Responds to industry's appeal for distance learning

Citation

(2002), "Responds to industry's appeal for distance learning", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774eab.012

Responds to industry's appeal for distance learning

The Manchester School of Engineering is launching its first full distance learning course in response to increasing demand from students all over the world.

Besides the growing interest from overseas students, the School – part of the University of Manchester in England – is also responding to the growing pressure would-be "students" are facing not to take time out of employment to study away.

"There is no doubt that many people who would like to study at the School are unable to do so because their employers find it difficult to allow them a sabbatical", said Alastair Walsh Atkins, marketing manager, Manchester School of Engineering. "Commercial pressures these days prevent many firms from allowing key engineering staff to take time out to attend full-time or even part-time degree courses".

Such was the demand for a Distance Learning option that the School was receiving hopeful applications even before the course received its approval to proceed.

The School's inaugural full Distance Learning course is a version of its highly popular M.Sc. in Maintenance Engineering & Asset Management. This course is already available by either full-time or part-time studying, so a distance learning option was a natural extension.

"It's really another example of the School taking soundings from industry, and responding to market need", said Mr Walsh Atkins. "We pride ourselves on being as flexible as possible, and making sure our courses are in tune with current requirements from industry itself, so we were very pleased to get approval from the University for the Distance Learning course".

The new Distance Learning Version of the M.Sc. in Maintenance Engineering & Asset Management will begin in April 2003. The syllabus and modular structure will be the same as for the existing directly taught programme for each of the three levels of qualification – M.Sc., Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate.

All teaching material will be distributed via the Internet and examinations will also be taken remotely from the University.

The time scales for completing the Diploma and Certificate will be slightly longer than the equivalent directly taught programmes, with 15 months for the certificate and 27 months for the Diploma. The duration of the M.Sc. programme will remain at three years with the third year involving two modules and a project/dissertation.

Besides the distance learning programme, there will also be an opportunity twice a year for students to attend the School of Engineering, for practical exercises, demonstrations and tutorials.

"We had already tried to minimise time away from the workplace for students on our M.Sc. in Power Distribution Engineering, by introducing a proportion of distance learning. This proved very popular so we decided to look at how we could introduce a full Distance Learning programme on one of our courses", said Mr Walsh Atkins.

"It's basically widening the scope of our work, to allow more students and engineers to experience the teaching from a leading international engineering programme," he added.

Details available from: Manchester School of Engineering. Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 4398; Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 4372; E-mail: maintenance.igds@man.ac.uk