Taught PG Programmes in Sustainable Energy

MEngSc in Sustainable Energy
  • MEngSc is an established programme for full-time students that are on campus during the whole 12 months required for the full Masters.
  • It can be done by graduates of almost any relevant level 8 Honours degree, not just engineering, but also cognate science areas (biology, environmental sciences, chemistry, etc., virtually any STEM subject).
  • It gives options to select electives: while there are 10 recommended modules (of 5 credits each), you can choose alternatives from a suite of other modules and thus tailor the content to your interests and avoid prerequisites that you might not meet.
  • It is composed of two parts: Part I and Part II.

Part I

  • Part I has 2 Semesters, the first goes from September to December, with 12 weeks of classes + 1 free for study + 2 for exams, during which you take 5 taught modules and start working towards a project. You select a topic for the project from a set of offers from our academics, preparing what will be Part II to be done later in our labs.
    • The second semester of Part I goes from January to May, also with 12 weeks of classes + 1 free for study + 2 for exams (and an Easter break), during which you take another 5 taught modules and continue working towards the project. At that time, the work you did in both Semesters in the development of a project is assessed, to the value of 10 credits.
    • If you complete all these 60 credits with a minimum aggregate mark of 50% and also have a minimum of 50% in the "project preparation module", you are eligible for Part II - if not, you are awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Energy (NFQ - level 9).
    • Each taught module is composed of typically 2 hours of lectures per week, and some may have a few hours of tutorials, labs, or field visits. These are scheduled around the normal hours of the working week (usually 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday) and you are required to attend. The lectures are not streamed online, nor do you have access to recordings of the lectures. If you miss a lecture you have to find a way to catch up. Of course, every module has a comprehensive set of study materials available on our learning platform, Canvas.

Part II

  • Part II is the development of the thesis, materialising your plans for the project, from June to August, and is worth 30 credits.

What do credits mean?

Credits are a European-wide agreement of the amount of effort that a student is required to devote to a module in order to do it well.

If we add (i) all class hours, (ii) the expected time for students to follow the learning material (reading books and texts, making sense of the contents, watching videos, practicing problems, etc.), (iii) the expected time for students to elaborate continuous assessment assignments, (iv) study for tests and exams, and (v) take these, a 5 credit module should come to around 100 to 125 hours of effort. Thus, doing 30 credits over the 15 weeks of a semester (note that study and examination times are included) means that we expect you to avail of between 40 and 50 hours per week, on average, to follow the programme - that is what a full-time programme means.

Part II takes place from June to August is about 12 weeks for 30 credits, so that's even more intensive, doing the thesis work should mean a minimum effort of 50 hours per week.

Postgraduate Diploma in Energy Innovation for Zero Carbon
  • The PG Diploma in Energy Innovation for Zero Carbon is a new programme which commenced in September 2023 under the HCI Pillar 1 funding initiative.
  • This is also a full-time programme, with 12 modules over 3 semesters coming to 60 credits, and therefore you can see it as being comparable to Part I of the MEngSc, but students doing this programme have additional features:
    • the suite of modules is set, there are no electives.
    • it includes modules that require an academic background of sufficient level of mathematics (typically, having done a degree that requires honours maths from leaving cert and that includes mathematical subjects in the level 8 programme), so not all students that are eligible for the MEngSc are eligible for this one.
    • class attendance is preferable, but students will have access to recordings of the lectures that are quite easy to follow with the recording software that we use.
    • there is one Programme Tutorial of 2 hours every week. This Programme has an Assistant that interacts with the students, collects quizzes, questions, problems, issues to discuss at the tutorials, so as to provide an opportunity for interaction and assessment of how the students are progressing in the various subjects, especially important for those that don't come to class often. This also gives an opportunity for direct interaction with lecturers, other guests can be invited too: the PA will organise according to the needs expressed by the students to ensure that the learning process is evolving appropriately.
    • there is one module in each semester that does require attendance (they are composed of a series of 3h workshops). The 2h tutorial + 3h workshops are scheduled in a block on an afternoon. Thus, students are in fact required to attend only one afternoon per week during 12 weeks in each semester (plus the exams, of course, which are invigilated in-person, not all modules have exams, and those that do are not online exams).
    • students that cannot attend lectures in person are required to visualise their recordings. This is done via the Canvas platform and the Programme Assistant will monitor visualisation times in order to ensure compliance with the engagement requirements for HCI Pillar 1 support.
  • This postgraduate diploma programme requires only 60 credits in 12 months, that is, it does the equivalent of Part I of the MEngSc in 12 months, not 9 as the MEngSc does.
    • Semester I has 5 taught modules, 1 of which is run as a series of workshops.
    • Semester II has only 6 modules, also with 1 of them being a series of workshops.
    • The Summer period, 12 weeks from June to August, is a work placement in a relevant industry, business, or organisation in the renewable energy domain.

