Top-up Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
Top up your existing qualification to an honours degree. You can add to your OU Foundation Degree in Engineering or an equivalent qualification from elsewhere. Tailor your studies to suit your background and previous study. Develop your knowledge and skills and open up further career opportunities. Study choices include communications, design, electronics, environmental management, mathematics, mechanical modelling, nanoengineering, renewable energy, and structural integrity. You’ll also complete an engineering project.
This course is accredited by a number of professional bodies:
This course is accredited by a number of professional bodies:
Key features of the course
- Accredited on behalf of the Engineering Council – see Careers
- Progress from your vocational qualification (e.g. HND) to an honours degree
- Choose modules to fit with your previous study
- Develop your analytical skills – key to successfully studying engineering
- Prepare for further engineering study at postgraduate level
Course summary
- Course code
- Q78
- Credits
- 120
- How long it takes
- Part-time study – 2 years
- Full-time study – N/A
- Time limit – 5 years
Degree
Course details
This top-up engineering degree has one stage, comprising 120 credits.
- Your existing study makes up Stages 1 and 2.
- In Stage 3, you’ll choose 90 credits and complete a 30-credit project module.
We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available modules – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which the University might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us. This description was last updated on 18 March 2025.
Accessibility
Our qualifications are as accessible as possible, and we have a comprehensive range of support services. Our Top-up Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) uses a variety of study materials and includes the following elements:
- Online study – most modules are online; some have a mix of printed and online material. Online learning resources could include websites, audio/video, and interactive activities
- Pre-determined schedules – we’ll help you to develop your time-management skills
- Assessment in the form of short-answer questions, essays, and examinations
- Feedback – continuous assessment includes feedback from your tutor and using this to improve your performance
- Using and producing diagrams and screenshots
- Finding external/third-party material online
- Accessing online catalogues and databases
- Specialist software, such as ANSYS simulation and design software
- Mathematical and scientific expressions, notations and associated techniques
- Online tutorials
- Group-work
- Practical work
Every module has its own Accessibility Statement with more detailed accessibility information – you’ll find these on individual module descriptions.
Visit our Disability support page to learn about our services.
Learning outcomes, teaching and assessment
Educational aims
The top-up BEng (Hons) degree offers students the opportunity to pursue a programme in general engineering, with the possibility of some specialisation in one of several engineering disciplines. Its learning outcomes are closely aligned with the Engineering Council’s UK-SPEC generic output standards for honours degrees in engineering that are appropriate for IEng. These output standards fall into two groups. Firstly, there are degree-level general outcomes covering acquisition of knowledge and understanding, intellectual abilities, practical skills and general transferable skills. There are also more specific outcomes related to engineering under the headings: Underpinning science and mathematics; Engineering analysis; Design; Economic, social and environmental context; and Engineering practice.
In 2006, the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) adopted the output standards in UK-SPEC as the subject benchmark statement for engineering. The OU’s BEng (Hons) programme is intended to comply with the QAA’s expectation regarding levels of attainment in engineering honours degrees:
’The learning outcomes are expressed for the threshold level that engineering students would be expected to have attained upon graduation. It is anticipated that there will be many programmes where this threshold level will be exceeded.’
Learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
On completion of this degree, you will be able to:
- use your knowledge and understanding, acquired through study, of relevant engineering principles, analytical methods, modelling techniques, quantitative methods and appropriate computer software to respond systematically to engineering challenges
- take into account appropriate social, commercial, ethical/legal and management practices in contemporary engineering.
Cognitive skills
On completion of this degree, you will be able to:
- combine your acquired knowledge and understanding of underpinning scientific principles, mathematical methods and engineering practice to analyse engineering problems and formulate solutions to them
- critically appraise designs where a user’s needs and preferences are transformed into cost-effective, innovative engineered solutions that are demonstrably fit for purpose.
Practical and/or professional skills
On completion of this degree, you will be able to:
- analyse and evaluate solutions to a set of end-user requirements which use a range of engineering skills (e.g. a working knowledge of particular materials, equipment, processes or products, workshop and laboratory skills, accessing technical literature and other information, reasoning under uncertainty), and take into account appropriate quality standards, codes of practice, industry standards, and intellectual property and contractual issues
- undertake engineering projects responsibly, professionally and ethically, with regard to environmental risk and sustainability, and the framework of relevant legal requirements (covering issues such as personnel, health, safety, etc.)
-
draw on an understanding of the engineering principles in your chosen specialism when evaluating and investigating current practice and technologies.
Key skills
On completion of this degree, you will be able to:
- practise a range of transferable skills (including problem solving, communication, working with others, IT skills, information retrieval, planning self-learning and career development, and reflection), within the context of progression towards professional engineering status.
Teaching, learning and assessment methods
Teaching and learning is via study materials (including study guides, textbooks, set books, audio and video material, and module-related software), optional online tutorials, plus individualised tutor feedback.
Continuous assessment is via written tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and/or computer-marked assignments (CMAs), and the end-of-module assessment is via an examination or a written project.
Classification of your degree
On successfully completing this course, we’ll award you our Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).
The class of honours (first, upper-second, lower-second or third) will depend on your grades at Stage 3.
You’ll have the opportunity to attend a degree ceremony.
International recognition
If you intend to use your Open University qualifications to seek work or undertake further study outside the UK, we recommend checking whether your intended qualification will meet local requirements for your chosen career. Find out more about international recognition of Open University qualifications.
Entry requirements
You must have passed one of the following OU qualifications within the last eight years:
- Foundation Degree in Engineering (X11)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Engineering (W11)
- Foundation Degree in Materials Fabrication and Engineering (X12)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Materials Fabrication and Engineering (W12)
Alternatively, you must have a completed vocational qualification from somewhere else that meets the following criteria:
- in engineering or a closely related subject
- includes a total of 240 credits at FHEQ levels 4 and 5/SCQF levels 7 and 8 (e.g. DipHE, HND or foundation degree), at least 120 credits of which are at FHEQ level 5 or SCQF level 8
- passed within the last eight years
- includes specific content as described in the advice sheet.
Computing requirements
Option module T329 uses software that requires a 64-bit operating system. Therefore, you may need a computer with Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11.
You’ll find detailed computing requirements for each module in the ‘Study materials’ section of the module descriptions.
How to apply
If you have an OU qualification, email the Partnerships Team at partnerships-enquiries@open.ac.uk to register.
If you have a qualification from somewhere else, download, complete and return the Top-up Bachelor of Engineering application form with evidence of your previous study.