Medical Engineering with Year in Industry (MEng)
- Subject area: Engineering
- UCAS code: HB99
- Next intake: September 2025
- Duration: 5 years
- Mode: Full time with sandwich year

Why study this course
Professional skills
Group projects with engineering students from other disciplines mirror the dynamic of a professional engineering team and will help you to develop vital skills.
Interdisciplinary content
Our links with the Schools of Biosciences, Psychology, Business, and Dentistry, as well as with clinicians in orthopaedics and radiography, ensure your course covers the latest topics across a range of fields.
Professional placement
Gain valuable experience working in a paid role at an organisation in the UK or abroad for one academic year. Our students have worked at leading engineering organisations and healthcare providers as well as businesses in other sectors.
Professionally accredited course
Accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.
Medical engineers are competent classical engineers who apply engineering principles to the development of medical treatments, applications or diagnostic technologies that can enhance and save lives. They work in fields with medical applications, such as clinical instrumentation and devices, bioengineering, clinical engineering, as well as engineering fields outside of medicine.
This accredited course provides the knowledge, skills and hands-on experience you need to become a work-ready medical engineer. You will choose from a range of authentic engineering problems and industry-focused scenarios, to work on both individually and with student engineers from other disciplines. Group work mirrors the relationships of an engineering team and will help you to build professional skills, such as teamwork and communication. Our open access makerspace provides a place for you to design, create and collaborate.
You will have the opportunity to engage with professionals from healthcare providers such as the Cardiff and Vale Orthopaedic Centre, and will benefit from links with companies like Biomet, Simpleware and Arthritis Research UK.
Additionally, you will have the opportunity to complete a salaried placement working in a location of your choosing, including outside of the UK. This is a great way to experience a professional working environment and put the skills you have learned into practice. In the past, our students have completed placements in P&G, Johnson & Johnson and the NHS.
The MEng degree programme allows you to expand and strengthen your knowledge in medical engineering. You will benefit from advanced learning in design and management and multidisciplinary engineering design projects.
Accreditations

Subject area: Engineering
Entry requirements
We accept a combination of A-levels and other qualifications, as well as equivalent international qualifications subject to entry requirements. Typical offers are as follows:
A level
AAA-ABB. Must include grade A in Maths.
Extended/International Project Qualification: Applicants with grade A in the EPQ/IPQ will typically receive an offer one grade lower than the standard offer. Please note that any subject specific requirements must still be met.
- Our grade range covers our standard offer and contextual offer. We carefully consider the circumstances in which you've been studying (your contextual data) upon application. Eligible students will be given an offer that is lower than the standard offer (usually the middle or lower end of the advertised grade range).
- Where there is no grade range advertised and/or where there are selection processes in place (like an interview) you may receive additional consideration in the selection process.
Learn about eligible courses and how contextual data is applied.
International Baccalaureate
36-32 overall or 666-665 in 3 HL subjects. Must include grade 6 in HL Maths.
Baccalaureate Wales
From September 2023, there will be a new qualification called the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales (level 3). This qualification will replace the Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate (Welsh Baccalaureate). The qualification will continue to be accepted in lieu of one A-Level (at the grades listed above), excluding any specified subjects.
Other essential requirements
You must have or be working towards:
- English language or Welsh language at GCSE grade C/4 or an equivalent (such as A-levels). If you require a Student visa, you must ensure your language qualification complies with UKVI requirements.
We do not accept Critical Thinking, General Studies, Citizenship Studies, or other similar equivalent subjects.
We will accept a combination of BTEC subjects, A-levels, and other qualifications, subject to the course specific grade and subject requirements.
English language requirements
GCSE
Grade C or grade 4 in GCSE English Language.
IELTS (academic)
At least 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each subskill.
TOEFL iBT
At least 90 overall with a minimum of 17 for writing, 17 for listening, 18 for reading, and 20 for speaking.
PTE Academic
At least 69 overall with a minimum of 59 in all communicative skills.
Trinity ISE II/III
II: at least two Distinctions and two Merits.
III: at least a Pass in all components.
Other accepted qualifications
Please visit our English Language requirements page for more information on our other accepted language qualifications.
Criminal convictions
You are not required to complete a DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) check or provide a Certificate of Good Conduct to study this course.
If you are currently subject to any licence condition or monitoring restriction that could affect your ability to successfully complete your studies, you will be required to disclose your criminal record. Conditions include, but are not limited to:
- access to computers or devices that can store images
- use of internet and communication tools/devices
- curfews
- freedom of movement, including the ability to travel to outside of the UK or to undertake a placement/studies outside of Cardiff University
- contact with people related to Cardiff University.
Other qualifications from inside the UK
Qualifications from outside the UK
Please see our admissions policies for more information about the application process.
Tuition fees for 2025 entry
Your tuition fees and how you pay them will depend on your fee status. Your fee status could be home, island or overseas.
Learn how we decide your fee status
Fees for home status
The University reserves the right to increase tuition fees in the second and subsequent years of a course as permitted by law or Welsh Government policy. Where applicable we will notify you of any change in tuition fee by the end of June in the academic year before the one in which the fee will increase.
Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland
If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss national, your tuition fees for 2025/26 be in line with the overseas fees for international students, unless you qualify for home fee status. UKCISA have provided information about Brexit and tuition fees.
Fees for island status
Learn more about the undergraduate fees for students from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
Fees for overseas status
Learn more about our tuition fees
Financial support
Financial support may be available to individuals who meet certain criteria. For more information visit our funding section. Please note that these sources of financial support are limited and therefore not everyone who meets the criteria are guaranteed to receive the support.
Costs for sandwich years
During a sandwich year (e.g. year in industry, placement year or year abroad) a lower fee will apply. Full details can be found on our fees pages.
Additional costs
There may be costs associated with the Year in Industry, such as travel costs, which you should take into account.
Course specific equipment
No specific equipment is needed. The University will provide resources such as computers and associated software, laboratory equipment (including any safety equipment) and a variety of other learning resources.
Accommodation
We have a range of residences to suit your needs and budget. Find out more on our accommodation pages.
Living costs
We're based in one of the UK's most affordable cities. Find out more about living costs in Cardiff.
Careers
Career prospects
Graduate medical engineers benefit from employment opportunities in both the medical engineering and broader mechanical engineering sector.
Recent Cardiff graduates are now employed in medical engineering companies including Finsbury Orthopaedics, DePuy Synthes and Huntleigh Medical.
Medical engineers can also carve out a career in the healthcare sector. Cardiff graduates regularly earn positions in the highly competitive clinical engineer/scientist training scheme of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (see www.ipem.ac.uk for further details), while others have used their degree as a stepping stone to other vocations.
Next steps
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How to apply
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HESA Data: Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2021. The Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from its data. Data is from the latest Graduate Outcomes Survey 2019/20, published by HESA in June 2022.