Graduates of this PG Diploma with a minimum of 50% aggregate marks are eligible to transfer to Part II of the MEngSc in the following year (if they so wish, and require the respective tuition fees). This means that our students can also do the thesis on a project of interest and relevance to a company, for example, you can start working in the sector after completing the PG Diploma, maybe in the company where you carried out your work placement, if suitable (it depends on both interests) and then complete the Masters part-time on the basis of work that you do in the company in collaboration with a UCC supervisor. The MEngSc will not be funded as part of the HCI Pillar 1 initiative and students will be required to self fund this Masters.

Postgraduate Certificate in Offshore Renewable Energy
  • The PG Certificate in Offshore Renewable Energy is a new programme which commenced in September 2023 under the HCI Pillar 1 funding initiative.
  • This is a part-time program, being equivalent in credits to half of Part I of the Master's programme (half of the PG Diploma).
  • Admission requirements are the same as for the PG Diploma.
  • It is designed for people that are working full-time and thus have limited possibilities for attendance on campus and not enough time in the week to do 30 credits in a semester.
  • The programme is composed of 3 modules of 5 credits in Semester I, 2 of 5 credits in Semester 2, and a work placement in the 12 weeks of Summer. Evidently, the work placement for students that remain in the same company will be an organisation of a work-based immersive learning program, but students who wish to do so can also be placed elsewhere, like those of the PG Diploma.
  • The modules are not exactly the same as half of the modules of the Diploma, as this Certificate is more focused on ocean energy in its various forms, but graduates of the Certificate are eligible to transfer to the Masters in a following year if they so wish, being then exempted of 30 credits, so they can continue in part-time mode to complete the equivalent of Part I of the MEngSc (equivalent to the Diploma) in a following year, and if meeting the 50% aggregate minimum and wish to do so, can also progress fully to the Masters in a 3rd year (or even complete the Masters over the Summer months of the 2nd year, depending on student's choice).
  • The taught modules run in the same way as described in the Diploma, but there is no attendance requirement except for the Programme Tutorials, which will be 2 hours every 2 weeks. It is expected that Fridays from 4 to 6 pm, every other Friday, will be the preferred time of the student's cohort for this attendance.
  • The Programme Assistant and the Programme tutorials of this PG Certificate are separate from those of the PG Diploma, the 2 cohorts are not mixed.
  • Progression from the Certificate to the Master's requires tuition fees for the 30 credits remaining of taught modules for a PG Diploma level, and then for the project to the MEngSc level. Part-time students can spread the modules to be done over a longer period of time if they so wish. The Certificate must be done in one single year as per HCI Pillar 1 funding requirement, but any further progression can be done at any other desired pace.
Microcredential in Wind and Ocean Energy Conversion
  • The Microcredentail in Wind and Ocean Energy Conversion is a new programme which commenced in September 2023 under the HCI Pillar 1 funding initiative.
  • This is effectively 1/3 of the PG Certificate, composed of only 1 module in each semester (10 credits total, over 9 months, from September to May)
  • The programme is focused on the core issues of offshore energy: wave and wind.
  • These modules are set to run jointly with the PG Certificate. Attendance requirement will thus be for 2 tutorials in each semester and one exam at the end of Semester 1 (the module to be done in Semester 2 is by continuous assessment only)
  • The 2 modules are part of the PG Certificate, so students that take these 10 credits can, if they wish, progress then to the Masters with an exemption of 10 credits.
  • Students doing a progressive part-time pathway can decide to pull out at any time; if achieving 30 credits in taught modules they are eligible to leave with a PG Certificate; if completing 60 credits, they are eligible to leave with a PG Diploma.

The following diagram summarises and help to visualise all these options and the type of time effort that corresponds to the University credits being done (just note that the modules in the various cases are not necessarily all the same).  

Progression Routes

 

 

  

Academic Entry Requirements

  • Minimum Second Class Honours Grade II (or equivalent) in a primary honours degree in any discipline of Engineering (NFQ - level 8) or
  • Minimum Second Class Honours Grade II (or equivalent) in a honours degree in areas of science that required having completed level 8 mathematical subjects deemed equivalent to those of engineering (e.g. Physics, Mathematical Sciences, some Computing Science degrees), pending assessment by Programme Director via Recognition of Prior Learning or
  • Pass in any accredited level 8 Engineering degree followed by professional experience deemed of sufficient added value, pending assessment by Programme Director via Recognition of Prior Learning.
Please see the HCI Pillar 1 webpage for a full list of all eligibility criteria. 

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