I grew up a stone’s throw from Loughborough, so I have always known about the university’s high reputation for engineering, which made it the obvious choice when looking at studying as a mature student. I enrolled originally to study Mechanical Engineering upon completion of a foundation year but after taking an 'Introduction to Materials' module I very quickly switched to Materials Science and Engineering.
The facilities available at Loughborough are very good. The STEMLab allows us to test the theory learnt in lectures which really helps with understanding the topics. There are also many study spaces in STEMLab and S Building which are brilliant for individual study.
Within the Department of Materials there is a large range of support available. Lecturers are happy for you to knock on their office door and answers any questions you have about the course content. There is pastoral care available from the department and the university. The university also has a very good careers department to help with CV writing and job applications.
The most enjoyable part of my course was the final year project. This is where the three years of study all comes together, and you get to focus on area that interests you. During your project you get use of the equipment in Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC), which allows you to obtain very high-quality results.