Mechanical Engineering Partnerships

Supporting a student project is not cost-free. It does demand time from company staff to make it work, but it allows the company to look at a student’s capabilities and 'fit' for the organisation.

Some of our industrial student projects have spun off Knowledge Transfer Partnerships that we have with companies. We understand the need for Non Disclosure Agreements in cases where students are working on confidential or sensitive projects, so this is something we can discuss.

Every second year student does a 'mock job interview' exercise in November or December to prepare them for the real thing once they graduate. 

Our industrial contacts act as interviewers. Often companies have used these exercises to recruit placement students if the interviewer is impressed with the students skills and knowledge.

Companies have also used these opportunities as a risk-free interviewer development exercise, sending a trainee interviewer with a more experienced colleague in order to gain hands-on experience.

Industrial visits are incredibly useful for our students and can give them a first-hand look at the sort of roles they could apply for once they graduate. Organisations who offer these visits at their sites can benefit from a higher profile among engineering students, potentially leading to larger pools of graduate applicants.

Our students regularly submit entries for national and international competitions, which provide excellent opportunities for corporate sponsorship.

A team of Newcastle students have competed in the Formula Student several times, where Santander have been a major supporter. We have also competed at the IMechE Railway Challenge and the European International man-powered Submarine Race, so there are many opportunities to gain publicity through a sponsorship.

Organisations can also offer to sponsor useful equipment or learning aids for students. For example, ConocoPhilips presented all of our first-year students with a standard engineering reference book, a guide which will help them throughout their future careers.

Organisations have also offered prizes as part of awards packages for high-achieving students. In the past we have been able to incorporate competitions with prizes into our taught module assignments with support from our industrial partners. 

Engineering is a practical subject, and we are always looking out for opportunities to give our students the chance to gain direct experience taking part in hands-on activities. Often we can use our range of in-house facilities to provide this applied learning as part of our courses, but for activities which are cannot be completed on equipment the university owns, we rely on off-campus provision from our industrial partners.