A record number of almost 1450 students have enrolled at WMG this academic year.

A huge 1,241 people from 63 countries, are now studying full-time, with a further 27 studying part-time, on one of our 15 Management, Business or sector specific Master’s courses.

96 students have enrolled on our part-time Applied Engineering Programme, studying for a BEng degree alongside their full-time job in the engineering or technology industry. Another 11 have enrolled on our Postgraduate Engineering Degree Apprenticeship Programme.

We have welcomed our largest single intake of Research Degree students across various programmes, including seven EngDs, 24 PhDs and six MSc by Research and the first intake onto our new MSc by Research in Business Transformation.

We’ve also welcomed our first cohort of 23 full-time BSc Cyber Security students.

You can find out more about all of our education programmes here.

WMG, at the University of Warwick, have been awarded £10 million to build a new Degree Apprenticeship Centre for the high value manufacturing sector.

The WMG Degree Apprenticeship Centre will focus on courses essential to the effective development of advanced engineering and manufacturing companies.

The Centre, which is due to open in 2019, has received £10 million from the Government’s Local Growth Fund through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP).

The Centre will provide training programmes up to Level 7 (Master’s Degree level) with an initial capacity for 1,000 students on roll at any one time. The apprentices, who will be employed by companies, will undertake their academic studies at the WMG Degree Apprenticeship Centre, which will be on the University of Warwick campus.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sue Parr as WMG’s new Director of Apprenticeships.

Sue joined WMG in December 2015 as a Business Development Director, tasked with developing our Professional and Executive Programmes, following 12 years at the Open University where she was Director of Executive Education.

Following the huge success of our Applied Engineering and Dyson degree programmes we are now extending our Degree Apprenticeship provision across engineering, digital, cyber security and healthcare.

Our Degree Apprenticeship programmes complement our existing academic and professional courses and enable us to contribute to regional and national employment needs and to enhance our students’ employability and skills. Crucially, they help widen access and participation by introducing alternative entry criteria, new flexible modes of study and new models of delivery.

Dr Michael Mortenson’s research paper ‘Operational research from Taylorism to Terabytes: A research agenda for the analytics age’, has been awarded the Euro Award for the Best European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) paper 2018, in the Review category.

EJOR publishes high quality, original papers that contribute to the methodology of operational research (OR) and to the practice of decision-making. It is widely considered to be the top European journal and within the top three worldwide, in this specific area.

Dr Mortenson is a Senior Teaching Fellow on our e-Business Management MSc programme, his paper identified a significant lack of research into analytics in operational research orientated publications charting the history of operational research, analytics and a range of related disciplines. His work also paves the way for future research combining key themes in analytics and operational research. The full paper can be found here

Dr Mortenson was presented with his award at the European Conference on Operational Research (EURO) in July.

Dr Kogila Balakrishnan, WMG’s Director of Client and Business Development, has written a new book entitled Technology Offsets in International Defence Procurement.

This is the first book to focus on both the theory and practice of offsets, combining developmental economic theories, technology theories, business and management theories and international business practice.

The book addresses issues of technology, industrial development, international business and economic development but also provides readers with wider learning opportunities.

Featuring a foreword from Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman of WMG, the book has been designed for those studying international procurement, international trade, international business, defence policy and industrial policy. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers in both government and industry.

Dr Balakrishnan is responsible for international business development, research in defence management and offsets as well as teaching at WMG. Her specific role is to develop and enhance education and research collaboration focused in Malaysia and South East Asia.

Pre-order your copy here. The book is on general release from 13^th September 2018.

In November, a team of WMG students led by Professor Jay Bal, attended The 2017 International Competition on InnovAtion (iCAN) at Peking University in Beijing.

The WMG team ran a stall to promote their innovative marketplace, and presented to a panel of international judges. They won the popular vote prize as well as a 3rd place prize from the judges.

This huge event held over three days welcomed 600 Chinese teams and 40 International teams from industry and academia.

iCAN aims to promote the innovative spirit and entrepreneurship of the younger generation worldwide helping to create a platform of collaboration to create applications in areas including internet of things, intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

More information on iCAN can be found here.

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder and Chairman of WMG was delighted to welcome the Education Select Committee to WMG today (Monday 26th February).

Whilst at WMG, the Committee met with current students, studying on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, who were able to talk to them about teaching quality, tutor support, fees and how their degrees are helping them prepare for the world of work. They also met with students who are working and undertaking degree apprenticeships, paid for by their employers, and wanted to understand how their experiences differ to full-time students, and why they chose this route over a traditional university degree.

Gordon Harris from Solihull has worked in engineering for almost thirty years, and has just gained long-wished-for academic qualifications – boosting his career – after graduating with the first cohort from the Applied Engineering Programme (AEP) at WMG, University of Warwick.

Harris has been an employee at Jaguar for twenty-eight years, most recently for the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering team at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Born and raised in Solihull, he always dreamed of getting a university education, but wasn’t able to fit in studying whilst working a full-time job.

JLR sponsored Gordon to enrol on the AEP, a four year part-time specialised WMG degree course, in 2013. Since beginning the course, he has been promoted to Lead Engineer for a JLR project.

“The learning gained during the last four years has helped me to achieve my promotion and additional responsibilities with my current role,” said Gordon. “The course has encouraged my development and has given me greater insight across more aspects of the business, which has helped me with my day to day role.”

The part-time AEP course enables people who already work in industry, of all ages and backgrounds, to gain a formal engineering qualification, offering a flexible and non-traditional path into university education.

We are delighted to announce that one of our PhD students, Siddartha Khastgir, has been recognised as part of the prestigious FORBES 30 Under 30 Europe Industry list.

Siddartha joined other ‘young disruptors’ at an exclusive launch event in London last night (Monday 22 January 2018), to celebrate the brightest young entrepreneurs and breakout talent in Europe.

Siddartha sits within the Intelligent Vehicles team at WMG working under the supervision of Professor Paul Jennings on ‘Developing testing methodologies for ensuring safety of autonomous vehicles and his work is influencing international standards.’

In June 2017 he was elected to the respected IMechE Council of Members. He also holds a number of other key positions at IMechE too, as Chair of the IMechE International Young Member Committee, and as a member of the International Strategy Board of IMechE.

In April he also received the prestigious ITS UK national award for Young Professional of the Year in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and more recently he was declared the UK’s leading engineer under 30 at the TechWorks Awards.

We’re on the lookout for three local students to help develop our new Play: Pedagogy Theory and Practice module, ready for launch in September 2018.

Mairi Macintyre, the Principal Teaching Fellow leading the programme explains: “With our colleagues at Warwick Business School and the Learning and Development Centre, we successfully applied for funding from the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) at Warwick to develop the new module in a partnership with Design Museum London and Royal Holloway University of London plus international colleague at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.”

“We’ve now set up a special steering group with all the partners, and are looking to recruit three creative students to join us to help bring the module to life. Students will be paid for their time and will need to commit half a day a week for a 10 week period. Depending on our progress it may also lead to a summer internship.

“Play is, all too often, best viewed as ‘just for kids,’ but it has a big part to play in higher education too. Its theoretical home lies somewhere between philosophical and pedagogical and its application spans all disciplines. If we can successfully develop it for higher education it can be transferred into industry driving creativity and innovation.”