing its scheduled five-year re-accreditation process with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). The outcome of the current review is expected by November 2026.
Career Paths
- Certification and Airworthiness Engineer
- Design Engineer
- Aerospace Engineer
- Aviation Management
- Researcher
Skills taught
- Problem-solving through analysis using scientific and engineering theory
- Developed knowledge of cutting-edge technology
- Teamworking, management, and leadership.
- Communication skills
- Understanding professional responsibilities
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Course Highlights
Module Overview
Develop essential engineering knowledge and a strong mathematical foundation in our Foundation Year, designed to build your technical confidence and academic skills before progressing onto the Aeronautical Engineering degree.
Starting your University Journey
This module helps you develop academic, personal and professional skills for university study. You’ll reflect on your progress, build confidence, and create an evidence-based portfolio to support your future learning.
Engineering in Action: From Theory to Practice
Explore real-world engineering challenges as you develop your theoretical knowledge, including core mathematical and scientific principles. Learn key skills through tutorials and seminars before applying them in immersive laboratories and workshops.
Design and Manufacture in Action
Discover the fundamental principles of engineering design and manufacturing, including the knowledge and practical skills to approach real-world challenges. You’ll explore the full design process, from research to creation and everything in between.
The Impact Challenge
You’ll work in teams with other Foundation Year students to tackle real-world challenges, developing solutions through research, curiosity, collaboration, and responsible problem-solving while building skills that will support your future studies.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
The BEng Aeronautical Engineering course combines lectures, tutorials, labs, and seminars. Significant self-study, including research and assessment preparation, is essential.
Students can visit industry giants like Rolls Royce, GE Aviation, and Airbus, benefitting from guest lectures by prominent industrialists and academics discussing contemporary technological progress.
Assessment methods include exams, coursework, simulations, and problem-solving tasks. Group projects emphasise presentation skills, requiring students to speak before peers.
Notably, in the final year, students pilot a real aircraft, deepening their grasp on aircraft behaviour and control principles.
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Teaching staff
The staff that deliver the modules have a breadth of expertise in their subject areas.
Some have developed this expertise through high quality research. The research areas are international in their scope whilst also having a relevance locally, often working with international companies that operate locally.
Others have developed their expertise through successful careers in industry and are now using that knowledge to teach and prepare the students for their own careers.
This blend of backgrounds represented in the academic staff give a breadth to the student experience and develops them technically and professionally.
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Placements
After your Foundation Year, you’ll be able to learn and experience life on the job as part of the full Aeronautical Engineering degree. We know the value of gaining hands-on experience in the real world and so we work with several companies, both locally and nationally.
Students can expect to work with industry giants like Airbus, Boeing, Rolls Royce and GE Aviation to get a better understanding of what possible roles could look like after graduation.
You can choose to complete a sandwich year after your second year on the full degree, enabling you to apply knowledge you’ve gained during your degree in real scenarios.
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Facilities
The University has invested £3.3m in its aerospace facilities, including a two-storey Aerospace Centre extension, offering engineering students 1,000m2 of workshop and lab space, two aircraft hangars, and a MP521 flight simulator.
The Centre houses a Jetstream 31 aircraft, gas turbine maintenance, riveting, hand tool, and welding workshops. Additionally, it features clean and dirty composite workshops, labs for electronic tasks, avionics, hydraulics, and pneumatics. Sub-sonic wind tunnels facilitate aerodynamic instruction.
The Merlin MP521 simulator, programmable for any aircraft type, is pivotal in design testing and flight test preparation.
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Accreditations and Partnerships
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Top 10 in the UK and top in Wales for Aerospace Engineering (Guardian University Guide 2025)
Top in the UK
Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering at USW is top in the UK for teaching quality.
National Student Survey 2024Top 10 in the UK and top in Wales for Aerospace Engineering (Guardian University Guide 2025)
Innovation Hub at USW
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: DD
- Welsh BACC: N/A
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Pass Pass Pass or BTEC Diploma Pass Pass
- Access to HE: Pass Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 48 UCAS Tariff points.
- T Level: Pass (D or E)
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 3 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 4 overall and a minimum of 4 in each component or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,790
per year*£17,200
per year*Additional Costs
Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of stationery, printing, or equipment during your foundation year. For costs after you progress to year 1 of your degree programme, please see the list below.
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Introducing Calon
We are investing in the future of STEM with the exciting new Calon building at the heart of our Pontypridd Campus.
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time).
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
Applicants accepted through advanced entry may study a different combination of modules to those advertised, as they will be joining a course already in progress. You will be contacted and advised about these modules once your application has been processed and an offer made.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
